Overture
O welche Lust ("Oh, What a Joy")
Finale (Heil sei dem Tag [“All Hail the Day”])
from Fidelio, Op. 72

Ludwig van Beethoven

• Born: Baptized December 17, 1770 in Bonn, Germany
• Died: March 26, 1827 in Vienna, Austria
• Work Composed: 1804-1805; revised in 1806 and 1814.
• Premiere: Original version premiered on November 20, 1805 in Vienna, conducted by Ignaz von Seyfried under the composer’s supervision. The final version of the opera was premiered on May 25, 1814 at Vienna’s Kärntnertor Theater, conducted by Michael Umlauf, though the Fidelio Overture was not finished in time for that performance and was first heard two days later.
• Instrumentation: Mixed chorus, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones (incl. bass trombone), timpani, strings
• May Festival Notable Performances:
  • Overture: First Performance: May 1892, Theodore Thomas Orchestra conducted by Theodore Thomas. Most Recent: May 1989, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra conducted by James Conlon
  • Heil sei dem Tag: First Performance: May 1927, Frank Van der Stucken conducting. Most Recent: May 2002, James Conlon conducting.
  • O welche Lust: First Performance: May 1927, Frank Van der Stucken conducting. Most Recent: May 1948, Fritz Busch conducting.
• Duration: approx. 14 minutes

Beethoven devoted a decade (1804-1814) to his only opera, Fidelio, and the most evident remnants of his extensive revisions are the quartet of overtures he composed for work. The first version of the opera, written between January 1804 and early autumn 1805, was initially titled Leonore after the heroine, who courageously rescues her husband from his wrongful incarceration. For that production, Beethoven wrote the Leonore Overture No. 1, utilizing themes from the opera. The composer’s early biographer Anton Schindler recorded that Beethoven rejected that first attempt after hearing it privately performed at Prince Lichnowsky’s palace before the premiere. (Another theory, supported by recent examination of the paper on which the sketches were made, holds that the work was written in 1806-1807 for a projected performance of the opera in Prague that never took place, thus making Leonore No. 1 the third of the Fidelio overtures.) Beethoven then composed a second overture, Leonore No. 2, and that piece was used at the first performance, on November 20, 1805. (The management of Vienna’s Theater-an-der-Wien, site of the premiere, insisted on changing the title from Leonore to Fidelio to avoid confusion with Ferdinand Paër’s Leonore.) The opera foundered. Not only was the audience, largely populated by French officers of Napoleon’s army, which had invaded Vienna exactly one week earlier, unsympathetic, but there were also problems with Fidelio’s dramatic structure. Beethoven was encouraged by his aristocratic supporters to rework the opera and present it again. That second version, for which the magnificent Leonore Overture No. 3 was written, was presented in Vienna on March 29, 1806, but met with only slightly more acclaim than its forerunner.

In 1814, some members of the Court Theater approached Beethoven, by then Europe’s most famous composer, about reviving Fidelio. The idealistic subject of the opera had never been far from his thoughts, and he agreed to the project. The libretto was revised yet again, and Beethoven rewrote all the numbers in the opera and changed their order to enhance the work’s dramatic impact. The new Fidelio Overture, the fourth he composed for his opera, was among the revisions.

The Fidelio Overture, whose themes do not derive from those of the opera, opens with an introduction comprising a rousing fanfare for full orchestra and a darkly colored harmonic passage in slow tempo. The work’s compact sonata form begins with the announcement by the solo horn of the main theme, based on the fanfare motive from the introduction. The fleet second theme is presented quietly by the strings following an energetic climax. The tiny central section, based on the fanfare motive, is less a true development than a transition to the recapitulation of the themes. A coda, separated from the body of the Overture by a return of the slow harmonies of the introduction, brings this noble work to a close.

©2022 Dr. Richard E. Rodda

I Have Something To Say for Chorus, Children’s Choir and Orchestra

Jessie Montgomery

• Born: December 8, 1981 in New York City, New York
• Work Composed: 2020, co-commissioned by the May Festival and Cathedral Choral Society
• Premiere: March 13, 2022 at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. by the Cathedral Choral Society, conducted by Steven Fox.
• Instrumentation: mixed chorus, children's chorus (incl. child soloist), 2 flutes (incl. piccolo), 2 oboes (incl. English horn), 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, bongo drums, chimes, cymbals, glockenspiel, snare drum, triangle, celeste, strings
• May Festival Notable Performances: This is the first performance of this work by the May Festival.
• Duration: approx. 8 minutes

Violinist, composer and music educator Jessie Montgomery, who began a three-year term as Mead Composer-in-Residence with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in July 2021, started studying violin at age four at the Third Street Music School Settlement in her native New York City. She was composing and improvising by eleven, and while still in high school twice received the Composer’s Apprentice Award from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Montgomery went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in violin performance at the Juilliard School and a master’s from New York University in film scoring and multimedia; she has also studied composition with Derek Bermel and Steven Burke and is currently a Graduate Fellow in Music Composition at Princeton University. In 2020, she was appointed to the faculty of the Mannes School of Music in New York. As a performer and educator, Montgomery was a co-founding member of PUBLIQuartet (an ensemble made up of composers and arrangers, featuring their own music as well as that of other New York-based composers), a member of the Catalyst Quartet and Providence String Quartet (dedicated to using music as a means of exploring possibilities for social change in underserved communities in the Providence area, where she taught violin, improvisation and composition to Community MusicWorks students), a faculty member of the Apple Hill Center in New Hampshire, Music at Port Milford in Canada, and Third Street Music School Settlement in New York, and a long-time affiliated artist with Sphinx, an organization that supports young African-American and Latine string players, in which she was a two-time laureate; she is also currently an active participant in the New York classical and new music scenes. As a composer, Montgomery has created works for concert, theater and film (one of which was in collaboration with her father, Ed Montgomery, also a composer and an independent film producer), and held residencies with the Deer Valley Music Festival, New York Youth Symphony, American Composers Orchestra and Sphinx Virtuosi. Among her rapidly accumulating distinctions are the Leonard Bernstein Award from the ASCAP Foundation and the Sphinx Medal of Excellence. Jessie Montgomery is currently working on a commission for Project 19, the New York Philharmonic’s multi-year celebration of the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, passed by Congress in 1919 and ratified by the states the following year, which granted women the right to vote. The Philharmonic began premiering these new compositions by 19 women composers in February 2020. In September 2021, Montgomery was commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera along with two other Black composers — Valerie Coleman and Joel Thompson — to develop new works in collaboration with the Lincoln Center Theater.

