CCM Acting Class of 2020 Presents Virtual Senior Showcase

Watch a collection of five scenes showcasing the talents of CCM Acting’s Class of 2020

The Acting Department at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM Acting) proudly presents its first Virtual Senior Showcase. Although the COVID-19 novel coronavirus prevented CCM Acting from holding its customary Senior Showcases for agents and casting directors in New York and Los Angeles this spring, the program’s new Virtual Senior Showcase allows industry insiders and the general public to see this year’s seniors in action.

The video showcase includes five scenes showcasing the talents of CCM Acting’s Class of 2020. Directed by Professor D’Arcy Smith, the A.B., Dolly, Ralph and Julia Cohen Chair in Acting at CCM, the showcase features students performing excerpts from TV programs, films and plays including “227,” “Pretty Little Liars,” “Pysch” and “Embers” along with an excerpt of “My So-Called Gay Life” written by CCM Acting student Abby Palen. A collaboration with CCM’s Electronic Media program, the CCM Acting Virtual Senior Showcase features the work of E-Media majors Caleb Smiley and Carlos Herriott II. Viewer discretion is advised; this video features strong language and mature content.

“Although we’ve transitioned to remote operations, we remain committed to our ongoing academic and artistic missions,” says Smith. “Our senior Acting students have put in countless hours preparing for their industry debuts in this year’s Senior Showcase and they deserve to have their time in the spotlight. They should be very proud of everything that they have accomplished, and we are happy to present this video snapshot of their talent for the entire world to enjoy.”

Get to know the graduating seniors by reading their professional summaries!

The Application Deadline is Approaching for the CSO/CCM Diversity Fellowship

Get paid to perform with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra while earning a full scholarship to pursue your graduate degree at CCM as a CSO/CCM Diversity Fellow.

UC’s College-Conservatory of Music and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra are accepting applications for the 2020-22 class of CSO/CCM Diversity Fellows. The application deadline is Dec. 1, 2019. For application and audition requirements, visit us at ccm.uc.edu/chance2perform.

Funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, this program provides an unparalleled learning experience for graduate-level violin, viola, violoncello and double bass players coming from populations that are historically underrepresented in classical music. Symphony Magazine recently spotlighted the CSO/CCM Diversity Fellowship in a story that focused on the “new cultural and economic directions redefining and expanding the role of the conservatory in the 21^st century.”

CSO/CCM Diversity Fellow Benefits: 

• Perform the equivalent of five weeks per season with the CSO.
• Receive compensation of $8,000 per season while performing with the CSO.
• Receive full tuition scholarship support while enrolled in a two-year Master of Music or Artist Diploma program at CCM.
• Receive a $10,000 per year graduate stipend and one-time Graduate School Dean’s Excellence Award of $3,000 from CCM.
• Receive access to orchestral audition and professional development stipends.

In addition, as many as five CSO/CCM Diversity Fellows can be selected annually to participate in an eight-week summer residency with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra through a partnership with the Chautauqua Institution of New York.

Participants will be paired with CSO coach/mentors for the duration of their Fellowship. An administrative liaison will also be assigned to support Fellows. Download the informational poster.

Get a look inside the CSO/CCM Diversity Fellowship in a feature story on Fellow Anita Graef (MM Cello, ’19). You can also learn about Fellow Ian Saunders’ (AD Double Bass, ’19) experience in the fellowship in a radio interview with Cincinnati Public Radio WVXU.

Important Dates

CCM and the CSO are now accepting applications for the 2020-22 class of Fellows. The application deadline is Dec. 1, 2019. For application and audition requirements, visit us at ccm.uc.edu/chance2perform.

Live auditions with CCM faculty will be held on Jan. 17-18, Jan. 24-25 and Feb. 14-15 of 2020.

Finalists will audition for the CSO on March 14, 2020, in CCM’s Robert J. Werner Recital Hall.

