'Rising-star' student conducts in Cincinnati Opera's Digital Winter Festival

Since last summer, Langley has been spending a lot of time teaching and preparing extensively for performances that have been postponed. Like many musicians, however, he has more free time on his schedule than usual.

“I took up cooking and had my fair share of days where chopping onions served as a double whammy of sorts … an escape from the weight of the world and a good cry, all while trying my hand at a number of things in the kitchen," Langley says of his time early in the pandemic. "I made time to read for pleasure again after years of never having time to do so, binged a few shows and revisited a number of my favorite movies, and went on long walks with my best friend."

In the Cincinnati Opera’s winter festival, Langley serves as the conductor for “Wanderlust,” a potpourri concert premiering digitally on March 5. Other performers for this concert include Grammy-nominated soprano Talise Trevigne, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra music director Louis Langrée on the piano, and musicians from concert:nova.

“The concert was scheduled to be recorded in August 2020 but had to be postponed until September due to a rise in COVID-19 cases in Hamilton County," Langley says. "We rehearsed and recorded the concert in the Wilks Studio at Music Hall downtown over the course of a few days. The ensemble was carefully spaced out and everyone was masked, with the exception of wind players while they were playing.”

These precautions are becoming second-nature to musicians these days. In the early months of the pandemic, very little information was available about the risks of wind playing or singing in groups, including what types of personal protective equipment ameliorate risks in those settings. Langley was scheduled to make his conducting debut with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra last summer with a performance in Washington Park, but that performance, as well as all the Cincinnati Opera’s regular summer season, was canceled.