Jessie Montgomery wrote that I Have Something To Say, commissioned in 2020 by the Cincinnati May Festival and Cathedral Choral Society of Washington, D.C., “portrays an imagined interaction between Sojourner Truth and Greta Thunberg during a timeless public forum. The text is inspired by quotes from their historic speeches: Truth’s famed Ain’t I a Woman speech during the First National Women’s Convention in 1850, and Thunberg’s gripping speech about climate justice during the UN Climate Change summit in 2018. Robbie McCauley, playwright, performer and activist (and mother to yours truly), wove sentiments from each speech together to create the lyrics. Special features include a musical depiction of a courtroom gathering and a children’s protest rising to the final chorus. We created this work together to highlight and celebrate the efforts of the elder and younger generations of women who have fought and continue to fight ‘the ongoing struggle for us and all people to be free.’”

©2022 Dr. Richard E. Rodda

Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125, Choral

Ludwig van Beethoven

• Born: Baptized December 17, 1770 in Bonn, Germany
• Died: March 26, 1827 in Vienna, Austria
• Work Composed: 1822-1824
• Premiere: May 7, 1824 in Vienna, conducted by Michael Umlauf under the composer’s supervision.
• Instrumentation: soprano, alto, tenor, bass, mixed chorus, piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, triangle, strings
• May Festival Notable Performances: First Performance: May 1873 at Saengerhalle, Theodore Thomas Orchestra conducted by Theodore Thomas, soloists: Helen Smith, soprano; Anne Louise Cary, contralto; Nelson Varley, tenor; J. F. Rudolphsen, bass. Most Recent: May 2017 at Taft Theatre, Markus Stenz conducting, soloists: Carolyn Sampson, soprano; Jennifer Johnson Cano, mezz-soprano; Thomas Cooley, tenor; Eric Owens, bass-baritone. Commercial Recording with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in 2013 as part of the One City, One Symphony
• Duration: approx. 65 minutes

“I’ve got it! I’ve got it! Let us sing the song of the immortal Schiller!” shouted Beethoven to Anton Schindler, his companion and eventual biographer, as he burst from his workroom one afternoon in October 1823. This joyful announcement meant that the path to the completion of the Ninth Symphony — after a gestation of more than three decades — was finally clear.

Friedrich Schiller published his poem An die Freude (“Ode to Joy”) in 1785 as a tribute to his friend Christian Gottfried Körner. By 1790, when he was twenty, Beethoven knew the poem, and as early as 1793 he considered making a musical setting of it. Schiller’s poem appears in his notes in 1798, but the earliest musical ideas for its setting are found among the sketches for the Seventh and Eighth Symphonies, composed simultaneously in 1811-1812. Though these sketches are unrelated to the finished Ode to Joy theme — that went through more than 200 revisions (!) before Beethoven was satisfied with it — they do show the composer’s continuing interest in the text and the gestating idea of setting it for chorus and orchestra. The Seventh and Eighth Symphonies were finished by 1812, and Beethoven immediately started making plans for his next composition in the genre, settling on the key of D minor but getting no further. It was to be another dozen years before he could bring this vague vision to fulfillment.

The first evidence of the musical material that was to figure in the finished Ninth Symphony appeared in 1815, when a sketch for the theme of the Scherzo emerged among Beethoven’s notes. He took up his draft again in 1817, and by the following year much of the Scherzo had been sketched. It was also in 1818 that he considered including a choral movement, but not as the finale: his tentative plan called for voices in the slow movement. With much still unsettled, Beethoven was forced to lay aside this rough symphonic scheme in 1818 because of ill health, the distressing court battle to secure custody of his nephew, and other composing projects, notably the monumental Missa Solemnis.

The awesome Missa dominated Beethoven’s life for over four years. By the end of 1822, the Missa was finished except for the scoring and some minor revisions, so Beethoven was again able to take up the symphony sketches and resume work. The chronology of these compositions — the great Mass preceding the Symphony — was vital to the creation of the Symphony, and is indispensable to understanding the last years of Beethoven’s creative life. The critic Irving Kolodin wrote, “The Ninth owes to the Missa Solemnis the philosophical framework, the ideological atmosphere, the psychological climate in which it breathes and has its existence.... Unlike the Missa, however, it is a celebration of life, of man’s earthly possibilities rather than his heavenly speculations.” The 1822 sketches show considerable progress on the Symphony’s first movement, little on the Scherzo, and, for the first time, some tentative ideas for a choral finale based on Schiller’s poem.

At this point in the creation of the work, in November 1822, a commission from the London Philharmonic Society for a new symphony arrived. Beethoven accepted it. For several months thereafter, he envisioned two completely separate works: one for London, entirely instrumental, to include the sketched first movement and the nearly completed Scherzo; the other to use the proposed choral movement with a German text, which he considered inappropriate for an English audience. He took up the “English Symphony” first, and most of the opening movement was drafted during the early months of 1823. The Scherzo was finished in short score by August, eight years after Beethoven first conceived its thematic material; the third movement was sketched by October. With the first three movements nearing completion, Beethoven found himself without a finale. His thoughts turned to the choral setting of An die Freude lying unused among the sketches for the “German Symphony,” and he decided to incorporate it into the work for London, language notwithstanding. The “English Symphony” and the “German Symphony” had merged. The Philharmonic Society eventually received the symphony it had commissioned — but not until a year after it had been heard in Vienna.

Beethoven had one major obstacle to overcome before he could complete the Symphony: how to join together the instrumental and vocal movements. He pondered the matter during his summer stay in Baden in 1823, but had not resolved the problem when he returned to Vienna in October. It was only after more intense work that he finally hit upon the idea of a recitative as the connecting tissue. A recitative — the technique that had been used for generations to bridge from one operatic number to the next — that would be perfect, he decided. And the recitative could include fragments of themes from earlier movements — to unify the structure. “I’ve got it! I’ve got it!” he shouted triumphantly. Beethoven still had much work to do, as the sketches from the autumn of 1823 show, but he at last knew his goal. The composition was completed by the end of the year. When the final scoring was finished in February 1824, it had been nearly 35 years since Beethoven first considered setting Schiller’s poem.

