CCM SUBSCRIBER PARTY Sunday, October 4th was another first at CCM — our first subscriber appreciation party. “Despite the challenges of our current economy, CCM enjoys an increase of more than 100 subscribers for the 09-10 season over last year. The new CCM Flex Concert Series set a new benchmark for future seasons with over 900 advance ticket sales for concerts and recitals. It was cause for celebration!” exclaimed John McDonagh, director of CCM box office and performance facilities. Nearly 300 people filled Patricia Corbett Theater for a sixty-minute sampler of performances from jazz, musical theatre, drama, dance, winds, choral and orchestras. Despite the fact that classes had resumed the week prior to the performance, the audience was wowed. “This is after only eight days of rehearsal,” said Mark Gibson, professor of music and director of orchestral studies, “Imagine what you will enjoy at their full performance.” Richard Hess, professor of drama and the Dolly, Ralph and Julia Cohen Chair in Drama, set a dramatic stage when he introduced CCM Drama. “Drama is often the most naked of the disciplines. It is simply the actors and their words,” he said. Then the audience laughed out loud with Sister Mary Ignatius played by drama student Dionne Hardin. CCM Choral also provided a sampling of the annual Feast of Carols program led by Earl Rivers, professor of music, division head of ensembles and conducting and director of choral studies. Friends of CCM, new subscribers, returning subscribers, faculty and students enjoyed a lively reception following the program.
INTRODUCING CCM SPOLETO CCM is proud to announce a historic partnership with the city of Spoleto, Italy, home of the famous Festival dei due Mondi di Spoleto. In 2009 CCM took a one-year hiatus from its renowned summer program, Opera Theatre and Music Festival of Lucca, a five-week summer course for singers, instrumentalists and theatre technicians in Lucca, Italy, with a primary focus on opera. The 2009 hiatus allowed program administrators to assess strengths and identify where enhancements could be made. During this time, the city of Spoleto expressed an interest in being a new home for the program. After much deliberation, it was decided the opportunities were too numerous to refuse, and CCM officially decided to move the program from Lucca to Spoleto with a launch in June of 2010. The new program is called CCM Spoleto. “Opera Theatre and Music Festival of Lucca offered our students, faculty and staff a quality cultural and musical experience over the thirteen years of its existence. San Micheletto, the Teatro del Giglio and so many other places in the beautiful city of Lucca, as well as the hundreds of people whose paths crossed there, are indelibly etched in our memories. We now look forward to beginning afresh in the equally beautiful city of Spoleto, with its rich cultural history of over 50 years in Gian Carlo Menotti’s festival,” says David Adams, artistic director of CCM Spoleto and head of the Performance Studies Division at CCM. Like the original Lucca program, CCM Spoleto will be open to students from all around the world, with an audition tour across the US. CCM Spoleto, while remaining close to its origins, will have advantages over its previous design. A distinct advantage is the hospitality of Spoleto, a city with a solid infrastructure — including two opera houses and a Roman amphitheatre — and an affinity for the international arts scene. Attendees of the Festival dei due Mondi this past summer had the opportunity to witness American avant-garde stage director and playwright, Robert Wilson; James Conlon, the current Music Director of the Los Angeles Opera and Cincinnati May Festival; and Sir Thomas Allen, one of the best lyric baritones of our time. “CCM Spoleto honors the vision of Menotti, mirrors his festival and extends student participation beyond voice and orchestral to drama, concerts and theatrical production. All of CCM could potentially be represented in Spoleto,” explains Robin Guarino, CCM Opera Chair. Students will have an experience of a lifetime in Spoleto to study and perform under the guidance of an international faculty of professional artists. Classes, lessons, coaching, master classes and performances are held in the city’s historic theatres, palazzos, churches and piazzas. Daily Italian language classes are offered to all participants at various levels. The 2010 audition tour is underway, with stops in San Francisco (December 4), New York (December 12), Houston (January 16), Pittsburgh (January 23), Chicago (January 30), Cincinnati (February 7) and Miami (February 14). CCM Spoleto is administered by a team that includes David Adams, artistic director and head of Performance Studies; Robin Guarino, J. Ralph Corbett Distinguished Chair of Opera; Terrell Finney, head of the division of Opera, Musical Theatre, Drama and Arts Administration; Michele Kay, chair of Theatre Design and Production; and Sara Danner Dukic, general manager. For more information, visit www.ccm.uc.edu/spoleto
