May Festival Announces 2025 Festival Director and Programming
GRAMMY AWARD-WINNING SOPRANO RENÉE FLEMING APPOINTED AS 2025 FESTIVAL DIRECTOR
May Festival Highlights Include:
Kevin Puts’ The Brightness of Light featuring Soprano Renée Fleming and Baritone Rod Gilfry with Visuals Drawn from the Life and Stunning Paintings of Georgia O’Keeffe; Voice of Nature: The Anthropocene featuring Renée Fleming with Film from the National Geographic Society; Verdi’s Requiem with the May Festival Chorus, Cincinnati Boychoir and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra; Chasing the Dawn: A Choral Journey featuring the May Festival Chorus, May Festival Chamber Choir, May Festival Youth Chorus and Cincinnati Boychoir Ambassadors
Juanjo Mena, Robert Moody, Ramón Tebar, Matthew Swanson, Jason Alexander Holmes and Lisa Peters to Conduct Performances
Additional Events to Include a Voice Masterclass and Music and Mind Panel Discussion on the Healing Power of Music Led by Renée Fleming
CINCINNATI, OH (October 29, 2024)—The Cincinnati May Festival has announced five-time Grammy Award winner and celebrated soprano Renée Fleming as its 2025 Festival Director, the second ever in the May Festival’s innovative artistic leadership model launched in 2024. Inspired by Fleming’s consummate artistry and revelatory examination of music at the intersection of the arts and cognitive neuroscience, the 2025 May Festival will be co-curated by Fleming and May Festival Director of Choruses Matthew Swanson and will feature performances by Fleming, baritone Rod Gilfry, May Festival Chorus and May Festival Chamber Choir (Matthew Swanson, director), May Festival Youth Chorus (Jason Alexander Holmes, director), Cincinnati Boychoir (Lisa Peters, director) and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (Cristian Măcelaru, Music Director Designate).
“It is our honor and privilege to welcome five-time Grammy Award winner and renowned soprano Renée Fleming as our 2025 Festival Director,” said Swanson. “Embracing our most cherished traditions while celebrating the vibrancy of contemporary music, Renée has curated an extraordinary series of programs that explore the depths of the human experience—from love and the beauty of dawn to the fragility of life on Earth. I warmly invite everyone to join Renée, the singers of the May Festival Choruses, and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra for a Festival to remember.”
2025 Festival Director Renée Fleming
A 2023 Kennedy Center Honoree, 2013 National Medal of Arts recipient, and five-time Grammy Award winner (18 nominations), Fleming has performed at the greatest opera houses, concert halls, and theaters and has captivated audiences around the world with her extraordinary voice and artistry. Her illustrious career includes historic performances at prestigious events, such as Super Bowl XLVIII, the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing and the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize ceremony, alongside her recent role as Goodwill Ambassador for the Arts and Health appointed by the World Health Organization.
In 2016, Fleming was appointed Artistic Advisor for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, where she championed the intersection of health and the arts. She has led the groundbreaking Sound Health initiative, a collaboration with the National Institutes of Health and the National Endowment for the Arts, bringing together neuroscientists, music therapists and arts practitioners to explore the impact of arts on mental and physical well-being. Inspired by this work, Fleming created the presentation Music and the Mind, which delves into topics such as music therapy and cognitive neuroscience. Since 2017, Fleming has presented this program to over 60 cities globally, earning the Research!America Rosenfeld Award for her contributions to the public understanding of these vital connections.
“I’m honored to serve as Festival Director for the 2025 May Festival, and to collaborate with Matthew Swanson and the Chorus,” said Fleming. “Cincinnati is famous for its vibrant music scene, as well as its discerning and engaged audience, giving us the opportunity to offer new and unexpected musical narratives alongside revered works. Beyond music’s power to express the most profound ideas and feelings, we are learning more every day about its enormous potential to improve our health and well-being. The Festival is programmed with those goals in mind, and I invite everyone to join us for a celebration of powerful, transformative music-making.”