The Ninth Symphony begins with the interval of a barren open fifth, suggesting some awe-inspiring cosmic void. Thematic fragments sparkle and whirl into place to form the riveting main theme. A group of lyrical subordinate ideas follows. After a great climax, the open fifth intervals return to begin the highly concentrated development section. A complete recapitulation and an ominous coda arising from the depths of the orchestra bring this eloquent movement to a close. The form of the second movement is a combination of scherzo, fugue and sonata that exudes a lusty physical exuberance and a leaping energy; the central trio is more serene in character but forfeits none of the contrapuntal richness of the Scherzo. The Adagio is one of the most sublime pieces that Beethoven, or anyone else, ever wrote, and its solemn profundity is enhanced by being placed between two such extroverted movements as the Scherzo and the finale. Formally, this movement is a variation on two themes, almost like two separate kinds of music that alternate with each other.

The majestic closing movement is divided into two large parts: the first instrumental, the second with chorus and soloists. Beethoven chose to set about two-thirds of the original 96 lines of Schiller’s poem, and added two lines of his own for the baritone soloist as a transition to the choral section. A shrieking dissonance introduces the instrumental recitative for cellos and basses that joins together brief thematic reminiscences from the three preceding movements. The wondrous Ode to Joy theme appears unadorned in the low strings, and is the subject of a set of increasingly powerful variations. The shrieking dissonance is again hurled forth, but this time the ensuing recitative is given voice and words by the baritone soloist. “Oh, friends,” he sings, “no more of these sad tones! Rather let us raise our voices together, and joyful be our song.” The song is the Ode to Joy, presented with transcendent jubilation by the chorus. Many sections based on the Ode follow, some martial, some fugal, all radiant with the glory of Beethoven’s vision.

©2022 Dr. Richard E. Rodda

Juanjo Mena, Principal Conductor

Juanjo Mena began his conducting career in his native Spain as Artistic Director of the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra in 1999. His uncommon talent was soon recognized internationally with appointments as Principal Guest Conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic and Chief Guest Conductor of the Orchestra del Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa. In 2011 he was named Chief Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic which he led for seven seasons, taking the orchestra on tours of Europe and Asia and conducting annual televised concerts at the Royal Albert Hall as part of the BBC Proms. His BBC tenure featured, notably, “thrilling” (The Guardian) performances of Bruckner symphonies, a cycle of Schubert symphonies, and set new standards for the interpretation of Spanish and South American repertoire. He currently serves as Principal Conductor of the Cincinnati May Festival, the longest running choral festival in North America, where he has been expanding the scope of the legendary institution with new commissions and community engagement.

A sought-after guest conductor, Juanjo Mena has led Europe’s top ensembles, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Orchestra, Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig, London Philharmonic, Oslo Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala, Tonhalle Orchester Zürich, Bamberg Symphony Orchestra and the Dresden Philharmonic, among others. He appears regularly with all the major orchestras in his native Spain.

Following his North American debut with the Baltimore Symphony in 2004, he has conducted most of the continent’s leading orchestras. They include the Chicago Symphony, Boston Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, National Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Montreal Symphony and Toronto Symphony orchestras. In Asia, he is a regular guest conductor of the NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo.

In the 2021–22 season, Juanjo Mena returns to conduct the Pittsburgh Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C., Montreal Symphony, Oslo Philharmonic and the Bergen Philharmonic, and he debuts with the Atlanta Symphony, Gürzenich Orchestra in Cologne and the Japan Philharmonic. In the 2020–21 season, heavily affected by the pandemic, he returned to conduct the Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig and the NHK Symphony, among others. In June 2022 at Madrid’s Teatro Real, Mena will lead performances of the new production of Arthur Honegger’s Joan of Arc at the Stake paired with Debussy’s La damoiselle élue.

His operatic work includes Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman; Richard Strauss’ Salome, Elektra and Ariadne auf Naxos; Bartók’s Duke Bluebeard’s Castle; and Schoenberg’s Erwartung; as well as productions of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin in Genoa; Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro in Lausanne; and Beethoven’s Fidelio and Britten’s Billy Budd in Bilbao.

Juanjo Mena’s latest recording is Bruckner’s Symphony No. 6 with the BBC Philharmonic released by Chandos. The Classical Review praised it as “intensely musical,” “impressive” and with a spectacular sound. Mena’s rich discography with the BBC Philharmonic on Chandos also includes an acclaimed Gabriel Pierné release selected as a Gramophone Editor’s Choice, Weber symphonies, Ginastera’s orchestral works to mark the composer’s centenary, and new reference recordings of largely overlooked Spanish repertoire, including Arriaga’s orchestral pieces, works by Albéniz, Montsalvatge and Turina, as well as three discs of works by Manuel de Falla featuring his opera La vida breve. In 2012, Juanjo Mena recorded Messiaen’s Turangalîla Symphony with the Bergen Philharmonic for the Hyperion label, a disc said to “utterly redefine the terms under which past/current/future Turangalîlas need to be judged” (Gramophone).

Juanjo Mena studied conducting with Sergiu Celibidache following his musical education at the Madrid Royal Conservatory, where he was mentored by Carmelo Bernaola and Enrique García Asensio. In 2016, he was awarded the Spanish National Music Award. He lives with his family in his native Basque Country.

Nicole Cabell, soprano

Nicole Cabell, the 2005 Winner of the BBC Singer of the World Competition in Cardiff and a Decca recording artist, is one of the most sought-after lyric sopranos of today. Her solo debut album, Soprano, was named “Editor’s Choice” by Gramophone and has received an incredible amount of critical acclaim and several prestigious awards, including the 2007 Georg Solti Orphée d’Or from the French Académie du Disque Lyrique.

Nicole Cabell’s current season includes a return to San Francisco Opera in her role debut as Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte; performances in London and on tour in the United States with the London Symphony Orchestra and Simon Rattle performing George Walker’s Lilacs; a solo recital with Cincinnati’s Matinee Musicale; and concerts of Barber’s Knoxville, Summer of 1915 and Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 with the Tucson Symphony; Handel’s Messiah with The Philadelphia Orchestra and with the Apollo Chorus of Chicago on the occasion of their 150^th anniversary; Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with the Rochester Philharmonic; and Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem with the Buffalo Philharmonic.

Last season included a debut with Opera Theatre of St. Louis as Mary in William Grant Still’s Highway 1, USA with Leonard Slatkin and a virtual performance of Britten’s Les Illuminations and of Lumee’s Aria by Ellen Reid with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra.