CCM Jazz Studies Named Inaugural College Affiliate of the Acclaimed Jazz at Lincoln Center

When the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis (JALCO) embarks on its next international residency, the world-renowned big band will be accompanied by nearly two dozen CCM students and faculty members.

CCM’s Department of Jazz Studies has been named Jazz at Lincoln Center‘s inaugural College Affiliate, a distinction reserved for the country’s top-ranked jazz programs. Led by Grammy Award-winning trumpeter and composer Wynton Marsalis, the JALCO will invite a premier student ensemble on tour for educational residencies through this new program.

Left to right: Scott Belck, Wynton Marsalis and Stanley Romanstein.

For the initial installment of this program, the CCM Jazz Orchestra directed by Professor Scott Belck, DMA, will join Marsalis and the JALCO for an international residency in São Paulo, Brazil, from June 22-30. The residency will provide participants with an unprecedented level of real-world performance and teaching experience in an international setting.

Nine undergraduate and 10 graduate students will participate in the trip, alongside Belck and fellow CCM faculty members Craig Bailey, Steve Allee and Kimothy Pensyl. During the intensive week-long program, CCM’s students and faculty will work with JALCO members, perform in São Paulo schools, perform at the US Consulate and serve as the opening band on a number of JALCO concerts at venues around the city.

“We want our students and faculty to be part of a global network of alumni and artists — to experience other cultures, other languages and other ways of looking at and creating art,” says CCM Dean Stanley E. Romanstein, PhD. “CCM is cultivating these opportunities so we can provide students with more hands-on learning experiences that prepare them to take the next steps in their lives and careers.”

Wynton Marsalis performs with CCM students during a visit to UC’s campus in the fall of 2008. Photo/UC Creative Services.

Throughout this landmark residency, the JALCO and CCM Jazz Orchestra will appear in performances, a Jazz for Young People concert, clinics, and workshops in performance halls and schools throughout São Paulo. The two orchestras will also demonstrate jazz’s rich history of collaboration by performing with Brazilian musicians and exploring the melding of Afro-Latin influences with improvisation and jazz harmony.

Education is central to JALC’s mission and its official College Affiliate ensembles will take part in education activities, master classes and performances throughout the selected residencies. Following a parallel schedule with the JALCO, the college affiliate ensemble will perform in educational and public performances. The program will culminate with the ensemble opening for the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra in concert.

The CCM students participating in this exciting international opportunity include:

• Christopher Glenn Andrews: graduate student from Columbia, SC
• Justin Daniel Dawson: undergraduate from Dayton, OH
• Thomas Hayden Floro: undergraduate from Dayton, OH
• Timothy Francis Fogarty: graduate from East Setauket, NY
• Hector John Gagnet: undergraduate from Dayton, OH
• Robert Conwell Gooch: undergraduate from Dublin, OH
• Wade Andrew Goodwin: graduate student from Greensburg, IN
• Zachary Robert Granger: graduate student from West Chester, OH
• Carly Elizabeth Hood: graduate student from Edgewood, KY
• Marcelo Invernizzi da Silveira: graduate student from Campinas, Brazil
• Simon Richard Carol Jansen: undergraduate from Cincinnati, OH
• Ryan Thomas Jones: graduate student from Bremen, KY
• Jacob Matthew Lemons: graduate student from Harlan, IA
• Spencer Merk: undergraduate from Cincinnati, OH
• Christian Joseph Paradiso: undergraduate from Liberty Township, OH
• Mitchell Thomas Parton: undergraduate from Chicago, IL
• John Thomas Phillips, Jr.: undergraduate from Trenton, OH
• Andrew Chapin Walits: graduate student from Valparaiso, IN
• Jonathan Lloyd Wiseman: graduate student from Concord, NC

About Jazz at Lincoln Center

Jazz at Lincoln Center is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization, which is part of New York’s Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Founded in 1987, its mission is to entertain, enrich and expand a global community for jazz through performance, education and advocacy.

