Cincinnati Business Courier: CCM performances included in year-end list of great musical moments

Classical music writer Janelle Gelfand recently looked back on 2021’s local arts offerings for the Cincinnati Business Courier, and she included two CCM productions in her roundup of “great musical memories” from the last year.

Gelfand declared CCM's COVID Etude Project as the "most creative COVID project" of 2021. Developed by CCM faculty members Soyeon Kate Lee and Ran Dank, this unique multimedia project culminated in three concert streams featuring CCM piano students performing complete sets of etudes by composers Franz Liszt, Claude Debussy and William Bolcom. Originally broadcast March 26-28 while the CCM Village was still closed to in-person audiences, the project included performances from CCM's Robert J. Werner Recital Hall as well as a variety of other performance spaces throughout the world. Watch the first installment below and view all three virtual concerts on demand here.

CCM reopened its halls to in-person audiences in Fall 2021, and Gelfand also included the Nov. 18-21 production of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro in her list of highlights for the last year. She writes, "Staging by Robin Guarino, professor of opera, allowed each character to shine. The high caliber of singing – through face masks, no less — and the playing by the pit orchestra made it necessary to keep reminding myself that these were students." Learn more about the opera.

Read the full Cincinnati Business Courier story here.

Featured image: CCM Opera and Voice students perform in the Fall 2021 production of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro. Photo/Mark Lyons.