Prior to that, she returned to Michigan Opera Theatre for Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, to the Boston Symphony for Poulenc’s Gloria with Andris Nelsons and to the Atlanta Symphony for Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with Robert Spano.

Nicole Cabell opened the previous season with her first stage performances of Bess in Porgy and Bess with the English National Opera to public and critical acclaim. She also made her Pittsburgh Opera debut as Mimì in La bohème before returning to the Minnesota Opera for Violetta in La traviata and to Cincinnati Opera for Juliette in Roméo et Juliette. In concert, Cabell performed a set of songs on texts by Langston Hughes at the Metropolitan Museum, sang the Mozart Requiem with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and David Robertson before joining Master Voices and Ted Sperling at New York’s Alice Tully Hall. In the summer she returned to Tanglewood for the closing concert of the season as the soprano soloist in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Giancarlo Guerrero.

Prior to that, Cabell performed the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro with Grand Théâtre de Genève, Flavia in Eliogabalo with Dutch National Opera, the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro with Michigan Opera Theatre, and Micaela in Carmen with Atlanta Opera. Cabell was also heard in recital at the Frankfurt Opera, Carnegie Hall, the Harris Theater for Music in Dance in Chicago, the University Musical Society in Ann Arbor, and in Louisville, Kentucky. In concert, Nicole Cabell performed with the Lake Forest Symphony (Sisters in Song, a joint program with Alyson Cambridge, which was just commercially released by Cedille Records), the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, and in Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra.

Nicole Cabell’s 2016–17 season featured her debut as Bess in Porgy in Bess with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, as well as performances of Mimì in La bohème with Minnesota Opera and Cincinnati Opera and of the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro with Angers Nantes Opera in France. In concert, she sang Shéhérazade with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with the Nashville Symphony, and Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with the Oregon Bach Festival.

The 2015–16 season included Cabell’s debut at the Grand Théâtre de Genève in the title role of Handel’s Alcina and returns to the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden as Violetta in La traviata, to Atlanta Opera as Juliette in Roméo et Juliette, to Michigan Opera Theatre as Mimì in La bohème and to Cincinnati Opera in a new role: Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus. On the concert stage, Cabell performed Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and a solo recital in Baltimore.

Nicole Cabell’s 2014–15 season included semi-staged concerts of Don Giovanni with Edo de Waart and the Milwaukee Symphony, her Opéra National de Paris debut (and role debut) as Mimì in La bohème and Adina in L’elisir d’amore with Minnesota Opera as well as a return to Washington Concert Opera as Giulietta in I Capuleti ed i Montecchi. In concert, she was heard with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Villa-Lobos’ Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5, with the Orchestre National de Lille in Poulenc’s Stabat Mater, with the San Diego Symphony in Strauss’ Four Last Songs, with the London Symphony Orchestra in Debussy’s La Damoiselle élue, in a Puccini-Strauss gala concert in Hong-Kong, as Bess in an abridged version of Porgy and Bess at Ravinia with Bobby McFerrin, at the Oregon Bach Festival in Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, at Bard’s Music Festival in Villa-Lobos’ Forest of the Amazon, and at SUNY Potsdam in Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem.

In the previous season Nicole Cabell made some exciting role debuts: first as Violetta in La traviata with Michigan Opera Theatre (seen again later in the season at the San Francisco Opera), then as Medora in Il Corsaro with Washington Concert Opera. She reprised the role of her triumphant San Francisco Opera debut: Giulietta in I Capuleti e i Montecchi with Lyric Opera of Kansas City. In concert, Cabell made her Paris debut in Poulenc’s Stabat Mater, appeared several times in Spain, first with the Orquesta de Galicia in a Barber/Mahler program, then on tour with the RPO and Charles Dutoit in Poulenc’s Gloria. In London, she was heard with the RPO in the same Poulenc piece as well as with the BBC Orchestra, first in Barber’s Knoxville, Summer of 1915 with Keith Lockhart and later in Elgar’s The Apostles with Sir Andrew Davis. Further concert appearances included Duke Ellington’s Sacred Music at Carnegie Hall, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Boston Symphony and Charles Dutoit at Tanglewood, and in a Barber/Brahms program in Nashville with Giancarlo Guerrero. Nicole Cabell also appeared in recital in Chicago.

Awards include first place in both the Palm Beach Opera Vocal Competition and the Women’s Board of Chicago Vocal Competition. Nicole Cabell was a semi-finalist in the 2005 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and earned first place in the American Opera Society competition in Chicago. She is the 2002 winner of the Union League’s Rose M. Grundman Scholarship, and the 2002 Farwell Award with the Woman’s Board of Chicago. Nicole Cabell holds a bachelor’s degree in Vocal Performance from the Eastman School of Music.

Tamara Mumford, mezzo-soprano

A graduate of The Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, mezzo-soprano Tamara Mumford made her debut there as Laura in Luisa Miller, and has since appeared in more than 140 performances with the company, some of which include the Pilgrim in the new production of Kajia Saariaho’s L’Amour de loin, Smeaton in the new production of Anna Bolena, and in productions of Rigoletto, Ariadne auf Naxos, Il Trittico, Parsifal, Idomeneo, Cavalleria Rusticana, Nixon in China, The Queen of Spades, the complete Ring cycle, The Magic Flute, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Wozzeck. Other recent opera engagements have included the world premiere of The Thirteenth Child at Santa Fe Opera; her role debut as the title role in Tancredi with Teatro Nuovo; the first-ever American performances of Rossini’s Aureliano in Palmira at the Caramoor Festival; L’Amour de loin at the Festival d’opéra de Québec; Iolante at the Dallas Opera; the title role in the American premiere of Henze’s Phaedra, the title role in The Rape of Lucretia and the world premiere of Daniel Schnyder’s Yardbird at Opera Philadelphia; the title role in Dido and Aeneas at the Glimmerglass Festival; Ottavia in L’incoronazione di Poppea at the Glyndebourne Opera Festival and the BBC Proms; Orsini in Lucrezia Borgia at the Caramoor Festival; Isabella in L’italiana in Algeri at the Palm Beach Opera; the title role in The Rape of Lucretia, conducted by Lorin Maazel at the Castleton Festival; the title role in Carmen at the Crested Butte Music Festival; Principessa in Suor Angelica and Ciesca in Gianni Schicchi with the Orchestra Sinfonica Giuseppe Verdi di Milano in Italy; and the title role in La Cenerentola at Utah Festival Opera.