Representing the totality of jazz music, Jazz at Lincoln Center’s mission is carried out through four elements – educational, curatorial, archival, and ceremonial – capturing, in unparalleled scope, the full spectrum of the jazz experience. It produces an annual concert season in Rose Theater and the Appel Room and nightly concerts at Dizzy’s Club, all located in at Frederick P. Rose Hall on the 5th floor of the Time Warner Center in New York City’s Columbus Circle.

Hailed as the “finest big band in the world today” by The Telegraph, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, led by Wynton Marsalis, is made up of 15 of the finest soloists, ensemble players, and arrangers in jazz music today. Learn more by visiting www.jazz.org/about.

About the CCM Jazz Orchestra

The CCM Jazz Orchestra performs under the direction of Professor Scott Belck at the 2016 Moveable Feast gala fundraiser. Photo/UC Creative Services.

The CCM Jazz Orchestra is the CCM’s premier big band. Under the direction of CCM Professor of Jazz Studies Scott Belck, the acclaimed ensemble performs a wide variety of styles including historical swing, bebop, post-bop, fusion, Latin and avant-garde. Special emphasis is placed on the idiom’s great art-music composers such as Thad Jones, Bill Holman and Bob Brookmeyer. The ensemble also focuses on projects like the annual Essentially Ellington Festival sponsored by Jazz at Lincoln Center and on the performance of student arrangements.

Concerts have included historical tributes to Woody Herman and Stan Kenton, as well as composer residency programs featuring artists like Maria Schneider, Jim McNeely, Slide Hampton, Tim Hagans, Kenny Wheeler and many others as guest conductors and performers.

The CCM Jazz Orchestra has been invited to appear at numerous professional festivals and educational conferences, and has been featured on several radio broadcasts. Many internationally recognized artists have performed as soloists with the CCM Jazz Orchestra, including Eddie Daniels, John Fedchock, Frank Foster, Curtis Fuller, Kenny Garrett, Joe Henderson, Ahmad Jamal, Dave Liebman and Joshua Redman.

The CCM Jazz Orchestra’s recent recording projects have included original collaborations with modern creative innovators. In Search of Garaj Mahal is a recording of new original arrangements performed by student and alumni members of the CCM Jazz Orchestra with guitar virtuoso Fareed Haque, which was released on the Harmonized Record label in 2016. That same program was performed live at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola in Jazz at Lincoln Center and was also featured as the opening night main stage performance at the Jazz Education Network’s international conference in 2016. Nobody Does it Better: The CCM Jazz Orchestra Does Bond featuring trumpeter, composer and arranger Steven Bernstein was released in 2017 to glowing reviews. Duke Ellington’s Nutcracker Suite will be released later this year.

In 2012, the CCM Jazz Orchestra recorded a live concert performance for public television (An Evening with Gerald Wilson, National Endowment of the Arts Jazz Master). This hour-long video special featured the CCM Jazz Orchestra with Wilson conducting, interspersed with commentary and anecdotes by the composer. Stream the entire video on demand below:

About CCM Jazz Studies

Offering both bachelor and master of music degrees, the Jazz Studies program at CCM teaches the fundamentals of classical music, stylistic elements of each historical jazz period, strategies for enhancing originality, techniques of electronic media and today’s cutting-edge trends that defy categorization.

By receiving a wide musical perspective and the command of a broad jazz language, the student is equipped to pursue a future in jazz music. At the same time, this thorough course of study serves as the best preparation for related careers in commercial music. Learn more at ccm.uc.edu/jazz.
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Featured image at top: The CCM Jazz Orchestra performs under the direction of Professor Scott Belck at the 2016 Moveable Feast gala fundraiser. Photo/UC Creative Services.

Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and CCM Announce 2019-21 Class of Diversity Fellows

Five outstanding string players have been selected for the next class of the prestigious Diversity Fellowship program.

The University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (CSO) have selected five outstanding musicians for the next class of CSO/CCM Diversity Fellows. Born out of a mutual desire to make American orchestras more inclusive, this prestigious performance fellowship program was launched in 2015 with a generous grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The Foundation approved a renewal grant of $850,000 in 2017, providing funding for the innovative program through June 2021.

