Accessible Music?

Posted: Dec 29, 2008 - 8:50:33 AM in: commentary_2008

Charles Coleman

New York composer Charles Coleman has some thoughts about the ubiquitous term "accessible" as applied to new music. Must music be "primarily simple with a tuneful nature" to be "accessible?" Bah, humbug.
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Connecting the Dots in Cincinnati

Posted: Nov 18, 2008 - 11:25:14 PM in: commentary_2008

Collaboration and mutual reinforcement will be increasingly necessary if arts groups are going to survive in today's straitened economy. Having seen opportunities for mutual benefit go unrealized in the Greater Cincinnati community, it was rewarding to find a small glimmer of hope on the Music Hall calendar in November. "Stargazing and Late Night in Spain," a ticket being offered by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra's young professionals group, will draw attention to both the CSO and Cincinnati Opera.
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More Frightening Than Dracula

Posted: Nov 9, 2008 - 11:23:50 PM in: commentary_2008

promotional illustration for Cincinnati Ballet's "Dracula"

Which is scarier, Dracula the ballet or ballet with canned music? I found out at the world premiere of Cincinnati Ballet's "Dracula" Oct. 31 at the Aronoff Center for the Arts. Choreographer on just 5 1/2 months' notice was Cincinnati Ballet associate artistic director Devon Carney.
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Cincinnati Should Reclaim "Over the Rhine"

Posted: Apr 5, 2008 - 6:10:05 PM in: commentary_2008

Manuel Brug, a journalist with Germany's Die Welt, visited Cincinnati in March in advance of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra's visit to Germany as part of its 2008 European tour (now underway). Here are his observations about the city, the CSO and music director Paavo Järvi as published in Die Welt April 4. English translation by Mary Ellyn and John Hutton.
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Mida oli 3/11/08

Posted: Mar 11, 2008 - 12:53:37 AM in: commentary_2008

World premiere led by Tan Dun of his "Water Passion after St. Matthew" in Stuttgart in 2000

Holy Week in the Christian faith -- Palm Sunday through Easter Sunday -- is always the occasion for great music, especially by Johann Sebastian Bach. West meets East this year in Cincinnati with the regional premiere of Tan Dun’s “Water Passion after St. Matthew," to be performed by the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music Chamber Choir, Percussion Group Cincinnati and guest artists Elizabeth Keusch (soprano), Stephen Bryant (bass) and Yuanlin Chen (electronic sampler) at 8 p.m. March 15 in CCM’s Corbett Auditorium. Joining them will be CCM instrumentalists Kuan-Chang Tu, violin, and Amy Gillingham, cello. CCM's Earl Rivers will conduct. - [Read more]

The Republic of Estonia is 90 Years Old Today

Posted: Feb 24, 2008 - 4:38:19 PM in: commentary_2008

Main Building, Tartu University, Tartu, Estonia, where students placed Estonia's blue-black-white striped flag during its War of Independence (1918-20) (photos by Mary Ellyn Hutton)

The Republic of Estonia is 90 years old in 2008. Elam Pitkjaan, president of the Estonian Heritage Association of Cincinnati, delivered this address at a birthday lunch held by the association on the country's 90th birthday Feb. 24 in Florence, Kentucky.
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A Valentine for Music Hall

Posted: Feb 10, 2008 - 10:18:36 AM in: commentary_2008

Music in Cincinnati received a beautiful letter from Greenup County, Kentucky resident Vera Virgin, who accompanied her music teacher to Cincinnati in the 1930s to hear the great violinist Fritz Kreisler perform at Music Hall. Vera, an accomplished pianist who still plays for church services at Oldtown Church of Christ in Oldtown, Kentucky, was a teacher and school administrator in the Greenup County schools for 42 years.
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Tribute to a Great Lady

Posted: Jan 28, 2008 - 11:23:12 PM in: commentary_2008

An eloquent tribute to arts patroness Patricia Corbett from Cincinnati Opera general director Patricia K. Beggs.

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