Also an active concert performer and recitalist, Mumford appeared with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra in U.S. and European tours of the world premiere of John Adams’ oratorio The Gospel According to the Other Mary and in performances of Mahler’s Symphony No. 3. She also appeared with Dudamel and the LAPO in performances of Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde in a production by Yuval Sharon and the Chilean theater group Teatrocinema. Other concert engagements have included appearances with the New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Utah Symphony, Oregon Symphony, and Milwaukee Symphony orchestras; the Berlin Philharmonic (in Berlin and on tour in Asia); the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic; and at the Hollywood Bowl and the Ravinia, Tanglewood, Grand Teton, Vail, Tucson Desert Song, Britt and La Jolla Summer Music festivals. She made her Carnegie Hall debut in 2005 as part of the Richard Goode and Friends concert series in Zankel Hall, and she has since appeared there with James Levine and The Met Chamber Orchestra. She has also made multiple appearances in the Musicians from Marlboro’s summer festivals and U.S. tours. In recital she has been presented in New York by the Marilyn Horne Foundation, the Frick Collection, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and in Philadelphia by the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society.

Mumford has appeared in The Metropolitan Opera’s Met: Live in HD series broadcasts of Anna Bolena, Das Rheingold, Gotterdämmerung, The Magic Flute, Nixon in China, Manon Lescaut, and Il trittico. Her recordings include Handel’s Messiah with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir (Momon Tabernacle Choir), Beethoven’s Cantata on the Death of Emperor Joseph II with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra (Avie), and John Adams’ The Gospel According to the Other Mary with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic (Deutsche Grammophon). She was one of 16 singers invited to work with Naxos Records and Yale University in a collaborative project to record the complete songs of Charles Ives.

A native of Sandy, Utah, Mumford holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Utah State University and has received awards from the Opera Index Competition, Palm Beach Opera Competition, Sullivan Foundation, Connecticut Opera Guild Competition, Joyce Dutka Foundation Competition and the MacAllister Awards.

Jin-Min Park, tenor

Korean tenor Ji-Min Park makes his debut as the tenor soloist in the May Festival’s performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 before returning to Cincinnati Opera as Rodolfo in Puccini’s La bohème, later in June.

Engagement highlights include Rodolfo in La bohème with Royal Opera Covent Garden, Opera North (Leeds), Toulouse, Opera Australia Sydney and the New National Theatre in Tokyo; Alfredo in La traviata for Cincinnati Opera, Teatro La Fenice, Opera Australia, Welsh National Opera, Opera North and Korea; Nemorino in L’elisir d’amore in Santiago, Chile and with Atlanta Opera; the Italian Tenor in Der Rosenkavalier with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Andris Nelsons; Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor and Romeo in Roméo et Juliette with Opéra de Baugé in France; and Ernesto in Don Pasquale for Cincinnati Opera.

Ji-Min Park’s concert appearances have included Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra under Daniel Barenboim, Rossini’s Stabat Mater with the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Handel’s Messiah under Antonio Pappano and the Covent Garden Orchestra, Berlioz’s L’enfance du Christ with the Brabant Orchestra, Beppe in Pagliacci for the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra under Daniel Harding, Rossini’s Otello with the Aalbourg Opera Festival, and gala performances with Opera North, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern and Scottish Opera.

Ji-Min Park was a Jette Parker Young Artist (2007–09) and a Jette Parker Principal (2009–10) for The Royal Opera Covent Garden. During this time his many roles included Gastone in La traviata, Scaramuccio in Ariadne auf Naxos, Nathanaël in Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Pang in Turandot, Sailor in Tristan und Isolde, Rodolfo in La bohème and Messenger in Aida. He has since returned to sing Song Seller in Il tabarro, Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi, Iopas in Les Troyens and Alfredo in La traviata.

Ji-Min Park trained at Seoul National University and the Vienna Conservatory. He represented Korea in the 2009 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition and won international competitions including Belvedere, Viotti, Toulouse, Bidu Sayão, Klaudia Taev and Stella Maris.

Reginald Smith, Jr., baritone

Baritone Reginald Smith, Jr., this year’s U.S. representative at the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, has been lauded as a “passionate performer” (New York Times) with an “electric, hall-filling” (The Baltimore Sun) and “thrillingly dramatic” (Opera News) voice that is “one of the most exciting baritone sounds to come along in years” (Opera News). Smith, a native of Atlanta, is a Grand Finals winner of the 2015 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and a graduate of the Houston Grand Opera Studio.

This season marks the baritone’s debuts with Lyric Opera of Chicago as Uncle Paul in Terrence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones, with the San Diego Opera as Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte and with Charleston’s Holy City Arts and Lyric Opera as Germont in La traviata. In concert he returns to the Dallas Symphony for holiday concerts, debuts with the Oregon Symphony in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, sings Amonasro in Act 3 of Aida with the Atlanta Symphony, and performs Messiah with the Nashville Symphony. Smith also appears in solo recital at Kennesaw State University. Future engagements include a debut with the Santa Fe Opera and returns to Lyric Opera of Chicago and Houston Grand Opera, all in leading roles.

Reginald Smith, Jr.’s last season included returns to Atlanta Opera as Tonio in Pagliacci (a role debut), Cincinnati Opera as Don Bartolo in Il barbiere di Siviglia, and the Dallas Symphony in a concert honoring the victims of racial violence and injustice. He also sang Jake in concerts of Porgy and Bess scenes with New Orleans Opera.

The previous season Smith made his much-anticipated debut at The Metropolitan Opera as Jim in Porgy and Bess, followed by Amonasro in Aida with Houston Grand Opera and Jake in Porgy and Bess with Atlanta Opera. His orchestral appearances included Christmas Pops Concerts with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.

Prior to that, Reginald Smith, Jr. appeared as Jake in Porgy and Bess with Cincinnati Opera, Sharpless in Madama Butterfly with Opera Memphis and Amonasro in Aida with Opera Idaho, and he returned to the rosters of the Lyric Opera of Chicago and San Francisco Opera. His orchestral engagements included the baritone solo in Carmina Burana for his return to the Houston Symphony and the bass solo in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 at New Jersey Symphony, West Virginia Symphony and Symphoria.