With this collaborative Fellowship program, CCM and the CSO hope to provide new opportunities for underrepresented musicians, while simultaneously fostering a more inclusive environment in the orchestral industry.

“Reflecting our community and the world around us at every level — on stage, around the office, in the board room, and in neighborhoods throughout the region — is one of our highest priorities,” said CSO President Jonathan Martin. “We welcome the new class of Fellows, look forward to the artistic contributions of the continuing class, and congratulate the Fellows who are now completing the program after two years.”

Here is the incoming class of CSO/CCM Diversity Fellows:
• Magdiell Antequera, 23 (violin)
• Jordan Curry, 24 (violin)
• Cristian J. Diaz, 28 (viola)
• Michael Martin, 24 (double bass)
• Denielle Wilson, 23 (cello)

“The CSO/CCM Diversity Fellowship embodies the University of Cincinnati’s commitment to experience-based learning and community partnerships,” said CCM Dean Stanley E. Romanstein. “Our five newest Fellows possess enormous talent, and we are delighted to welcome them to Cincinnati. Once you have an opportunity to see the Fellows perform, you will understand why we boast that ‘Next Lives Here.’ We are grateful for the ongoing generosity of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, through which CCM and the CSO can continue to work together to make the arts more inclusive.”

These five exceptional string players will officially join the two-year fellowship program in August 2019 bringing the total number of CSO/CCM Diversity Fellows to nine for the 2019-20 academic year and performance season.

The second class of Diversity Fellows, which is comprised of Anita Graef (cello), Ian Saunders (double bass), Weiyi Shao (violin), and Dan Wang (viola) recently completed the program at the conclusion of the 2018-19 season.

“The combination of performing with a major professional orchestra while getting a graduate degree from a top conservatory provides the ideal combination of educational and professional development,” said Yan Izquierdo, who will begin his second year in the CSO/CCM Diversity Fellowship in the fall. “I believe this Fellowship has significantly enriched my career and I highly recommend it to any music student, particularly those seeking opportunities in American orchestras.”

CSO/CCM Diversity Fellow Ian Saunders, CCM Dean Stanley Romanstein and CSO Instructional Programs Manager Carol Dunevant recently stopped by WVXU’s Cincinnati Edition to discuss the fellowship program with host Michael Monks. Listen to the full segment at www.wvxu.org.

How the Fellowship Works

The CSO/CCM Diversity Fellowship Program is open to exceptional violin, viola, cello, and double bass players coming from historically underrepresented populations in classical music.

The program’s tagline — “Bravos Without Barriers” — gets to the heart of its mission: eliminating obstacles that can prevent extraordinary musicians from achieving their full potential.

Fellows perform the equivalent of five weeks per season with the CSO while enrolled in a two-year Master of Music (MM) or Artist Diploma (AD) graduate degree program at CCM. Each class of Fellows is selected through a rigorous series of auditions, which saw hundreds of graduate-level musicians audition for CCM faculty members. Select players were invited back to Cincinnati for a final round of auditions judged by CSO musicians in Springer Auditorium at Cincinnati Music Hall on March 16, 2019.

Each Fellow receives full tuition scholarship support from CCM, in addition to a $10,000 per year graduate stipend and a one-time Graduate School Dean’s Excellence Award of $3,000. Each Fellow also receives compensation of $8,000 per season while performing with the CSO.

Meet the Incoming Fellows

Magdiell Antequera, Master of Music (MM) student, Violin
Venezuelan violinist Magdiell Antequera, 23, made his first debut as a soloist in with the Falcon Symphony Orchestra in Venezuela at the age of 10 and has continued to play as a guest soloist in various orchestras in South America and the United States. His work has been praised by legendary violinists including Midori Goto, Margaret Batjer, and Glenn Dicterow. Antequera has participated in multiple master classes and private lessons with acclaimed professors from a number of conservatories including the Juilliard School, and has won and received recognition from important competitions such as the Solo Competition at the Academia Latinoamericana de Violin (Venezuela), Thursday Musical Competition (Minnesota), Schubert Club Competition (Minnesota), Texas Rising Stars, Rodolfo Lipizer International Violin Competition (Italy), and others.