2025 May Festival
The 2025 May Festival will open on Friday, May 16, 2025 with Giuseppe Verdi’s Requiem Mass performed by the May Festival Chorus and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of conductor Ramón Tebar. A profound work born from the composer’s grief over the death of his friend, poet Alessandro Manzoni, Verdi’s Requiem was completed in 1874 and reflects the composer’s deep emotional range, blending operatic intensity with sacred themes. A celebrated interpreter of Verdi’s music, through signature portrayals of Violetta in Verdi’s La traviata and Desdemona in Verdi’s Otello, Fleming has often expressed her deep connection to music by the composer, highlighting his capacity to evoke a wide spectrum of emotions. Curated by Fleming in her role as Festival Director, his performance marks the May Festival’s 12th in its 152-year history, underscoring the enduring impact of Verdi’s music with its everlasting themes of loss, hope and the human experience.
On Sunday, May 18, 2025, the May Festival Chorus, May Festival Chamber Choir, May Festival Youth Chorus, and Ambassadors Ensemble from the Cincinnati Boychoir join forces for a monumental choral music event at Music Hall. Inspired by Fleming’s work in promoting the healing power of music, this unique performance will highlight the transformative effects of community and singing together. The program, called “Chasing the Dawn: A Choral Journey,” will showcase a range of musical styles, as each chorus brings its own distinct voice to the stage. Innovative staging and dynamic lighting effects will create a visually immersive experience of sound and light that enhances the emotional depth of the choral performances. The program will include music by Lili Boulanger, Morten Lauridsen, and others, as well as arrangements by Swanson and Holmes.
The following week on Thursday, May 22, 2025, the May Festival continues with a special presentation of Kevin Puts’ innovative new work, The Brightness of Light, a series of songs chronicling the romance of two major 20th-century artists—painter Georgia O’Keeffe and photographer Alfred Stieglitz. Drawn from thousands of letters, and accompanied by projections of O’Keeffe’s iconic floral paintings designed by Wendall Harrington, the performance will weave together their correspondences, revealing the fragility of love and the yearning to hold onto it. Renée Fleming, singing as Georgia O’Keeffe, will be joined by baritone Rod Gilfry as Alfred Stieglitz. The program also includes Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music and Igor Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms. Former May Festival Principal Conductor Juanjo Mena will conduct the performance.
The 2025 May Festival concludes on Saturday, May 24, 2025 with Voice of Nature: The Anthropocene, inspired by Fleming’s 2023 Grammy Award-winning album of the same name. Paired with a film provided by the National Geographic Society, the multimedia program charts humanity’s evolving relationship with nature, in the context of climate change, through a blend of Romantic and contemporary songs performed by Fleming, including works by composers Nico Muhly, Kevin Puts and Lord of the Rings’ Howard Shore. The May Festival Chorus joins Fleming for the grand Festival conclusion, with works by Giacomo Puccini, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Richard Rodgers.
Additional May Festival Events
In addition to her renowned performance career, Renée Fleming is a passionate educator and advocate for research at the intersection of arts, health and neuroscience. Her latest anthology, Music and Mind: Harnessing the Arts for Health and Wellness, features essays from leading scientists, artists, creative arts therapists, educators and physicians that explore the profound effects of music and the arts on health and the human experience. As Festival Director, Fleming will host a panel discussion on this vital topic as part of the 2025 May Festival activities in addition to a masterclass with area voice students. Further details for both events will be announced at a later time.
In the lead up to the 2025 May Festival, hundreds of singers from the May Festival Chorus, Cincinnati Boychoir and May Festival Youth Chorus will take the stage at Music Hall on Sunday, February 16 for a program called All Together Now, in celebration of the new alliance between the May Festival and Cincinnati Boychoir. The program will feature a new work by Cincinnati’s own Howard Helvey, commissioned for the occasion.