Phil DeGreg
Thomas Haines
Donna Loewy
Awadagin Pratt
FACULTY FANFARES Professor Emeritus of Music Education Charles Benner was inducted as a Lowell Mason Fellow in April 2008 by the Music Educators National Conference. This honor is bestowed upon outstanding music educators and advocates across the country. During the spring of 2008, Professor of Jazz Studies Phil DeGreg spent four months teaching at the University of Campinas in Brazil on a Fulbright Fellowship. In the summer of 2008, he taught at the Jamey Aebersold Summer Jazz Workshops in Louisville and the Jazzwise Summer Jazz course in London, UK. Associate Professor of Electronic Media Thomas Haines received CCM’s Ernest N. Glover Award for Outstanding Teaching at the college’s 2008 Graduation Convocation. Adjunct Professor and Accompanist in Residence Donna Loewy performed at Carnegie Hall with CCM alumnus Andrew Garland as part of their series, Great Singers III: Evenings of Song, supported in part by the Marilyn Horne Foundation. Associate Professor of Piano and Artist-in-Residence Awadagin Pratt was invited to perform at the White House on November 4, 2009 as part of “A Celebration of Classical Music,” hosted by first lady Michelle Obama. Approximately 120 middle and high school students were invited to attend the day of music, where they participated in workshops and performances with guest artists. Introduced by the first lady as “the classical music superstars of tomorrow,” Pratt was joined by violinist Joshua Bell, guitarist Sharon Isbin and cellist Alisa Weilerstein. Preparatory Department faculty member Rodney Stucky saw the publication of his book, Guitar for the Young–Book 1. It is designed to offer a unique pedagogical approach to classical guitar for children age 5 and up. Professor and Head of Electronic Media Manfred Wolfram will retire at the end of the fall 2009 quarter. After joining the CCM faculty in 1986, he served six consecutive terms as division head and helped to raise over $2.7 million in funds and equipment. Dr. Wolfram also founded the E-Media division’s International Student Exchange Program with Ludwig Maximilian’s University in Munich, Germany. Learn more about our esteemed faculty at www.ccm.uc.edu/faculty
College-Conservatory of Music P.O. Box 210003 Cincinnati, OH 45221-0003 Friends of CCM Partner
Lunch Box Series Sponsor
Jazz Series Sponsor
CHRISTOPHER DIETZ & FAMILY
Anything Goes Sponsor
Trustee, The Huntington National Bank
PAID
NON-PROFIT ORG. U.S. POSTAGE
CINCINNATI, OH PERMIT #133
1980s Kenny Bierschenk (’80 MM Conducting) received commissions in 2008 to write two new works for concert band for the U.S. Air Force Band of Flight (Dayton, Ohio). The first, entitled “Let Freedom Ring,” is a medley of American patriotic music and was premiered in July 2008 at Dayton’s Fraze Pavilion with Bierschenk at the podium. “Doughboy Salute,” premiered in fall 2008 commemorating the 90th anniversary of the end of World War I. Thomas Coffey (’81 BM Music Education) joined the board of the Cleveland Institute of Music in fall 2008. He is currently Senior Counsel for the law firm of Tucker Ellis & West, LLP in Cleveland, Ohio. Philip Amalong (’84 BM Piano, ’96 MM Accompanying) was appointed chair of the music department at the College of Mount St. Joseph (Cincinnati, Ohio) in January 2008. In February 2008 he performed the Piano Concerto in A minor with the Cincinnati Community Orchestra under the direction of Dr. Gerald Doan. David Goldsmith (’85 BFA Musical Theater) saw his musical Imagine This open in fall 2008 at the New London Theatre on Drury Lane, Covent Garden, in London’s West End. Cecilia Gelland (’87 BFA Violin) celebrated the 15th anniversary of Duo Gelland, the ensemble she formed with her violinist husband. They received the prestigious German record critics award, Jahrespreis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik 2008 for their most recent latest DVD. Denine LeBlanc (’89 DMA Piano) completed a concert tour in France and Italy during summer 2008. She is preparing for the release of her second solo CD, “Weep No More.”