Antequera attended Shattuck-St. Mary’s School as a member of the Pre-Conservatory Program from 2012–15, where he studied with Sally O´Reilly at the University of Minnesota. In 2015 he was awarded a full scholarship to the University of Texas at Austin, where he studied with Brian Lewis and kept an active solo career.

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Jordan Curry, Artist Diploma (AD) student, Violin
Jordan Curry, 24, resides in West Olive, Michigan. He began playing violin at the age of six using the Suzuki method. A graduate of West Ottawa High School in Holland, Michigan, Curry continued to play violin and study music throughout his formative years.

He has participated in the Illinois Chamber Music Festival at Illinois Wesleyan University, the Michigan All-State Orchestra, and the Holland Area Youth Orchestra. Curry furthered his studies with Korean violinist Young Shin and Mihai Craioveanu, professor of violin at Hope College.

He received his bachelor’s degree in violin performance at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo under the instruction of professor Renata Artman Knific. Curry plays a violin from famed maker Mario Miralles on loan from acclaimed violin soloist Tai Murray. He recently received his master’s in violin performance the University of Denver under Linda Wang.

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Cristian J. Diaz, Master of Music (MM) student, Viola
Cristian Diaz, 28, is a violist from Colombia who holds a bachelor’s degree in violin performance from Colombia’s National University- Conservatory of Music, and a master’s degree in chamber music from Kent State University. His former professors include members of the acclaimed Miami String Quartet, Keith Robinson and Cathy Meng Robinson, and his viola professor Joanna Patterson Zakany, member of the prestigious Cleveland Orchestra.

Diaz has been part of many orchestras across the globe, and was runner up in the Kent State University concerto competition (2017), he was selected to become part of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra Academy 2018 in Dortmund, Germany, winner of the inaugural Diversity Fellowship of the CityMusic Cleveland Chamber Orchestra, and is also a member of the Efferus String Quartet.

He has attended the XI Cartagena Music Festival (Colombia, 2017), the first and second International Festival of String Quartets (Colombia, 2015 and 2016), III Bogota’s Viola Festival (Colombia, 2015), Santa Catarina Music Festival FEMUSC (Brazil, 2012), and also the Kent Blossom Music Festival (2019). Diaz will begin his master’s degree at CCM in the fall of 2019 where he will study with professor Catharine Lees.

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Michael Martin, Artist Diploma (AD) student, Double Bass
Raised in Allentown, Pennsylvania, Michael Martin, 24, began his study of the double-bass with local Suzuki pedagogue Domenick Fiore in early high school, after years of playing in school ensembles and teaching himself at home. Quickly finding that he had a deep love of the bass and music, he joined the Philadelphia Sinfonia and Young People’s Philharmonic youth orchestras in the area, and began further studies with Joseph Conyers of the Philadelphia Orchestra.

An alum of Oberlin Conservatory (B. Mus., 2017) and Northwestern University (M. Mus.,2019), Martin studied with renowned bass pedagogues Tracy Rowell (Oberlin Conservatory, CIM Mari Sato Preparatory Program) and Andrew Raciti (Milwaukee Symphony, Northwestern University). Other mentors have included Peter Dominguez (Oberlin Conservatory) and Scott Dixon (the Cleveland Orchestra). In addition to his studies with Rowell and Raciti, Martin spent his summers as an undergraduate studying the method of bass virtuoso Francois Rabbath at the Domaine Forget International Academy in Charlevoix, Quebec. He has also been an Orchestra Fellow at the Emmanuel and Helen Olshan Texas Music Festival Orchestra Institute in Houston, Texas.

Martin plays a modern instrument made especially for him by Christopher Savino, and a bow by acclaimed Canadian bow maker Reid Hudson.