Tickets
Subscription ticket packages for the 2025 May Festival and the All Together Now program are currently on sale. Individual tickets for the 2025 May Festival will go on sale to the general public on March 4, 2025. Tickets may be purchased by visiting mayfestival.com, calling the Box Office at 513.381.3300 or visiting the Music Hall Box Office at 1241 Elm Street, Monday through Friday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
RENÉE FLEMING
Renée Fleming is one of the most highly acclaimed singers of our time, performing on the stages of the world’s great opera houses and concert halls. Honored with five Grammy Awards and the U.S. National Medal of Arts, she has sung for momentous occasions, from the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony to the Diamond Jubilee Concert for Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace. In 2014 she brought her voice to a vast new audience when she became the first classical artist ever to sing the National Anthem at the Super Bowl.
In recent years, Fleming has made appearances in London, Milan and Paris and at Carnegie Hall, where she performed a rare duo recital with world-renowned pianist Evgeny Kissin in May 2023. In November 2022, she starred in the world premiere staging of Kevin Puts’ The Hours, a new opera based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel and award-winning film, at the Metropolitan Opera.
Fleming’s latest album, released January 2023 by Decca, is a two-disc compilation of her greatest live moments at the Metropolitan Opera, including some material never before released. Her previous recording Voice of Nature: The Anthropocene, won the 2023 Grammy Award for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album. A collection of classical songs and world premieres, with Yannick Nézet-Séguin as pianist, the album focuses on nature as both inspiration and casualty of humans.
Fleming has also become a leading advocate for research at the intersection of arts, health and neuroscience. As Artistic Advisor to the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, she launched the first ongoing collaboration between America’s national cultural center and the National Institutes of Health. She has presented her program Music and the Mind in more than 50 cities around the world, and launched Music and Mind LIVE, a weekly web show that amassed nearly 700,000 views from 70 countries.
In addition to leading SongStudio at Carnegie Hall, Fleming is co-director of the Aspen Opera Center and VocalArts at the Aspen Music Festival, and advisor for special projects at LA Opera. Fleming’s other awards include the Fulbright Lifetime Achievement Medal, Germany’s Cross of the Order of Merit, Sweden’s Polar Music Prize, and France’s Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur. www.reneefleming.com
MAY FESTIVAL
“One of the Best Classical Music Festivals in the U.S. and Canada” (BBC Music Magazine) and recognized as a leader in increasing diversity, equity, inclusion and access in the choral world (Chorus America, 2022), the Cincinnati May Festival is distinguished by its unique community-based structure and standard of extraordinary artistic excellence. Founded in 1873, the annual May Festival is the oldest choral festival in the Western Hemisphere. Many important choral works have received their world and American premieres at the May Festival, including Johann Sebastian Bach’s Magnificat, Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 3, Benjamin Britten’s Gloriana, Gian Carlo Menotti’s The Death of the Bishop of Brindisi and Robert Nathaniel Dett’s The Ordering of Moses. Anchored by the May Festival Chorus and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the May Festival hosts an international array of guest artists in dynamic productions each year.
2025 May Festival Schedule
All performances will take place in Springer Auditorium at Cincinnati Music Hall.
ALL TOGETHER NOW
Sunday, February 16, 2025 | 5:00 p.m.
May Festival Chorus
Matthew Swanson, conductor
Andrew Miller, Conducting Fellow
May Festival Youth Chorus
Jason Alexander Holmes, conductor
Cincinnati Boychoir
Lisa Peters, conductor
Hundreds of singers take the stage at Music Hall in February to celebrate a new alliance between the May Festival and the Cincinnati Boychoir! Featured performances by the Cincinnati Boychoir, May Festival Youth Chorus and May Festival Chorus culminate in the world premiere of a new work by Cincinnati’s own Howard Helvey, commissioned for the occasion.
The commissioned work by Howard Helvey is sponsored by Sherry and Mark Holcomb. This concert is sponsored by Rozy Park and Chris Dendy.
VERDI’S REQUIEM
Friday, May 16, 2025 | 7:30 p.m.
