WVXU’s ‘Around Cincinnati’ features CCM Professor Michael Chertock in its final broadcast

Around Cincinnati aired its final broadcast on Sunday, August 23. The program included John Kiesewetter’s interview with the owners of Augusta’s Rosemary Clooney House, Rick Pender’s interview with Playhouse in the Park actor Bruce Cromer, Brian O’Donnell’s interview with musicians Over the Rhine, and Anne Arenstein’s “bucket list” interview with CCM Piano Department Chair and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra pianist Michael Chertock.

Chertock shares memories and stories about his education and career, including how he first came to Cincinnati. When he was a senior in high school, Chertock met CCM’s former Piano Department Chair Frank Weinstock at the Eastern Music Festival. Weinstock, who later served as CCM’s associate dean and interim dean, told Chertock all about Cincinnati and convinced him to audition for CCM.

“I visited on an audition as a senior in high school and immediately loved the conservatory and the city and have pretty much lived here since the mid 1980s and have always enjoyed it,” Chertock told Arenstein. “Just the beauty of the town itself and what an important place that music seems to hold in the life of the city.”

Chertock earned bachelor and master of music degrees in piano from CCM. Shortly after graduating, he began working as a pianist at the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and he worked on a series of recordings of piano music. He has traveled the across the U.S. and internationally performing with the Philadelphia Orchestra, l'Orchestre Symphonique du Montreal, Toronto Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Naples Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony, Chattanooga Symphony, Utah Symphony, Oregon Symphony and more. In addition to playing piano at the CSO and teaching at CCM, Chertock is also the conductor of the Blue Ash Montgomery Symphony Orchestra.