Celebrating Music That Carries Us Through Histories
The 2024 May Festival, with the May Festival Chorus, May Festival Youth Chorus and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, celebrates music that carries us through histories—of labor, of the land, of people and place. The Festival begins at the beginning—with a celebration of life and light in the magnificent Haydn’s The Creation. The second concert follows with Anthems—looking at and questioning our assumptions about honor, bravery, power and peace—featuring David Lang’s poignant national anthems, my raucous and raging Pretty, Vaughan Williams’ plea for peace Dona Nobis Pacem, and my new choral work, All that breathes—a plea for breath and life—written especially for the May Festival. The third concert, Voices of the Earth presents the surround-sound Natural History—a collaboration between composer Michael Gordon and the Steiger Butte Drum and Singers of the Klamath Tribe—to celebrate the natural wonder of the Crater Lake region. This concert also features the intrepid Bang on a Can All-Stars in my work Anthracite Fields—delving deep into labor history and the anthracite coal community in northeastern Pennsylvania. We close with Her Story—my high voltage oratorio, Her Story, on women and equality. This work includes the spectacular chamber choir Lorelei, with staging by Anne Kauffman and set design by Jeff Sugg. Closing the evening we have Fauré’s Requiem—a work full of human feeling and a strange sense of rest.
—Julia Wolfe
New Model, Same May Festival
A revolving curatorial model opens the door to fresh discoveries,
says May Festival Executive Director Steven Sunderman
by Hannah Edgar
Julia Wolfe Wants to Tell You a Story
A love of folk music and theater courses through the work of the Pennsylvania-born composer. Discover why she was a natural choice to become the May Festival’s Inaugural Festival Director.
by Hannah Edgar
LETTER
Greetings from Board Chair and Executive Director
Read more from the May Festival Board Chair and Executive Director.
SPOTLIGHT
Robert Porco: Reflecting on 35 Years as Director of Choruses
After 35 years, Robert Porco is stepping down as director of the May Festival Chorus. His tenure has been a remarkable one, even more so when you consider that during 19 years of that time he was also the director of choruses for The Cleveland Orchestra.
SPOTLIGHT
A Community of Peers Singing and Learning Together by members of the may festival youth chorus
For us, the May Festival Youth Chorus (MFYC) is a unique experience, much different from our school choirs. The Chorus brings together students in grades 8 through 12 from around the Greater Cincinnati area, and we build a community around singing together. We get experiences unlike any other: we receive extensive music education and unique performance opportunities, get to work alongside the best educators and industry professionals, and find community with other singers our age.