The 2017–18 season included Smith’s company debuts with Opera Hong Kong as Amonasro in Aida, Lyric Opera of Chicago as Senator Charles Potter/General Airlie/Bartender in Gregory Spears’ Fellow Travelers, and Portland Opera as Monterone in Rigoletto. He returned to Opera Memphis to make his role debut as Taddeo in Rossini’s L’italiana in Algeri. In conjunction with the University of Michigan Gershwin Initiative’s research, Smith sang the role of Jake in a concert performance of the new, critical edition score of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess. Additionally, he made his concert debut with the Windsor Symphony Orchestra as the bass soloist for Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, as well as making his Dallas Symphony Orchestra debut as the guest soloist and narrator for the Dallas Symphony Christmas Pops. That spring, he made his Lincoln Center debut as the bass soloist for Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the National Chorale. Smith was thrilled to return to his alma mater, the University of Kentucky, to perform Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the Lexington Singers and the University of Kentucky Chorale.

During the 2016–17 season, Smith made company debuts with San Francisco Opera, Dallas Opera, Opera Memphis and Opera Carolina, as well as making his concert debut with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Marin Alsop.

Smith has appeared in operatic performances with Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Cincinnati Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, Toledo Opera and Houston Grand Opera. In concert, Smith has performed with the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, Cincinnati Pops, Lexington Philharmonic, Columbus Symphony Orchestra (GA), North Carolina Symphony, Johnson City Symphony, Boise Philharmonic, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Houston Symphony Orchestra, and the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra at Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow, Russia. Previous operatic highlights include La bohème (Marcello), Die Fledermaus (Falke), Madama Butterfly (Sharpless), La traviata (Giorgio Germont), The Pirates of Penzance (The Pirate King), Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette (Capulet) and Le nozze di Figaro (Count Almaviva). Smith’s previous concert engagements include performances of Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, Mozart’s Requiem and Coronation Mass, Britten’s Rejoice in the Lamb, the Fauré and Duruflé Requiems, Schubert’s Mass in G, Schoenberg’s Ode to Napoleon Bonaparte, Handel’s Messiah, and Berlioz’s Roméo et Juliette.

In addition to receiving recognition from the Dallas Opera Guild Competition, the Mildred Miller International Vocal Competition, and the Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation Vocal Competition, Smith has won first place in the National Opera Association Competition: Scholarship Division, Orpheus Vocal Competition: Young Artist Division, George London Vocal Competition (George London Award) and Gerda Lissner International Vocal Competition. He also received a 2015 Sara Tucker Study Grant and a 2016 Career Grant from the William Matheus Sullivan Foundation.

MAY FESTIVAL CHORUS

ROBERT PORCO, Director of Choruses
Matthew Swanson, Associate Director
of Choruses
Heather MacPhail, Accompanist
Matthew Swope, Conducting Fellow
Kathryn Zajac Albertson,
Chorus Manager
Bryce Newcomer, Chorus Librarian

The May Festival Chorus has earned acclaim locally, nationally and internationally for its musicality, vast range of repertoire and sheer power of sound. The Chorus of 125 professionally trained singers is the core artistic element of the Cincinnati May Festival as well as the official chorus of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati Pops. Throughout a typical season the chorus members collectively devote more than 40,000 hours in rehearsals and performances.
Founded in 1873, the annual May Festival is the oldest, and one of the most prestigious, choral festivals in the Western Hemisphere. The annual Festival, now under the artistic leadership of Principal Conductor Juanjo Mena, boasts the May Festival Chorus—with choral preparation by Robert Porco—and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra as anchors, hosts an international array of guest artists and presents two spectacular weekends of dynamic programming. James Conlon, who in 2016 brought to a close an unprecedented 37-year tenure as May Festival Music Director, was named Music Director Laureate upon his retirement. 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.

May Festival Youth Chorus

MATTHEW SWANSON, Director
David Kirkendall, Accompanist and Assistant Director
Dr. Eva Floyd, Musicianship Instructor
Kathryn Zajac Albertson, Chorus Manager
Bryce Newcomer, Chorus Librarian

The May Festival Youth Chorus connects, inspires and educates young people through the study and performance of choral music. Since its founding in 1987, the Youth Chorus has appeared annually at the May Festival to perform choral-orchestral works with the May Festival Chorus, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and internationally renowned conductors and soloists. In addition, the Youth Chorus presents its own concert series and collaborates with cultural institutions and organizations throughout greater Cincinnati.
Highlights of the Youth Chorus experience include a broad range of repertoire; annual commissions and world premieres; free professional voice instruction; access to free and discounted tickets to the May Festival, CSO and Pops concerts; frequent concert appearances with the CSO and Pops at Music Hall and Riverbend Music Center; and a community of enthusiastic and skilled peer musicians from across the tri-state. Notably, the Youth Chorus is tuition-free; acceptance is based solely on ability.

More on May Festival Youth Chorus

Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Louis Langrée Music Director

With a legacy dating back 127 years, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (CSO) is considered one of America’s finest and most versatile ensembles. Led by Louis Langrée since 2013, the CSO’s distinguished roster of past music directors includes Leopold Stokowski, Eugène Ysaÿe, Fritz Reiner, Max Rudolf, Jesús López Cobos and Paavo Järvi. Matthias Pintscher is the Orchestra’s Creative Partner, and previous artistic partners have included Lang Lang, Philip Glass, Branford Marsalis and Jennifer Higdon. The Orchestra also performs as the Cincinnati Pops, founded by Erich Kunzel in 1977 and currently led by John Morris Russell with Damon Gupton serving as Principal Guest Conductor. The CSO further elevates the city’s vibrant arts scene by serving as the official orchestra for the Cincinnati May Festival, Cincinnati Opera and Cincinnati Ballet.

