Presenting the CCM Tchaikovsky Festival 2008! Click here for the complete schedule of events.
Click here for the 2008-2009 Philharmonia Orchestra Concert Season, as of July 29, 2008.
Click here for the 2008-2009 Concert Orchestra Concert Season, as of August 19, 2008.
Click here for the 2007-2008 Complete Season, including details of the inaugural Brahms Festival.
The orchestral program at the College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) at the University of Cincinnati provides an unparalleled educational and performance experience for hundreds of instrumentalists each year. The breadth of each season’s concert series rivals many of the world’s great performing organizations, and students become versed in a body of repertoire that encompasses more than most conservatories venture to program. The close bond between the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and CCM’s orchestral program invigorates student conductors and instrumentalists alike, and our commitment to high standards enriches the cultural life of Cincinnati.
The Philharmonia Orchestra is CCM's premier orchestral ensemble and is recognized as one of the world's elite conservatory orchestras. The Philharmonia has risen to world prominence through the quality of its performances, recordings, and its national and international tours. The Philharmonia serves as the opera orchestra for the Conservatory's award-winning opera productions. Members of the Philharmonia are regularly divided into chamber orchestras for a variety of specialized and high-profile performances.
The Concert Orchestra shares a wind and brass rotation with the Philharmonia, with a slightly younger string section. Graduate students provide leadership in the strings, helping the orchestra achieve a high level of performance. Concert Orchestra performs a full season of nine events, often taking the stage alongside the Philharmonia, and performs with both the Mainstage Opera series and CCM’s annual “Feast of Carols” celebration.
Named after the boisterous “Café Momus” from Puccini’s La bohéme, the MoMus concert series continues CCM’s dedication to the performance of modern music. Under the direction of Annunziata Tomaro, Café MoMus is taking the performance of new music in bold directions. Set in an intimate performance space, where subtle lighting and staging techniques combine with the musical expertise of the members of the CCM Philharmonia to create a wholly unique presentation of adventurous contemporary works. For other activities in new music, including composition competitions, please visit the MusicX website: www.ccm.uc.edu/musicx.
Throughout the academic year, student soloists have the opportunity to participate in departmental concerto competitions. Competition winners perform with the CCM Orchestras. Repertoire and instrument selections varies according to the programming of the orchestral season, and past winners have included instrumentalists and singers alike. For further information, please contact Mark Gibson, director of orchestral studies: Mark.Gibson@uc.edu.
Coming in October : Tchaikovsky Festival 2008.
Each year, CCM hosts a festival of music celebrating the works of a single master composer. The inaugural Brahms Festival in 2007, made possible in part due to the generous support of Susan and Bill Friedlander and the Bartlett Foundation, was a sweeping success, featuring a series of four full-scale orchestral concerts, intimate chamber music events in both the CCM Atrium and Werner Recital Hall, and a special conducting workshop with renowned maestro Gustav Meier. Taken together, these events provided students the opportunity to become specialized in the language of Brahms, and to discover relationships between his chamber music, songs and orchestral repertoire. To read the front-page news story from the Brahms Festival, click here.
CCM offers graduate degrees in orchestral conducting at the masters and doctoral level (MM/DMA). Under the tutelage of Maestro Mark Gibson, director of orchestral studies, student conductors learn the craft in a high-profile program at one of the finest conservatories in the country.
At the heart of the orchestral conducting curriculum is the belief that student conductors must have an intimate knowledge of the orchestral and operatic repertoire and of the conductor’s relationship with the orchestra, the composer and the public. Score study is incorporated into conducting seminars and weekly piano masterclasses, such that the repertoire is understood both in its socio-historical context and from the standpoint of technical execution.
Student conductors are assigned to act as cover conductors for the concert repertoire of the CCM Orchestras, and they are often called upon to conduct the orchestras under Maestro Gibson’s supervision. Conducting assignments include concert appearances with both the Philharmonia and Concert Orchestras, the Café MoMus series, the Mainstage Opera series and the CCM Ballet.
Through strong ties with the CCM Opera program and CCM’s world famous Musical Theatre program, orchestral conducting students have the opportunity to serve as music director of their own studio opera productions, to conduct performances of Mainstage Operas and Musicals as well as a biennial fully-staged, full length ballet produced by CCM’s renowned Dance Division.
Student conductors also have an open invitation to attend rehearsals of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, at the request of music director Paavo Jarvi. Maestro Jarvi has a strong relationship with the CCM orchestral conducting program – he regularly visits CCM to conduct the CCM Orchestras, and in 2008 he began giving conducting masterclasses to the orchestral conducting students. Click here for a video documentary of Maestro Jarvi's masterclass in January of 2008. One student per year is selected to serve as Conducting Fellow at the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. To have a world-class professional orchestra next door to the conservatory contributes to the fact that CCM has one of the most desirable conducting programs in the country.
For more information about graduate studies at CCM, including scholarship opportunities and information about graduate assistantships, please refer to the CCM Graduate Student Handbook: (www.ccm.uc.edu/students/gradhandbook.aspx).
For more information about the admissions process, as well as specific degree requirements for either the MM or DMA programs in orchestral conducting, please refer to the CCM Bulletin: (www.ccm.uc.edu/students/bulletin.aspx).
Current Graduate Students in Orchestral Conducting
Nicholas Chong, MM
Tung Chieh Chuang, MM
Thomas Heuser, DMA; webmaster; Adjunct Faculty, Xavier University;
Music Director, UC Symphony Orchestra, www.uc.edu/groups/orchestra
Christopher Hill, DMA; Director of Orchestras, University of New Hampshire
Ryan Ho, MM
Aik Khai Pung, MM
Blake Richardson, DMA; Conducting Fellow with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, 2008-2009
Recent Students of the CCM Orchestral Conducting Program
Greg Anthony, MM
Nathaniel Beversluis, MM
Jungho Kim, MM; Assistant Conductor, Sioux City Symphony
Yorgos Kouritas, MM; DMA in Orchestral Conducting, Eastman School of Music
Bryan Perri, MM
Fritz Stewart, MM
Jackson Warren, MM; DMA Fellow, James E. Rogers Institute for Orchestral and Opera Conducting,
School of Music, University of Arizona
Johannes Müller-Stosch, MM; Director of Orchestral Studies, Cal State Long Beach;
Music Director, Holland Symphony Orchestra
DMA Studies:
Brian Cole, Associate Dean, Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music
Petar Dundjerski, Assistant Conductor, Edmonton Symphony Orchestra
Lance Inouye, Sarasota Opera
Angela Santangelo, Conductor, Great Wall Festival; Resident Conductor, Starling Showcase Orchestra
Bradley Thachuk, Associate Conductor, Ft. Wayne Philharmonic
Xian Zhang, Associate Conductor, New York Philharmonic
Maestro Lorin Maazel with first prize winner Xian Zhang after the 2000 Maazel/Vilar Conducting Competition
