Business Courier: CSO presents 'spellbinding' concert with CCM student singers

CCM boasts a top-notch opera and vocal performance program, and these students shone in the spotlight at Music Hall last weekend. The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra featured 10 CCM student soloists and the CCM Chamber Choir, led by Earl Rivers, in its performances of Ravel’s L’Enfant et les sortilèges, or “The Child and the Sorceries,” on Feb. 7 and 8, 2020.

In her review of the concert for the Cincinnati Business Courier, Janelle Gelfand described the entire staged production as “a spellbinding feat that blended a cast of terrific young singers with whimsical animations.”

“It was a stroke of genius to employ opera singers from the Opera Department of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, who added youthfulness as well as vibrant voices to the wondrous score,” wrote Gelfand.

The performance featured Grammy-winning mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard in the title role. CCM students who performed as soloists are Yewon Yoon, coloratura; Raven McMillon, coloratura; Anyeé Farrar, coloratura; Elana Bell, mezzo-soprano; Joyner Horn, mezzo-soprano; Georgia Jacobson, mezzo-soprano; Brenda Iglesias Zarco, mezzo soprano; Victor Cardamone, tenor; Ryan Wolfe, bass, and Antonio Cruz, baritone.

This weekend, the onstage partnership between CCM and the CSO continues. On Saturday, Feb. 15, the CSO’s Music Director Louis Langrée will join the CCM Philharmonia in Corbett Auditorium for a concert of symphonic favorites, including Debussy’s Prélude à L’après-midi d’un faune and Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique. Kara Huber, a CCM doctoral candidate and Grammy-nominated pianist, will perform as the soloist on Ravel’s Piano Concerto for the Left Hand. Tickets are available through the CCM Box Office.

CCM and the CSO have long worked together on various projects; many of the musicians of the CSO are on faculty at CCM, and CCM alumni often find employment with the symphony as musicians or administrators. One significant development in this symbiotic relationship is the CSO/CCM Diversity Fellowship, a program generously funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation that provides an unparalleled two-year learning experience for graduate-level violin, viola, violoncello and double bass players coming from populations that are historically underrepresented in classical music. These students perform alongside the CSO for five weeks of the performance season and receive several stipends from the CCM and the CSO.

More information on the CCM Philharmonia’s Saturday, Feb. 15, concert with Louis Langrée is available online and in the event information below.

 Story by CCM Graduate Student Alexandra Doyle