Ramón Tebar, conductor
May Festival Chorus
Cincinnati Boychoir
Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
Program:
Giuseppe Verdi Requiem Mass
Visceral and soul-gripping, Verdi’s Requiem will rip your heart out and put it back together again. From its tender solo moments to the terrifying cries of the “Dies irae,” it’s a journey both fragile and powerful as the May Festival Chorus and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra combine for this breathtaking Mass for the departed.
CHASING THE DAWN: A CHORAL JOURNEY
Sunday, May 18, 2025 | 2:00 p.m.
Matthew Swanson, conductor
Jason Alexander Holmes, conductor
Lisa Peters, conductor
May Festival Chorus
May Festival Chamber Choir
May Festival Youth Chorus
Cincinnati Boychoir Ambassadors
Follow the unbroken path of light from sunset to sunrise as the May Festival Chorus, Chamber Choir, Youth Chorus and Cincinnati Boychoir Ambassadors illuminate Springer Auditorium through song, staging and dynamic lighting in an all-choral music event like never before.
Program to include:
Works by Richard Strauss, Lili Boulanger, Morten Lauridsen and more, along with arrangements by Director of Choruses Matthew Swanson and Associate Director of Choruses Jason Alexander Holmes.
THE BRIGHTNESS OF LIGHT
Thursday, May 22, 2025 | 7:30 p.m.
Juanjo Mena, conductor
Renée Fleming, soprano
Rod Gilfry, baritone
May Festival Chorus
Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
Program:
Ralph Vaughan Williams Serenade for Music
Igor Stravinsky Symphony of Psalms
Kevin Puts The Brightness of Light
Glimpse into the love, life and intimacy between two of the 20th century’s most prominent artists. Celebrated soprano Renée Fleming and baritone Rod Gilfry portray painter Georgia O’Keeffe and photographer Alfred Stieglitz as a montage of their lives, captured through art, photos and love letters, is revealed on a screen above the stage.
This concert is sponsored by Dr. Manisha Patel and Dr. Michael Curran. Renée Fleming’s performance in this concert is sponsored by Barbara Ann Feldmann. Juanjo Mena’s appearance in this concert is sponsored by Dr. Manisha Patel and Dr. Michael Curran.
VOICE OF NATURE: THE ANTHROPOCENE
Saturday, May 24, 2025 | 7:30 p.m.
Robert Moody, conductor
Renée Fleming, soprano
May Festival Chorus
Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
Program:
Voice of Nature: The Anthropocene
Hazel Dickens “Pretty Bird”
George Frideric Handel “Care selve” from Atalanta
Nico Muhly “Endless Space”
Joseph Canteloube “Baïlèro” from Songs of the Auvergne
Maria Schneider “Our Finch Feeder” from Winter Morning Walks
Björk “All is Full of Love”
Heitor Villa-Lobos “Finale” from Floresta do Amazonas
Howard Shore “Twilight and Shadow” from The Lord of the Rings
Kevin Puts “Evening”
Curtis Green “Red Mountains Sometimes Cry”
Burt Bacharach / Hal David“What the World Needs Now is Love”
Charles Hubert Hastings Parry Blest Pair of Sirens
Giacomo Puccini “O mio babbino caro” from Gianni Schicchi
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart "Laudate Dominum” from Vesperae solennes de confessore
Richard Rodgers “You’ll Never Walk Alone” from Carousel
Inspired by Renée Fleming’s 2023 Grammy Award-winning album, Voice of Nature: The Anthropocene, this program explores nature as both inspiration and victim of humanity as Renée Fleming performs music by Handel, Nico Muhly, Björk and Lord of the Rings’ Howard Shore—all against a backdrop of stunning film from the National Geographic Society.
Renée Fleming concludes the 2025 May Festival with her all-time favorites joined by the May Festival Chorus and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in this not-to-be-missed grand finale.
Renée Fleming’s performance in this concert is sponsored by Barbara Ann Feldmann.