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Denielle Wilson, Master of Music (MM), Cello
Denielle Wilson, 23, is a cellist from Lithonia, Georgia. She currently lives in Evanston, Illinois, plays in the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, and maintains a studio of private cello students. She completed an undergraduate degree at Northwestern University in 2017, having majored in cello performance and music education. Her musical mentors have included Hans Jørgen Jensen, Joel Dallow, and Nan Kimberling. She has spent summers at the Meadowmount School of Music, Bowdoin Music Festival, Aspen Music Festival and School, and the Grant Park Music Festival. She plays in a piano trio with her siblings, and they enjoy sharing classical and religious music with their local community.

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Learn more about the CSO/CCM Diversity Fellowship by visiting ccm.uc.edu/chance2perform.

Stanley E. Romanstein Named Dean of University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music

An accomplished leader in education and the arts as well as a UC alumnus, Romanstein’s appointment follows a national search for CCM’s next dean.

Kristi A. Nelson, senior vice president for academic affairs and provost at the University of Cincinnati, today announced the appointment of Stanley E. Romanstein, PhD, as Dean of the College-Conservatory of Music (CCM). Romanstein’s appointment becomes effective July 1, 2018, pending approval of the University’s Board of Trustees.

“I am delighted to welcome Stanley Romanstein back to his alma mater as Dean of UC’s College-Conservatory of Music,” said Nelson. “He is an outstanding organizational leader, entrepreneur and scholar, in addition to being a proud UC alumnus. I was most impressed with his passion for arts advocacy, his engaging interpersonal skills, and his forward-thinking and student-centric approach to education.”

Romanstein is an accomplished nonprofit executive with 22 years of leadership and management experience in education and the arts. He comes to CCM from Georgia State University’s Creative Media Institute, where he has served as a professor of practice/music and the arts for the past four years. He also serves as a principal at BLJackson Associates, a consulting firm that works with arts, humanities and education-focused nonprofits across the country. Romanstein was previously President and CEO of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, President and CEO of the Minnesota Humanities Center, Director of Development at the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum at the University of Minnesota, Executive Director of the Baltimore School for the Arts and Baltimore School for the Arts Foundation, and Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Music at St. Lawrence University.

“I have firsthand knowledge of CCM’s excellence in music and arts education and I am a proud beneficiary of those high standards. I am honored to have the opportunity to contribute to my alma mater’s continued success as its next dean,” said Romanstein. “CCM’s reputation as a leading performing and media arts school is 150 years strong, and that reputation continues to grow thanks to the talents and dedication of its faculty, staff, alumni, donors, volunteers and community partners. Working together, we will continue to nurture the talents of our students and inspire future generations of artists, teachers, creative thinkers, innovative problem-solvers and media-savvy arts entrepreneurs.”

Romanstein continued, “I have found ideal partners in President Pinto and Provost Nelson and I look forward to working with them to build on CCM’s history and successes while advancing CCM’s role within the university’s strategic direction, Next Lives Here.”

Romanstein’s appointment follows a national search begun in fall 2017. The search was led by the UC Provost Office and chaired by Greer Glazer, Dean of the College of Nursing.

Nelson expressed her gratitude to bruce mcclung, who has served as CCM’s interim dean since July 2016. “I would like to acknowledge the outstanding service of Dean mcclung,” said Nelson. “UC owes mcclung a huge debt of gratitude for his leadership during the past two academic years, culminating with CCM’s 150th anniversary celebration.”

About Stanley E. Romanstein
Stanley E. Romanstein, PhD, brings to his new role at CCM extensive experience as a visionary leader, entrepreneurial strategist, engaging communicator, passionate fundraiser and successful manager.

In November of 2014, Romanstein began his tenure as professor of practice/music and the arts at Georgia State University’s Creative Media Institute, where his work focused on building music industry collaborations. During this time, he also served as a principal at BLJackson Associates, a consulting firm based in Atlanta that works with arts, humanities and education-focused nonprofits across the country. The firm creates and implements tailored solutions to challenges in organizational strategy, governance and development/ fundraising.