The CSO has long championed the composers and music of its time and has given historic American premieres by Claude Debussy, Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss, Maurice Ravel, Béla Bartók, William Grant Still and other prominent composers. It has also commissioned many works that ultimately became mainstays of the classical repertoire, including Aaron Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man. The Orchestra continues to actively commission new work, amplifying new voices from a diverse array of backgrounds, most recently with the Fanfare Project, a series of solo instrument works written for CSO musicians to mark a moment in time during the Covid pandemic.
Deeply committed to inclusion, relevance, and enhancing and expanding opportunities for the children of Greater Cincinnati, the Orchestra works to bring music education, in its many different forms, to as broad a public as possible. In 2020, the CSO was one of the first American orchestras to create a Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer position to ensure the absorption of best DE&I practices into every facet of the organization. The CSO/CCM Diversity Fellowship, a nationally recognized program in partnership with the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, provides a graduate degree-level education with performance and professional development opportunities for extraordinary young string players from populations historically underrepresented in American orchestras. The CSO is also an incubator for and partner to NIMAN, a consortium of American orchestras, professional musicians and educators established to address the lack of racial equity in the classical music field by aligning resources and collaborating to strengthen the trajectory of classical instrumentalists of color at all stages of their pre-careers.

The May Festival Chorus is endowed by the Betsy & Alex C. Young Chair

Soprano

Natalie Badinghaus, 1
Tracy Bailey, 21
Karen Bastress, 23
A. Maris Bernard, 18
Laurel Boisclair Ellsworth, 17
Dawn Bruestle, 17
Renee Cifuentes, 5
Ally Clifton, 1
Kathy Dietrich, 8
Jennifer Dobson, 5
Rachel Dummermuth, 3
Sarah Evans, 7
Anita Marie Greer, 33
Melissa Haas, 4
Gaynelle Hardwick, 6
Dana Harms, 14
Mary Wynn Haupt, 20
Lauren Steiger Hess, 26
Carolyn Hill, 11
Sara Hook, 1
Hyejung Jun, 4
Alexandra Kesman, 7
Lisa Koressel, 22
Judith C. LaChance, 44
Hilary Landwehr, 33
Julia Lawrence, 2
Julia Marchese, 1
Audrey Markovich, 1
Alison Peeno, 3
Zohar Perla, 3
Lauren Peter, 18
Kristi C. Reed, 11
Beth Roberts, 16
Justine Samuel, 4
Julia H. Schieve, 27
Yvon F. Shore, 10
Sam Walker, 1
Patricia Wilkens, 1
Rosie Wilkinson, 1
Samantha Zeiger, 1

Alto

Alaina Diane Arwood, 3
Robin Bierschenk, 11
Erika Emody, 15
Kathy Falcon, 18
Sarah Fall, 1
Amanda Gast, 1
Jean Graves, 12
Sally Vickery Harper, 51
Beth Huntley, 3
Spence B. Ingerson, 32
Karolyn L. Johnsen, 50
Jenifer Klostermeier, 3
Sue Kozlowski, 1
Julie Laskey, 18
Megan Lawson, 7
Tiffany Lin, 1
Katherine Loomis, 2
Elaine P. Lustig, 12
Kathy Mank, 17
Teri McKibben, 14
Ashlinn Meechan, 1
Jennifer Moak, 8
Amy M. Perry, 10
Amanda Schwarz
Rosenzweig, 1
Karen Scott-Vosseberg, 5
Sarah Stoutamire, 5
Megan Weaver, 9

Tenor

Lawrence Adams, 1
Avery Bargasse, 4
David Bower, 1
Douglas Easterling, 7
David Gillespie, 1
Robert Henderson, 3
Tyler Johnson, 4
Fansheng Kong, 1
Kevin Leahy, 4
Robert Lomax, 4
Andrew Miller, 1
Jason Ramler, 20
Larry Reiring, 13
Adam Shoaff, 9
Jeffrey Stivers, 12
Matthew Swanson, 10
Matthew Swope, 1
Stephen West, 1
Barry Zaslow, 38

Bass

Mark Barnes, 5
Jim Baxter, 31
Nathan Bettenhausen, 1
Andrew L. Bowers, 6
Scott Brody, 7
Douglas J. Bruestle, 13
Darren Bryant, 1
Christopher Canarie, 28
Lawrence Coleman, 20
Steven L. Dauterman, 40
Steve France, 17
Mark Hockenberry, 1
Takuya Konishi, 1
Jim Laskey, 12
DeRon McDaniel, 1
John McKibben, 4
Daniel Parsley, 5
Justin Peter, 18
James V. Racster, 40
Mitch Radakovich, 1
Brian Reilly, 1
Joseph Taff, 3
Joshua Wallace, 15
Mark Weaver, 16
Paul Wessendarp, 2
Tommy Wessendarp, 1

Numbers behind chorus members’ names signify their years of service. Those celebrating anniversaries of five-year increments are honored with lapel pins they proudly wear with their May Festival uniforms.

The May Festival Chorus is endowed by the Betsy & Alex C. Young Chair

Ava Altenau
Calia Burdette
Angelina Bush
Maya Chavez
Ella Clark
Julia Devadason
Gabrielle Dodd
Lucas Dodd
Oscar Dreith
Rachael Dronsfield
Gwyneth Gaunt
Abigail Guinigundo
Isabella Harris
Ellie Haynes
Natalie Hoover
Katie Kear
Julia Lankisch
Claire Long
Cecelia McDaniel
Daniel McDowell Julia McManus
Lydia Naberhaus
Kennedy Ranford
Jen Siler
Anya Sperber
Trent Stricker
Sarah Turner
Rhea Umrani
Ellison Van Scoy
Anna Varisco
Ansley Varisco
Olivia Wetzel
Andrea Wolins

Schools Represented by MFYC Members

Highlands Middle School
The School for Creative
and Performing Arts
Princeton High School
Clark Montessori
Walnut Hills High School
The Summit Country
Day School
Saint Antoninus School
Scott High School
Finneytown High School
Dixie Heights High School
Covington Latin School
Williamstown Senior
High School
Archbishop McNicholas
Lakota East
Notre Dame Academy
Mason High School
Homeschool
Bally Shannon
Middle School
St. Ursula Academy
Mariemont High School
Xavier University

LOUIS LANGRÉE, CSO Music Director
- Louise Dieterle Nippert & Louis Nippert Chair

JOHN MORRIS RUSSELL, Pops Conductor
- Louise Dieterle Nippert & Louis Nippert Chair

Matthias Pintscher, CSO Creative Partner

Damon Gupton, Pops Principal Guest Conductor

François López-Ferrer, CSO Associate Conductor
- Ashley and Barbara Ford Chair for Associate Conductor

Wilbur Lin, Pops Assistant Conductor
- Ashley and Barbara Ford Chair for Assistant Conductor

