May Festival 2011 Season

>Click here for the complete 2011 May Festival program listing.

2011 May Festival honors splendid choral tradition (Cincinnati Enquirer)

JAMES CONLON ANNOUNCES PROGRAMS FOR THE 90th SEASON
OF THE CINCINNATI MAY FESTIVAL, MAY 20–28, 2011

America’s Premier Choral Festival presents 90th season with masterworks
that feature the May Festival Chorus and celebrate the power of the human voice

CINCINNATI—James Conlon, Music Director of the Cincinnati May Festival, today announced programs for the 2011 Festival, scheduled for May 20–28, 2011.

The May Festival is the oldest continuous choral festival in the Western Hemisphere; it is the pride of Cincinnati, one of a very few cities in the world today with an ongoing commitment to choral music. For two weekends each May the music world turns to Cincinnati for an unsurpassed experience in choral music performance.

Maestro Conlon, entering his 32nd year as Music Director, has provided the artistic leadership for more May Festivals than any other Music Director in the Festival’s 138-year history, and holds a place among the longest-tenured Music Directors of any major classical music institution in the country. The prestigious roster of past Festival Music Directors has included, among others, Theodore Thomas, Max Rudolf and James Levine.

Maestro Conlon says, “The May Festival has remained committed throughout its 138 years to the tradition of performing the great works of the classical Choral repertory.  In a world where the universal impact of classical music is more vital than ever, Cincinnati and the May Festival can be proud that they have withstood more than a century and a quarter of constant change and challenges and have continued to flourish.  This year’s Festival is devoted to the principle that the artistic and spiritual qualities of choral music are as alive and necessary today as in centuries past.  We present works from the 16th through 20th centuries, not as relics from the past, but as dynamic, evolving and inspirational creations that never outlive their emotional power.”

Highlights also include performances by some of today’s established and rising stars, including John Aler, Keri Alkema, Lawrence Brownlee, Stephanie Blythe, Christine Brewer, Julianna Di Giacomo, Rodrick Dixon, William McGraw, Hana Park, Morris Robinson, Stefano Secco, Ekaterina Semenchuk, Shenyang and Kara Shay Thomson.

PROGRAM DETAILS
The Cincinnati May Festival, founded in 1873 and led by Music Director James Conlon since 1979, will comprise five different concerts spanning two consecutive weekends May 20–28, including four concerts in Cincinnati’s historic Music Hall and a Sunday evening program at the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption in Covington, Kentucky, on May 22.

The 2011 Festival opens on Friday, May 20, with a work that stands at the pinnacle of 19th-century choral music, Giuseppe Verdi’s deeply felt Requiem Mass. Composed in honor of the first anniversary of the death of a man whose work Verdi revered—the Italian poet, novelist and patriot Alessandro Manzoni—the Requiem Mass premiered on May 22, 1874, and immediately became one of the most popular and widely performed works in Europe. In its first two years, the Requiem had a remarkable 22 performances in Paris, London and Vienna alone, and it remains one of the most popular works in the choral repertoire. A journey through the range of human emotion, Verdi’s deeply felt masterpiece expresses everything from mournful cries for mercy to the fiery terror of Judgment Day to impassioned prayers for everlasting light and eternal rest.

Three powerful, chorus-focused expressions of reverence and praise highlight the Saturday, May 21 concert, starting with the brass fanfares, choral supplication and affirmation, and layer upon layer of orchestral color in Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass. The poetic grandeur of Stravinsky’s radiant Symphony of Psalms—composed to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Boston Symphony—is punctuated by his characteristic pulsating rhythms and sinuous tone-weaving to brilliantly convey the emotion of David’s Psalms of faith, trust and adoration. And tuneful statements of “Te Deum, laudamus” (To God, praise) open Dvořák’s Te Deum, a jubilant declaration of thanksgiving commissioned by Dvořák’s American patron Jeanette Thurber to be performed at his first conducting appearance in America and to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus.

Nearly every year since 1980, the May Festival has given a Sunday evening performance in this treasured Covington landmark, the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption. The annual sojourn by the May Festival, on Sunday, May 22, to one of the country's most beautiful churches celebrates a centuries-long tradition of presenting cathedral music in a sacred setting, the way it was meant to be heard. After the Youth Chorus performs a collection of splendid sacred works, the May Festival Chamber Choir will present pairings of works that are settings of the same sacred texts, each pair starting with music written by a Renaissance composer. The performance culminates with two works based on the Psalm text “Sing to the Lord a new song”—a fitting conclusion to this program of “old” and “new” interpretations of compelling statements of faith.

The second May Festival weekend opens on Friday, May 27 with the May Festival premiere of Haydn’s brilliantly crafted Heiligmesse, music written to be performed on the name day of Maria Hermenegild, the wife of Haydn’s patron, Prince Nicholaus II of Esterházy. “Heiligmesse” comes from the Sanctus movement of the piece, translated from Latin to “heilig, heilig, heilig” (“holy, holy, holy”); from start to finish the music reflects the joyous character of its title.

Gustav Mahler’s Das klagende Lied (“Song of Lamentation”) is an enthralling retelling of a folk legend about two knights—brothers, one good and one evil—who go into the woods in search of a flower a beautiful Queen has said will win one of them her hand in marriage. When the evil knight discovers that his brother has found the flower first, he kills him, takes the flower to the Queen and claims his prize. But thanks to a wandering minstrel and the words of the dead brother himself, the truth comes to light. A choral cantata that is operatic in style, the music is full of the power and inventiveness that are uniquely “Mahler.” With this performance, the May Festival commemorates the 100th anniversary of Mahler’s death, on May 18, 1911.

The Festival closes on Saturday, May 28 with Mendelssohn’s epic masterpiece, Elijah. With its powerful choruses, vivid orchestration, miracle-laden story and penetrating central characters, Elijah is among the best-loved works in the choral repertoire. Based on passages found in the Old Testament, Elijah conveys both the ferocity and passion of one of the Bible’s most influential prophets and the chief events of his life: the curse of the Lord and the seven-year drought, Elijah’s miraculous revival of the widow's son, his clash with the Baal worshippers and the lifting of the drought, his confrontation with Ahab and Jezebel, his flight to the wilderness and encounter with the Lord, and his journey to Mount Horeb and ascent to Heaven in a flaming chariot. Following Elijah’s premiere in 1846, a reviewer for The London Times wrote, “The last note of Elijah was drowned in a long-continued unanimous volley of plaudits, vociferous and deafening. It was as though enthusiasm, long checked, had suddenly burst its bonds and filled the air with shouts of exultation. Never was there a more complete triumph—never a more thorough and speedy recognition of a great work.”

PRE-CONCERT RECITALS
Hear some of the world’s outstanding singers perform gems of the vocal literature before each of the four Music Hall concerts. Pianist Michael Chertock will accompany this year’s guest soloists in recital performances held on the Music Hall stage at 7 p.m. These pre-concert recitals are free to ticketholders for the evening’s performance.

MAY 20: John Aler, tenor
MAY 21: Kara Shay Thomson, soprano
MAY 27: Rodrick Dixon, tenor
MAY 28: Ekaterina Semenchuk, mezzo-soprano

SUPERTITLES
Supertitles will be provided for each of the four Music Hall performances (May 20, 21, 27 and 28), enabling concertgoers to more easily follow the stories and enhancing their Festival experience. Supertitles are made possible by a grant from The Corbett Foundation.

ROBERT PORCO, Director of Choruses
Robert Porco has been recognized as one of the leading choral musicians in the United States and for more than 35 years has been an active preparer and conductor of choral and orchestral works, including most of the major choral repertoire, as well as of opera.

Mr. Porco’s 2010–2011 conducting schedule includes Orff’s Carmina Burana and nine holiday concerts with The Cleveland Orchestra; Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast and Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms; a Mozart program with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra; and Pops programs with the Charlotte Symphony and at The Cleveland Orchestra’s Blossom Festival.

Mr. Porco’s conducting career has spanned geographic venues across western Europe and the United States, including performances in the Edinburgh Festival; Taipei, Taiwan; Lucerne, Switzerland; and Reykjavik, Iceland; and in the May Festival, Tanglewood Music Festival, Berkshire Music Festival, Blossom Festival and Grant Park Festival. He has been a regular guest conductor in the May Festival since 1991, with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra since 1996 and The Cleveland Orchestra since 2000.

Highlights of Mr. Porco’s tenure with the May Festival include the May 2010 celebration of his 20 years as Director of Choruses and three highly acclaimed appearances in Carnegie Hall.

During his 12 years as Director of Choruses for The Cleveland Orchestra, Mr. Porco has prepared the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus for appearances with the orchestra in the Edinburgh Festival in 1999, in Carnegie Hall in 2002 and at the Lucerne Festival and London Proms in 2005.

Mr. Porco has gained national recognition for his preparation of choruses for such prominent conductors as John Adams, Pierre Boulez, James Conlon, Andrew Davis, Christoph von Dohnányi, Paavo Järvi, Erich Kunzel, Raymond Leppard, James Levine, Jahja Ling, Jesús López-Cobos, Zubin Mehta, John Nelson, André Previn, Kurt Sanderling, Leonard Slatkin, Robert Shaw, Franz Welser-Möst, John Williams and David Zinman.

In 2009, Mr. Porco resumed doctoral teaching in the Choral Department of the Indiana University School of Music, where he taught and served as chairman from 1979 to 1998.

JAMES BAGWELL, Youth Chorus Director
James Bagwell has been Music Director of the May Festival Youth Chorus in Cincinnati since 1997, conducting regularly during the May Festival, Carolfest, and outreach concerts throughout the Cincinnati area. He has conducted some 25 productions as Music Director of Light Opera Oklahoma and he frequently appears as guest conductor for orchestras around the country and abroad. He maintains an active schedule throughout the United States as a conductor of choral, operatic and orchestral music.

In 2009 he was appointed Music Director of The Collegiate Chorale and led them in concerts at Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall during the 2009–2010 season. He was also named Principal Guest Conductor of the American Symphony Orchestra in New York. Since 2003 he has been Director of Choruses for the Bard Music Festival, conducting and preparing choral works during the summer festival at the Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College. He has also prepared The Concert Chorale of New York for performances with the American Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Mostly Mozart Festival.

Mr. Bagwell has trained choruses for a number of major American and international orchestras, including the San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, NHK Symphony (Japan), St. Petersburg Symphony, Budapest Festival Orchestra, The American Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Pops Orchestra and Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. He has worked with noted conductors such as Lorin Maazel, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Michael Tilson Thomas, Louis Langrée, Leon Botstein, Ivan Fischer, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Raymond Leppard, James Conlon, Jesús López-Cobos, Erich Kunzel, Leon Fleischer and Robert Shaw.

ENSEMBLES
The world-renowned May Festival Chorus has been the core artistic element of the Cincinnati May Festival for over 130 years. The all-volunteer Chorus was established as the Festival’s official local body of singers in 1880. Composed of 140 dedicated volunteer singers from the Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana “Tri-state” region, the Chorus is a year-round ensemble that rehearses on a rigorous weekly schedule. As the official chorus of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the Chorus regularly performs and records with both the Cincinnati Symphony and Cincinnati Pops Orchestras.

In 2004, Telarc released the world premiere recording of Liszt’s St. Stanislaus, featuring James Conlon, the May Festival Chorus and the CSO; the CD was awarded the 30th International Franz Liszt Record Grand Prix by the Franz Liszt Society of Budapest, Hungary. The May Festival Chorus has earned national and international acclaim with appearances at New York’s Carnegie Hall and Avery Fisher Hall, a tour of Europe and appearances at the prestigious Dubrovnik Festival. In 1998 the chorus earned special honors from the Ohio Arts Council’s annual Governor’s Awards for the Arts—the Irma Lazarus Award.

The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra is a dynamic ensemble of some of the world’s finest musicians. The fifth oldest symphony orchestra in the United States, the CSO has played a leading role in the cultural life of Greater Cincinnati and the Midwest since its founding in 1895. The CSO entered a new musical era in September of 2001 when Paavo Järvi became the orchestra’s twelfth music director.

The 2011 May Festival also features the May Festival Youth Chorus, composed of area high school students under the direction of James Bagwell. In 2007, the May Festival Youth Chorus was featured on NPR's From the Top, a program that showcases the best of the best of today's young performers. The May Festival Youth Chorus is sponsored by Scripps Howard Foundation.

The Cincinnati Boychoir, directed by Christopher Eanes, each year presents a six-concert subscription series and gives approximately 35 outreach performances for community organizations, churches, nursing homes, weddings, clubs and retirement homes, in addition to numerous appearances with local orchestras and opera companies. Throughout the choir’s history, more than 3,000 choir members have presented more than 1,000 concerts in the greater Cincinnati area and throughout 21 states and four foreign countries.

Recent professional performances of the Cincinnati Boychoir include La Bohème with Cincinnati Opera, St. Matthew Passion  with the Cincinnati May Festival and a special event titled Art | Song, in collaboration with the Taft Museum.

CONCERT SOLOISTS
May Festival 2011 guest soloists, six of whom are making May Festival debuts, are sopranos Keri Alkema (Festival debut), Christine Brewer, Julianna Di Giacomo (Festival debut), Hana Park and Kara Shay Thomson; mezzo-sopranos Stephanie Blythe (Festival debut) and Ekaterina Semenchuk (Festival debut); tenors John Aler (his 25th May Festival appearance), Lawrence Brownlee (Festival debut), Rodrick Dixon and Stefano Secco; and basses William McGraw, Morris Robinson and Shenyang (Festival debut);

TICKET INFORMATION
Four-concert subscriptions range from $62 to $365. Two-concert subscriptions range from $35 to $196. “Festival Pass” subscriptions (four flexible-use vouchers for May 20, 21, 27 and/or 28) are available for $160 (Gallery) and $210 (Orchestra/Balcony). Subscription sales begin August 9, 2010. For more information, please call 513.381.3300. Tickets to individual concerts range from $19 to $105 and will be available in March of 2011.

ABOUT THE MAY FESTIVAL
Established in 1873, the May Festival is directly responsible for the development of Cincinnati’s modern music life. Music Hall, the city’s primary concert venue, was built specifically to house the Festival’s performance. The prestigious roster of Festival Music Directors has included, among others, Theodore Thomas, Max Rudolf, James Levine and, currently, James Conlon.