Romanstein has 22 years of leadership and management experience in education and the arts. As President and CEO of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (2010-14), he strengthened the orchestra’s connection to the community through expanded concert offerings and a wide range of impactful education offerings. He also created and implemented a new business model that reversed a 12-year history of financial loss and positioned the orchestra for long-term sustainability and artistic achievement.

As President and CEO of the Minnesota Humanities Center (2001-10), Romanstein transformed the center from a small organization with a local focus to a highly regarded regional and national leader in its field. He also created and distributed acclaimed new media; this included a collection of four Somali folk tales taken from oral tradition and written down for the very first time, as well as an Emmy Award-winning documentary, Iron Range: Minnesota Building America.

Romanstein proved to be an enthusiastic and productive fundraiser at the Minnesota Humanities Center, Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum and the Baltimore School of the Arts. He attracted new local, regional and national funding to support the center’s $4 million annual budget, including support from the Minnesota State Legislature by establishing partnerships with the state’s four ethnic councils: American Indian, African American, Latino and Asian. As Director of Development at the University of Minnesota’s Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum (2000-01), Romanstein led what was, at the time, the highest grossing annual fund drive while laying the groundwork for the museum’s successful capital campaign. As Director of Baltimore School for the Arts (1996-2000), Romanstein positioned the school for a successful capital campaign as well as a facility renovation and expansion.

From 1987-96, Romanstein served as an associate professor and chair of the music department at St. Lawrence University, a highly selective liberal arts institution in New York. He refocused the department’s traditional music curriculum to emphasize interdisciplinary and multicultural perspectives and created meaningful connections with departments and colleagues across the campus.

Romanstein earned a Bachelor of Music Education degree, cum laude, from Carson-Newman College in 1976. He then came to CCM to earn a Master of Music in Choral Conducting in 1980 and a PhD in Music in 1990. He was a Fulbright Scholar in Israel in 1985-86 and in Japan in November-December 1998.

About the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music
Declared “one of the nation’s leading conservatories” by the New York Times, the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) is a preeminent institution for the performing and media arts. The school’s educational roots date back to 1867, and a solid, visionary instruction has been at its core since that time.

CCM offers nine degree types (BA, BM, BFA, MFA, MM, MA, AD, DMA, PhD) in nearly 120 possible majors. The synergy created by housing CCM within a comprehensive public university gives the college its unique character and defines its objective: to educate and inspire the whole artist and scholar for positions on the world’s stage.

CCM’s world-class facilities provide a highly creative and multidisciplinary artistic environment. In 2017, the college completed a $15-million renovation of its major performance spaces, ensuring that CCM’s facilities remain state-of-the-art.

The school’s roster of eminent faculty regularly receives distinguished honors for creative and scholarly work, and its alumni have achieved notable success in the performing and media arts. More than 150 internationally recognized faculty members work with students from around the world, specializing in the areas of:

• Composition/Musicology/Theory,
• Electronic Media,
• Ensembles and Conducting (Choral Studies, Commercial Music Production, Jazz Studies, Orchestral Studies and Wind Studies),
• Keyboard Studies (Harpsichord, Organ and Piano),
• Music Education,
• Performance Studies (Strings, Voice and Woodwinds/Brass/Percussion) and
• Theatre Arts, Production and Arts Administration (Acting, Arts Administration, Dance, Musical Theatre, Opera and Theatre Design and Production).

The largest single source of performing arts events in the state of Ohio, CCM presents nearly 1,000 major public performances each year, ranging from faculty and guest artist concerts to fully supported acting, dance, musical theatre and opera productions.

CCM is an accredited institution of the National Association of Schools of Dance (NASD), the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM) and the National Association of Schools of Theatre (NAST), as well as a member of the University/ Resident Theatre Association (U/RTA).

Learn more by visiting http://ccm.uc.edu.