THE WILLIAM HUENEKE FOUNDATION
1970s Carole Whitney (’75 BM Cello) resigned her position as assistant principal cellist of the New Jersey Symphony after 30 years. She performed with the New York City Ballet, the Metropolitan Opera, the New York Pops, and the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular. Whitney continues her work as a member of the Santa Fe Opera Orchestra, and she is currently the executive director of the Boulder Bach Festival. Terry LaBolt (’77 BM Piano) accepted the position of musical director of the music theater program at Indiana University. The new degree program launched in fall 2008. Paul Deyo (’79 MM Trumpet) is completing his second year as trumpet instructor at Tennessee State University. This follows a long career as a touring musician with Broadway shows, cruise ship and theme park orchestras. He continues to teach privately in Nashville, Tennessee and perform with a variety of groups ranging from brass quintets to big bands.
2000s Liz Pearce (’00 BFA Musical Theater) appeared in the Broadway premiere of Billy Elliott after a successful run as Audrey in the national tour of Little Shop of Horrors. Brian W. Barnett (’01 BFA Theater Design and Production) recently designed the New York City premiere for The Meaning of Life... and other useless pieces of information at the 45th Street Theatre. He is designing Un Ballo in Maschera and A Masked Ball for the Martina Arroyo Foundation at the Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College of The City University of New York. Wei Cheng (’01 MM, ’06 DMA Choral Conducting) finished her first year as Director of Choral Activities at Denison University, where she conducts two choral ensembles as well as teaches conducting, aural skills and a first year seminar course entitled Music and Politics in China. David Zelina (’01 BFA Drama) finished a complete cut of his independent film, Les is More. He also recently booked a guest appearance on an episode of the AMC series, Mad Men. Frank Martignetti (’02 MM Choral Conducting) has been appointed artistic director of the Mystic River Chorale, a 24-year-old, 40-voice community choir in Mystic, Connecticut. Lisa Weiss (’02 MFA Theater Design and Production) recently relocated to New York City and is a hair and make-up artist for the Broadway production of Spamalot. Joshua Minter (’03 BFA Theater Design & Production) is living in New York City and has held multiple creative positions. He designed the set/props for the the national tour of Broadway Junior on Tour. He was also a window production artist at Saks Fifth Avenue, doing over 1500 window displays a year. Currently he is a set designer/prop stylist for a major home furnishings photography studio. Ethan Wickman (’03 DMA Composition) was awarded a Barlow Endowment commission to compose a new work for the Avalon String Quartet. The Barlow Endowment for Music Composition is associated with Brigham Young University (Provo, Utah) and supports excellence in musical composition. Tamara Wilson (’04 BM Voice) was a winner of the 2008 George London Award. The George London Foundation Awards competition is one of the oldest vocal competitions in the United States and Canada, recognizing outstanding young North American opera singers. Wilson also won a Sara Tucker Career Grant from the Richard Tucker Music Foundation. Vincent Madonna, Jr. (’05 BM Music History) joined the artistic department at New York City Opera. Matthew Phelps (’05 MM Choral Conducting) was named minister of music and principal organist of the Reformed Church of Bronxville, New York. He also oversees a full complement of children’s and handbell choirs, as well as a concert series that will feature sacred music ranging from organ to gospel choral music. An active concert organist, Phelps begins 2010 with recitals in Florida, Connecticut and New York. Sal Cacciato (’06 BFA Drama) completed a run of The Dreamer Examines His Pillow at Producers’ Club Theatres (New York City). Dave Groom (’06 BFA Drama) is a teaching artist on Theatre For A New Audience’s “World Theatre Project.” He performed in Antony and Cleopatra at schools throughout New York as well as at The Duke Theater (New York City). Christopher Payne (’06 BFA Theater Design and Production) has been working as a make-up artist, effects artist and wigmaker in Los Angeles. He has created make-up, effects, bodies and props for hit television shows and numerous films. Payne currently lives in California with his wife, Taryn. Stephanie Gibson (’07 BFA Musical Theater) joined the first national tour company of A Chorus Line.
