From Music in Cincinnati

CCM Opera Search Narrows

Posted in: 2007

By Mary Ellyn Hutton
Nov 28, 2007 - 12:00:00 AM

Four finalists have been named for the J. Ralph Corbett
Distinguished Chair in Opera at University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, vacant since former chair Sandra Bernhard left last summer to take a position with Houston Grand Opera.

Two are familiar names in Cincinnati, former Cincinnati Opera artistic director Nicholas Muni, currently distinguished artist-in-residence at CCM,

Nicholas Muni

and Jonathan Eaton, former professor of opera at CCM,
now artistic director of Opera Theater of Pittsburgh.

Jonathan Eaton

Also vying for the prestigious post are Steven
Daigle, head of the opera program at the Eastman
School of Music in Rochester, New York and director of the Eastman Opera Theatre, and Robert Tannenbaum,
director of production at the Badisches Staatstheater in Karlsruhe, Germany.
Named for Cincinnati arts patron J. Ralph Corbett, who died in 1988, the Corbett opera chair heads the opera department at CCM, historically one of the school's strongest programs.
Former occupants include British opera director Malcolm Fraser and Italian bass Italo Tajo.
CCM drama professor Terrell Finney, head of
the division of opera, drama and arts administration at CCM, is heading the search committee for the new opera chair.

(first published in The Cincinnati Post Nov. 27, 2007)