Young Violin Star Heads for Cincinnati

Chloe Hanslip

Violinist Chloe Hanslip, who will make her debut with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra Nov. 15 and 16 at Music Hall, certainly comes well recommended.

Not only is she guest artist on one of “Paavo’s Picks,” i.e. a CSO season concert designated “not to miss” by CSO music director Paavo Järvi, but she seems to garner ecstatic reviews.

Hanslip, a former child prodigy, has been before the public since she was four years old in her native England (her biography indicates that she began playing the violin at two).  Now a seasoned 21, she is an international artist with a repertoire of over 30 concertos. She embraces contemporary as well as traditional works and already has five CDs to her credit.  She has even been in the movies, as the young violinist in Ralph Fiennes’ “Onegin” (1999).

If you think this is a concert you can miss, consider the following. Calling her “a very special violinist” “with “poise and authority that should be impossible at her age,” music critic Christopher Latham of London’s ABC Limelight declared:  “I am converted.  She is likely to become the greatest violinist of her generation.”  Gramophone magazine’s Philip Clark agreed in his review of her performance of John Adams’ Violin Concerto for Naxos: “Playing like this should secure Chloe Hanslip’s reputation for life.”

Hanslip will perform Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 1 with the CSO. The all 20^th-century program also includes Stravinsky’s “Petrouchka” (1947 version) and -- a real zinger of a piece despite its cumbersome name – Paul Hindemith’s "Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber.”

Admission is $12-77, $10 for students ($12 the day of the concert), 25% off for seniors (62 and over).  Call (513) (381-3300), or visit www.cincinnatisymphony.org.

Note: The Saturday concert (Nov. 15) is the first “College Nite” of the CSO season.  For $10, students get admission to the concert and a party afterward, with free appetizers, cash bar, live band, door prizes and the opportunity to meet and mingle with Järvi and members of the CSO.  Band for the evening will be the Gregory Morris Group (http://www.myspace.com/thegregorymorrisgroup).  Sunday (Nov. 16) is “Family Sunday,” with children 18 and under admitted for $5.

Also this weekend, the early music ensemble Catacoustic Consort presents “Awakening the Harpsichord,” with harpsichordist Webb Wiggins at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 15 at Clifton United Methodist Church, 3416 Clifton Ave. in Clifton, and 3 p.m. Nov. 16 at St. Gabriel Catholic Church, 48 W. Sharon Ave. in Glendale.  Wiggins will perform on Catacoustic’s new harpsichord, which was made by James Campbell.  Campbell will be in attendance and will talk about his craft 30 minutes before each concert.  Tickets are $20, $7 for students at www.caatacoustic.com.

The Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra led by music director Mischa Santora performs at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 16 at Anderson Center in Anderson Township.  Guest artist in Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto is Dr. David Stern in his Cincinnati concerto debut.

David Stern

Stern, dean of the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine since 2005, has made himself known in the community for more than his medical/administrative activities, having performed for numerous events around town.  Before taking up the stethoscope permanently, he was a member of the American Symphony Orchestra in New York City under its legendary conductor (and former CSO music director) Leopold Stokowski.  The CCO program, which repeats its Oct. 19 concert at Memorial Hall in Over the Rhine, also includes Mozart’s Symphony No. 31 in D Major, K. 297 (“Paris”) and Haydn’s Symphony No. 85 in B-flat Major (“La Reine” or “The Queen”).  (Clarinet soloist on that occasion was CCO principal clarinetist John Kurokawa.)

Admission is $15, $5 for children.  Call (513) 723-1182, or order at www.ccocincinnati.org.