The Dance Department gratefully acknowledges the support of The Corbett Endowment at CCM.
1960s Michael Faulkner (’68 BM, ’74 MM, ’80 DMA Violin) retired in 2007 from The President’s Own United States Marine Band Chamber Orchestra after 24 years of service. While a member of the ensemble, Faulkner played hundreds of performances at the White House and many venues throughout Washington, D.C. Faulkner also freelances and has maintained a private teaching studio in his home throughout his career.
1990s Jeremy Benjamin (’90 MFA Theater Design and Production) is entering his 19th year as resident designer and production manager at Lorain County Community College (Elyria, Ohio). He also is serving in his third year as visiting artist and lecturer at Oberlin College (Oberlin, Ohio), teaching undergraduate lighting design and designing several operas and dramas per year. David Rodriguez (’90 MM, ’98 DMA Piano) served as the director of the Tijuana Conservatory (Mexico) until 2005, when he became music coordinator of the State Center for the Arts in Baja, California. He currently is the head of the bachelor’s degree program in music at the University of Baja. He also is a pianist, soloist, and a composer of piano and orchestral music. Kirk Moss (’91 MM Music Education) was voted presidentelect of the 11,500 member American String Teachers Association. He will serve as president during 2010–12. Moss leads orchestral activities and string education as an associate professor of music at Minnesota State University Moorhead. He received the 2008 Alumni Outstanding Achievement Award from the University of Florida College of Fine Arts and spoke at their spring commencement in May. Shannon Rae Lutz (’92 BFA Drama, ’96 MFA Theater Performance) won a 2008 Cincinnati Enquirer Acclaim Award for her props work on the hit production, The Great American Trailer Park Musical, at Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati. Christopher Zello (’92 BM Clarinet) saw his clarinet duet arrangement of the complete Mozart Concerto for Clarinet published in May 2009 by Roncorp/Northeastern Music Publications. Aaron Lazar (’93 BFA Musical Theater, ’00 MFA Theater Performance) created the role of Charles Darnay in the Broadway musical of Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities. Lazar also appears as Ben Joplin in the world premiere of Impressionism on Broadway, beginning March 2009. Steven Brown (’94 BFA Dance) has been teaching and choreographing at University of Findlay (Ohio), where he recently choreographed Lucky Stiff and a successful production of Gypsy. Brown also choreographed and danced in Rigoletto, which opened Toledo Opera’s 50th anniversary season. In April 2009, he choreographed a piece for Toledo Ballet’s 70th Anniversary Gala. Jodie Linver (’94 BFA Drama) appeared during the 2008 Cincinnati Fringe Festival in the Performance Gallery’s production of fricative. Kurt (Heinlein) Girard (’95 MFA Theater Performance) released his book, Green Theatre: Promoting Ecological Preservation and Advancing the Sustainability of Humanity and Nature, which was published by VDM Verlag Dr. Mueller e.K. He serves as assistant professor of theater performance at Missouri State University. Josh Prince (’96 BFA Musical Theater) received a 2009 Outer Critics Circle Award nomination for “Outstanding Choreography” for his work on Shrek: The Musical. David Curtin (’98 DMA Piano) and Hyun Ju Curtin (’93 AD Piano) were named Steinway Artists in May 2009. David is an associate professor of music at Lock Haven (Pennsylvania) University, where Hyun Ju is a frequent guest performer. Donovan Mohlman (’98 BFA Electronic Media) recently moved from London to Hong Kong, where he works for STAR TV as vice president of program strategy and development. Leslie Kritzer (‘99 BFA Musical Theater) was nominated for a 2009 Outer Critics Circle Award for “Oustanding Actress in a Musical” for her work in Rooms. Gregg Thaller (’99 DME Music Education) has been appointed associate professor of music and orchestra director at Goshen College (Goshen, Indiana).
Season Design Sponsor
Musical Theatre Program Sponsor
ALUMNI APPLAUSE What’s new with you? CCM OVATION wants to celebrate your work and success. Please submit your 50 word update to: karen.tully@uc.edu
1950s John Glenn Paton (’55 BM Voice) recently sang the role of Bellomy in The Fantasticks and the role of Elder Priest in The Magic Flute. Miltiades Matthias (’57 BM, ’59 MM Piano) saw his translations of five poems by Nobel laureate George Seferis read at a celebratory event at the United Federation of Teachers in January 2008. In fall 2008, 13 of his translations of Seferis’ poems were published in Smith College’s literary magazine, Metamorphoses.
Manfred Wolfram
CCM OVATION 2009–2010 WINTER QUARTERLY NEWS AND EVENTS BULLETIN
EXEMPLIFYING A TRADITION OF EXCELLENCE Earl Rivers, professor of music, came to CCM in 1973. As CCM’s director of choral studies and the division head of ensembles and conducting, he touches the hearts, minds and lives of thousands of students, faculty and artists worldwide. Under his leadership, the CCM graduate conducting program has been recognized by U.S. News and World Report as one of the top five in the USA. Rivers challenges himself and his students by identifying choral and orchestral compositions that are new, fresh and unexpected. He looks for dimensions of sound and textures no one has put on paper before. Rivers believes students need to be immersed in the complex study of writing, conducting, performing and mastering the voice as an instrument of expression and emotion. He also brings in guest artists to work with CCM students and faculty. Cincinnatians benefit from these enriched performances. Rivers has engaged notable contemporary composers such as Phillip Glass, Aaron Jay Kernis, John Adams and Chinese-American composer Tan Dun, (best known for the film score for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon). Tan Dun’s Water Passion after St. Matthew was recently presented at CCM with support from the Harmony Fund. It is an intensely contemplative setting of the gospel of St. Matthew that filled the Corbett Auditorium stage with 17 bowls of water, the CCM Chamber Choir and Percussion Group Cincinnati, accompanied by soprano, bass-baritone, violin and cello soloists, and special sound design. The Choral-Orchestra Masterworks Concert to be performed Saturday, February 27, 2010 at 8 p.m. in Corbett Auditorium is another example of Rivers’s ideal musical experience. It juxtaposes Credo, a recent choral/orchestral masterwork on a traditional liturgical text by Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki, with Ring Out, Wild Bells, to the Wild Sky, a new secular work of our own decade, by American composer Augusta Read Thomas. Credo, a 50-minute musical statement of faith composed by Penderecki for the 1998 Oregon Bach Festival, received the Grammy Award in 2001 for best choral/orchestral performance for a world-premiere recording. Credo also won a Pulitzer Prize in 2001. The music has a romantic, melodic shape with large arcs of space. Its presentation requires a full orchestra and chorus, a quintet of graduate student soloists, a children’s choir (performed by the Cincinnati Children’s Choir, Robyn Lana, director) and an additional brass choir placed at a distance in the Corbett Auditorium. Its texts and music draw from the liturgical Credo, Bach chorales and Polish hymns. Within the same concert performance, the audience will experience Ring Out, Wild Bells, To The Wild Sky, Augusta Read Thomas’s contemporary interpretation of Tennyson’s poetry from In Memoriam A.H.H., published anonymously in 1850. Thomas is influenced by art, nature, sights and sounds, and the audience will hear the multi-dimension of sound and expression in her piece. The full presentation requires a featured student soprano soloist, an ensemble of eight additional soloists and a dialogue between full chorus and orchestra that Augusta Read Thomas with student composers features the percussion section. Thomas is a composer, teacher and artist who exemplifies Rivers’s definition of the best in her field. She was recently inducted into The American Academy of