FIRST VIOLINS

Stefani Matsuo
Concertmaster
—Anna Sinton Taft Chair

Charles Morey
Acting Associate Concertmaster
—Tom & Dee Stegman Chair

Philip Marten
First Assistant Concertmaster
—James M. Ewell Chair++

Eric Bates
Second Assistant Concertmaster
—Serge Shababian Chair

Kathryn Woolley
—Nicholas Tsimaras–Peter G. Courlas Chair++

Anna Reider
—Dianne & J. David Rosenberg Chair

Mauricio Aguiar§

Minyoung Baik

James Braid
—Marc Bohlke Chair given by Katrin & Manfred Bohlke

Michelle Edgar Dugan

Rebecca Kruger Fryxell
Clifford J. Goosmann and Andrea M. Wilson Chair

Gerald Itzkoff
—Jean Ten Have Chair

Lois Reid Johnson
—Anne G. & Robert W. Dorsey Chair++

Sylvia Mitchell
—Jo Ann & Paul Ward Chair

Luo-Jia Wu

SECOND VIOLINS

Gabriel Pegis
Principal
—Al Levinson Chair

Yang Liu*
—Harold B. & Betty Justice Chair

Scott Mozlin**
—Henry Meyer Chair

Kun Dong

Cheryl Benedict

Evin Blomberg§

Rachel Charbel
—Ida Ringling North Chair

Elizabeth Furuta†

Chika Kinderman

Hyesun Park

Paul Patterson
—Charles Gausmann Chair++

Stacey Woolley
—Brenda & Ralph Taylor Chair++

VIOLAS

Christian Colberg
Principal
—Louise D. & Louis Nippert Chair

Paul Frankenfeld*
—Grace M. Allen Chair

Julian Wilkison**

Rebecca Barnes§

Christopher Fischer

Stephen Fryxell
—Melinda & Irwin Simon Chair

Caterina Longhi

Denisse Rodriguez-Rivera

Joanne Wojtowicz

CELLOS

Ilya Finkelshteyn
Principal
—Irene & John J. Emery Chair

Daniel Culnan*
—Ona Hixson Dater Chair

Norman Johns**
—Karl & Roberta Schlachter Family Chair

Matthew Lad§
—Marvin Kolodzik Chair

Susan Marshall-Petersen
—Laura Kimble McLellan Chair++

Hiro Matsuo

Theodore Nelson
—Peter G. Courlas–Nicholas Tsimaras Chair++

Alan Rafferty
—Ruth F. Rosevear Chair

BASSES

Owen Lee
Principal
—Mary Alice Heekin Burke Chair++

James Lambert*
—Thomas Vanden Eynden Chair

Matthew Zory, Jr.**+
—Trish & Rick Bryan Chair

Boris Astafiev§

Ronald Bozicevich
—Donald & Margaret Robinson Chair

Rick Vizachero

HARP

Gillian Benet Sella
Principal
—Cynthia & Frank Stewart Chair

FLUTES

Randolph Bowman
Principal
—Charles Frederic Goss Chair

Henrik Heide*†

Haley Bangs
—Jane & David Ellis Chair

PICCOLO

[OPEN]
—Patricia Gross Linnemann Chair

OBOES

Dwight Parry
Principal
—Josephine I. & David J. Joseph, Jr. Chair

Lon Bussell*
—Stephen P. McKean Chair

Emily Beare

ENGLISH HORN

Christopher Philpotts
Principal
—Alberta & Dr. Maurice Marsh Chair+

CLARINETS

Christopher Pell
Principal
—Emma Margaret & Irving D. Goldman Chair

Joseph Morris*
Associate Principal and Eb Clarinet
—Robert E. & Fay Boeh Chair++

Ixi Chen
Vicky & Rick Reynolds Chair in Honor of William A. Friedlander

BASS CLARINET

Ronald Aufmann

BASSOONS

Christopher Sales
Principal
—Emalee Schavel Chair++

Martin Garcia*

Hugh Michie

CONTRABASSOON

Jennifer Monroe

FRENCH HORNS

Elizabeth Freimuth
Principal
—Mary M. & Charles F. Yeiser Chair

[OPEN]*
—Ellen A. & Richard C. Berghamer Chair

Molly Norcross**
Acting Associate Principal
—Sweeney Family Chair in memory of Donald C. Sweeney

Lisa Conway
—Susanne & Philip O. Geier, Jr. Chair

Duane Dugger
—Mary & Joseph S. Stern, Jr. Chair

Charles Bell

TRUMPETS

Robert Sullivan
Principal
—Rawson Chair

Douglas Lindsay*
—Jackie & Roy Sweeney Family Chair

Steven Pride
—Otto M. Budig Family Foundation Chair++

Christopher Kiradjieff

TROMBONES

Cristian Ganicenco
Principal
—Dorothy & John Hermanies Chair

Joseph Rodriguez**
Second/Assistant Principal Trombone

BASS TROMBONE

Peter Norton

TUBA

Christopher Olka
Principal
—Ashley & Barbara Ford Chair

TIMPANI

Patrick Schleker
Principal
—Matthew & Peg Woodside Chair

Michael Culligan
Acting Associate Principal

[OPEN]*
—Morleen & Jack Rouse Chair

PERCUSSION

David Fishlock
Principal
—Susan S. & William A. Friedlander Chair

Michael Culligan*

[OPEN]*
—Morleen & Jack Rouse Chair

Marc Wolfley+

KEYBOARDS

Michael Chertock
—James P. Thornton Chair

Julie Spangler+
—James P. Thornton Chair

CSO/CCM DIVERSITY FELLOWS

Maalik Glover, violin

Mwakudua waNgure, violin

Tyler McKisson, viola

Javier Otalora, viola

Max Oppeltz-Carroz, cello

Luis Parra, cello

Samantha Powell, cello

Luis Celis Avila, bass

Amy Nickler, bass

LIBRARIANS

Christina Eaton
Acting Principal Librarian
—Lois Klein Jolson Chair

Elizabeth Dunning
Acting Associate Principal Librarian

Adam Paxson
Interim Assistant Librarian

STAGE MANAGERS

Brian P. Schott

Phillip T. Sheridan

Daniel Schultz

Andrew Sheridan

§ Begins the alphabetical listing of players who participate in a system of rotated seating within the string section.

*  Associate Principal

**  Assistant Principal

† One-year appointment

‡ Leave of absence

+ Cincinnati Pops rhythm section

++ CSO endowment only

~ Funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation