CCM Welcomes Greater Cincinnati Chinese Music Society for New Year Concert on March 28

The Greater Cincinnati Chinese Music Society (GCCMS) presents its 14th annual Chinese New Year Concert at 7:30 p.m. this Saturday, March 28, in CCM’s Corbett Auditorium. This unique event celebrates the cultural diversity in the tri-state region with music from East and West.

This year’s concert theme is “Songs of Bamboo,” featuring a variety of Chinese traditional musical instruments made from bamboo.

The event not only features an annual appearance by the CCM Philharmonia (conducted by CCM’s Director of Orchestral Studies Mark Gibson), it also serves as a homecoming for alumnus tenor Yi Li (AD Opera, 2013), a current member of the Washington National Opera and a 2014 winner of the Metropolitan National Council Auditions Grand Finals (alumna Amanda Woodbury (MM, 2012) was also a Grand Finals Winner in 2014).

Yi Li, tenor.

A native of Jinan, China, Yi Li also participated in CCM’s festival in Spoleto, Italy, as well as the Opera Studio Nederland in Amsterdam. Recent performances include Tamino in The Magic Flute, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, Alfredo in La traviata, Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, Rodolfo in La bohème, and Cavaradossi in Tosca. In addition to his win in the Met finals, he won first prize at the 2012 Opera Columbus Irma M. Cooper Vocal Competition; the 2009 International Singing Competition in Marmande, France; and the 2008 World Chinese Singing Competition of Taipei.

Other guests joining Li, Gibson and the Philharmonia include China Broadcasting Chinese Orchestra members Ying Dong and Hui Zhang as well as Cincinnati Ballet member Sirui Liu. It is sure to be an exciting event for all! Happy the Year of the Goat!

For complete details about this event, please visit www.cincinnatichinesemusicsociety.org or email info@cincinnatichinesemusicsociety.org.

Performance Time
7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 28

Location
Corbett Auditorium, CCM Village
University of Cincinnati

Purchasing Tickets
Tickets to the 2015 Chinese New Year Concert are available through the Greater Cincinnati Chinese Music Society. Ticket prices are $20 for family, $25 for general and $50 for patrons. For tickets, please call 513-658-3852 or 513-885-1328.

Parking and Directions
Parking is available in the CCM Garage (located at the base of Corry Boulevard off Jefferson Avenue) and additional garages throughout the UC campus. Please visit uc.edu/parking for more information on parking rates.

For detailed maps and directions, please visit uc.edu/visitors. Additional parking is available off-campus at the new U Square complex on Calhoun Street and other neighboring lots.

For directions to CCM Village, visit ccm.uc.edu/about/directions.

THE VILLAGE NEWS – Fall 2014

NOTATIONS AND OVATIONS

STUDENT PRODUCED ‘GOLD RUSH EXPEDITION RACE’ FILM SERIES TO AIR ON UNIVERSAL SPORTS NETWORK
This action-packed documentary film series will be coming to television sets nationwide this fall! Read more…

CCM WELCOMES ITS FIRST DIRECTOR OF COMMUNITY OUTREACH
Anne Cushing-Reid will help CCM expand its community engagement efforts through her new role with the Preparatory Department. Read more…

ALUMNI APPLAUSE

PERFORMANCE STUDIES ALUMNA APPOINTED TO PROFESSOR OF OBOE
Merideth Hite (BM, ’06) has joined the faculty of the University of Southern Mississippi. Read more…

CCM ALUMNUS MAKES HIS BROADWAY DEBUT IN THE HIT REVIVAL OF PIPPIN
After touring the nation with The Book of Mormon, Michael Schwitter (BFA, ’12) takes on the role of Pippin’s brother Lewis at the Music Box Theatre. Read more…

CCM ALUMNI WIN TOP PRIZES IN PLÁCIDO DOMINGO’S WORLD OPERA COMPETITION
Amanda Woodbury (MM, ’12), John Holiday (MM, ’12) and Yi Li (AD, ’13) were among this year’s finalists in the Operalia competition. Read more…

FACULTY FANFARE

CCM PROFESSOR OF COMPOSITION ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT
Joel Hoffman joined the University of Cincinnati faculty in 1978. This October, CCM will celebrate his service with a special concert featuring the Ariel Quartet. Read more…

STUDENT SALUTES

FRESHMAN DRAMA MAJOR RECEIVES CINCINNATUS PRESIDENTIAL AWARD
Isaac Hickox-Young is one of only 11 incoming UC students to receive this prestigious award, which pays full tuition, boarding fees and more for four years. Read more…

CCM DMA CANDIDATE RECEIVES MAY FESTIVAL FELLOWSHIP
First-year graduate student Daniel Blosser has been chosen as the 2014-15 May Festival Choral Conducting Fellow. Read more…

TUNE IN

THE CCM WIND ORCHESTRA TAKES THE STAGE AT A NATIONAL CONFERENCE
Watch the complete performance here.

DID YOU KNOW?

CCM’S STUDIO SERIES REMAINS ONE OF THE HOTTEST TICKETS IN CINCINNATI!
Box Office Manager Jeanne Rose provides the inside scoop on how to score tickets for this year’s productions! Read more…

SAVE THE DATE

CCM’S MAINTAGE SERIES PRESENTS MACBETH
Shakespeare’s dark and twisted tragedy makes its CCM debut Oct. 1 – 5, 2014. Read more…

THE MIND AND MUSIC OF CHOPIN
The Friends of CCM and the Cincinnati Psychoanalytic Institute welcome special guest artist Richard Kogan on Oct. 10. Read more…

CCM IN THE NEWS

New Artist of the Month: Conductor and CCM Alumnus Isaac Selya (Musical America Worldwide). Read more…
CCM Prep Teaches More Than How to Perform (Cincy Magazine). Read more…

CCM Alumna Amanda Woodbury Makes Solo Debut with Cincinnati May Festival This Weekend

CCM alumna Amanda Woodbury.

CCM alumna Amanda Woodbury (MM, 2012) will make her Cincinnati May Festival debut as a soloist this Saturday (and will also perform a preconcert recital tonight) and the Cincinnati Enquirer provides a preview in a new Q&A with the soprano.

Earlier this year, Woodbury was named a winner of the 2014 Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions (along with fellow CCM alum Yi Li) and a 2014 Sara Tucker Grant Recipient (along with fellow CCM alum John Holiday).

She reflects on those recent successes and on her time at CCM in the feature, telling the Enquirer’s Janelle Gelfand, “I sang two roles onstage [at CCM], Donna Anna in Don Giovanni and Madame Lidoine in Dialogues of the Carmelites. I can’t tell you how much that has helped my career. It helped me to prepare for the next step, and just everything they did opened up doors for me. I’m so glad I went to CCM, because I passed up Juilliard for CCM.”

CCM Alumni Yi Li and Amanda Woodbury Named Grand Finalist Winners of the Metropolitan Opera’s 2014 National Council Auditions

From left to right, CCM alumni Yi Li and Amanda Woodbury.

CCM alumni Yi Li (AD, ’13) and Amanda Woodbury (MM, ’12) have been named Grand Finals Winners of the Metropolitan Opera’s 2014 National Council Auditions.

A tenor, Li is a member of the Washington National Opera’s Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program.

Woodbury, a soprano, is in her second year at the Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program at LA Opera.

Li and Woodbury were among nine singers competing in the Met’s prestigious and highly competitive Grand Finals Concert this past Sunday, March 30. The finalists were accompanied by the Met Orchestra led by Marco Armiliato. You can learn more about all of the 2014 National Council Winners here.

This marks the second consecutive year that CCM trained singers have won the Metropolitan Opera’s National Council Auditions: bass-baritone Thomas Richards was named a Grand Finals Winner in 2013.

WQXR, New York’s Classical Music Radio Station, will broadcast performances and interviews with all of this year’s winners at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, April 1. Learn more by visiting www.wqxr.org/#!/story/video-webcast-metropolitan-opera-national-council-award-winners.

Learn more courtesy of the Cincinnati Enquirer here.

CCM Slideshows: The Magic Flute

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CCM’s acclaimed 2012-13 Mainstage Series comes to a close this week with a colorful new production of Mozart’s beloved comedic singspiel The Magic Flute. This production runs April 4–7 in UC’s Corbett Auditorium.

The Cincinnati Enquirer‘s Janelle Gelfand recently visited CCM to take a behind-the-scenes look at The Magic Flute‘s costumes, wigs and make-up designs. Watch her exclusive video preview here.

Current and Former CCM Students Win at 2013 Gerda Lissner Foundation Vocal Competition

Congratulations to the following CCM alumni and students who were prize winners in the Gerda Lissner Foundation 2013 International Vocal Competition!

• CCM alumnus and countertenor John Holiday earned first prize in the competition, which came with a $10,000 cash award.
• CCM alumnus Norman Garrett, baritone, earned second prize, with an award of $5,000. This is Garrett’s second consecutive year taking home a prize from the competition.
• Artist Diploma candidate Yi Li, tenor, and CCM alumnus Emmet O’Hanlon, baritone, each received third prize, which came with a $3,000 cash award. This is also Li’s second consecutive year earning a prize at the Lissner Competition.

CCM’s 2012-13 Mainstage Series Concludes With ‘The Magic Flute’

Jacqueline Echols as Pamina and Yi Li as Tamino in CCM’s ‘The Magic Flute.’ Photography by Mark Lyons.

CCM proudly presents Mozart’s beloved comedic singspiel The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte, 1791) from April 4–7 in UC’s Corbett Auditorium. The fourth most frequently performed opera worldwide, this production will be sung in German with English dialogue (with supertitles displayed). Mark Gibson conducts with stage direction by Steven Goldstein.

Composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart with a libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder, this beloved opera offers something for everyone: a hero and heroine questing for true love, evil villains, a comical sidekick and a whole range of beastly creatures. According to Goldstein, The Magic Flute is a sort of vaudeville variety show of the 18th century. However, this iteration isn’t all about the slapstick comedy. “My charge to the performers,” Goldstein explains, “is for the comedy to come from somewhere genuine. There is a real play back and forth between light-heartedness and deep morality in Flute and our goal is to find the truth inside of it.”

Three CCM Students Progress to Met Opera Regional Auditions in Chicago

Congratulations to the following winners of the Metropolitan Opera District Council Auditions, which were held on Oct. 20 at CCM:

• soprano Chabrelle Denise Williams, student of Barbara Paver at CCM
• tenor Yi Li, student of David Adams at CCM
• bass-baritone Thomas Richards, student of William McGraw at CCM
• baritone Reginald Reggie Smith Jr, student of Everett McCorvey at the University of Kentucky

These singers will progress to the Regional Auditions in Chicago on Nov. 4.

CCM Celebrates 50 Years As a UC College With 50 Major Performing Arts Events

The University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) is delighted to announce its 2012-13 schedule of major events. From September through May, CCM will present a series of 50 performances spanning the spectrum of the performing and media arts.

This series begins with the internationally-acclaimed Ariel Quartet’s inaugural concert as CCM string-quartet-in-residence on Tuesday, Sept. 11 and concludes with a Sunday, May 5 performance by the Cincinnati Children’s Choir, gold medal-winners at the 2012 World Choir Games.

The 2012-13 performance schedule also features festivals showcasing the works of German composers Ludwig van Beethoven and Kurt Weill, jazz tributes to the music of Stevie Wonder and Frank Zappa, a dynamic revival of the rock musical Chess, a performance of J.S. Bach’s Mass in B Minor presented in conjunction with the Constella Festival and much more.

These creative collaborations are part of a year-long celebration, ushering in CCM’s second half-century as a college of the University of Cincinnati (UC). In August of 1962, the then century-old Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music joined UC as its 14th college. This merger created the institution now known as CCM, an institution built on the synergy of education, innovation and performance. Learn more about CCM’s history by visiting ccm.uc.edu/about/history.

Five CCM Students Win Awards At The Gerda Lissner Foundation’s Annual International Vocal Competition

The Gerda Lissner Foundation has announced the winners of its 2012 International Vocal Competition and three current and two former CCM students received top prizes at the prestigious event, which took place in late March and early April in New York City.

Artist Diploma candidate Jacqueline Echols and CCM alumna Audrey Luna (MM ’03, AD ’05) both received second prize in the competition, which came with a $5000 cash award and a Carnegie Hall Recital Hall debut.

Artist Diploma candidate Yi Li and CCM alumnus Norman Garrett (MM, ’09) both received third prize, which came with a $3000 cash award.

Artist Diploma candidate Marco Cammarota received the competition’s Encouragement Award, which came with a $2000 award. Congratulations to all of this year’s award recipients!