Arts and Letters, the highest recognition of artistic merit in the United States. “Augusta has become one of the most widely respected figures in American music, producing a significant body of new music, serving as composerin-residence for major orchestras, teaching and inspiring students throughout her career,” says Rivers. Rivers has extended Thomas’s visit this February into a CCM Residency. She will lead master classes and teach private lessons with student composers and conductors. Read will also appear on CCM’s Thinking About Music Series and Visiting Composer Series, as well as make a presentation for the ACDA (American Choral Directors Association) convention held in Cincinnati during her visit. Thomas and Rivers share a passion and devotion to teaching. This kind of education perpetuates CCM’s tradition of excellence. “I have been fortunate to have worked with many artists at the top of their profession,” says Rivers. It makes it easy for him to remain enthusiastic and engaged. This past spring he guest conducted and taught in South Korea and at the Sichuan Conservatory of Music in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China. He returns to China in summer 2010. “CCM students learn quickly. They are diligent in pursuit of their craft and allow us as faculty to guide them to accomplish levels of excellence that cannot be attained at other music schools. At CCM we strive to enable our students to attain the heights of their potential.”
CCM STEINWAY CONCERTS IN NEW YORK CITY In celebration of becoming an All-Steinway School, CCM faculty and renowned musicians presented three performances in the magnificent Steinway Concert Hall in New York City. Awadagin Pratt performed on September 17, James Tocco on October 22 and Michael Chertock played on December 10. CCM is one of the largest repositories of Steinway pianos outside the company’s Long Island City, New York-based factory. The college is extraordinarily proud to be an All-Steinway School. This mark of distinction is a high achievement and a profound signal of CCM’s commitment to quality, its students, Awadagin Pratt (left) with faculty and community. UC President Greg Williams More than 1200 UC Alumni from the New York region were invited to be our guests. If you would like to be notified of upcoming concerts at Steinway Concert Hall, please notify Danute Miskinis at UC Foundation, Danute.Miskinis@UC.edu.
FAR OUT HAIR DO Premiered in 1968 — the same year the CCM Musical Theatre program was established — Hair is currently enjoying a wildly successful revival on Broadway and at CCM! As part of the musical theater program’s 40th anniversary festivities, Friends of CCM produced the Hair Do Gala Performance and Celebration honoring Jack Rouse, founder of CCM Musical Theatre and the standard of excellence the program has established. Over 650 guests dressed in tie-dye t-shirts, tuxedos, head bands and beads and enjoyed the groovy reception, opening night performance and the 60’s themed gala in the Great Hall at Tangeman University Center.
HAIR GALA SPONSORS & PARTNER The Friends of CCM would like to thank the following individuals, corporations and foundations for making the 40th Anniversary Celebration possible: The Carol Ann and Ralph V. Haile, Jr./ U.S. Bank Foundation Friends of CCM Partner The Otto M. Budig Family Foundation Dianne and J. David Rosenberg Keating, Muething & Klekamp, PLL Trish and Rick Bryan Barbara and Larry Kellar Playhouse Friends of Jack Rouse Jack Rouse Associates, Inc. Anonymous The Cummins Family—Debby, Jim, Priscilla and Gillian
Frisch’s Restaurants, Inc. Gilligan Oil Company LLC Barbara and Jack Hahn Kim and Gary Heiman Family Foundation David C. Herriman Karen and David Hoguet Dr. Stanley and Mickey Kaplan Foundation Katz, Teller, Brant & Hild James Miller, Bartlett & Co. The Netherland Rubber Co. On Location Lighting Systems Charlotte and Robert Otto
PNC Norma Petersen Anita and Hank Schneider Ann and Jim Shanahan Larry and Rhonda Sheakley Family Foundation Don Beck and Lawrence Eynon, MD Cathy and Tom Crain Dianne Dunkelman Lamson Design Melody Sawyer Richardson WGUC/WVXU
Event Sponsors