www.tatianaberman.com

2012-01-18T20:41:00.000-08:00

SHUT UP AND PLAY THE ZAPPA!
January 22, 2012 8pm
20th Century Theater
3021 Madison Road, Oakley

More info
Advance Tickets: $35 General/ $20 Students
Door tickets: $40 General/ $25 Students
Click here to purchase!

Mark your calendars!

Frank Zappa is a man whose work is iconclastic, political, virtuosic, scatological, and brilliant. An outspoken advocate for the rights of musicians and artists to express themselves free from government intervention, he often stretched and broke through the boundaries of good taste in his own work. His career was one of a mix of popular music, 20th century art music, theater and humor, independent and unique. He was also an acute and careful observer and commentator of politics and humanity, and often cloaked his observations in scathing humor.

His extraordinarily demanding music left him often unsatisfied with the efforts of live classical musicians, until near the end of his life, when collaborations with Kent Nagano, Pierre Boulez and the Ensemble Modern left us with a legacy of demanding, quirky and fascinating works for chamber ensembles. Our program includes much of this zany ensemble music of Zappa but will also showcase his two main classical influences, Igor Stravinsky and Edgar Varese. Intensely compelled by both composers, one famous story unfolds: During a period as a child, he listened non-stop to the music of Varese. He couldn't figure out why his mother wanted him to move into another room to listen to this music. "But mom, listen to the siren!"

Program to include: G-Spot Tornado, Outrage at Valdez, The Perfect Stranger, Be-Bop Tango, Peaches En Regalia, and more!

2011-11-03T20:32:00.000-07:00

Seven Hills Sinfonietta

November 13, 2011, 3:00 p.m.

B’nai Tzedek, 6280 Kugler Mill Road, Cincinnati, OH 45236

William C. White, guest conductor
Nancy Illman & Tatiana Berman, violins

Mendelssohn, Fingal’s Cave, Op. 26
J.S. Bach, Double Violin Concerto, BWV. 1043
Beethoven, Symphony No. 8, Op. 93

http://dsch.com/7hs/?page_id=19

2011-10-24T21:53:00.000-07:00

Constella presents:
Double Deal: String + Jazz Quartets
Featuring Ted Nash, saxophone

Saturday, October 29, 2011 | 8pm and 10pm
The Blue Wisp Jazz Club | Cincinnati, OH
This world premiere event at Cincinnati’s renowned Blue Wisp Jazz Club features Grammy-nominated jazz composer and arranger Ted Nash in collaboration with Cincinnati jazz and classical musicians. A world premiere composition for string and jazz double quartets will be performed, commissioned to commemorate Constella’s inaugural season. In order to best accommodate our patrons, there will be two seatings – 8pm and 10pm.

Jazz Quartet MusiciansRusty Burge, vibraphone
Dan Karlsberg, piano
Jim Leslie, drums
Michael Sharfe, acoustic bass

String Quartet Musicians

Tatiana Berman, violin

Suzanna Barnes, violin

Yael Senamaud-Cohen, viola

Susan Marshall-Petersen, cello

Composer and multi-instrumentalist Ted Nash has an important association with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis. A recent commission by the JLCO, “Portrait in Seven Shades,” was recorded by the Orchestra and released in February 2010. This recording marks the first-ever JLCO release devoted to original music by a band member other than Wyton Marsalis, and has been credited by Ted Panken in Downbeat Magazine as marking a new direction for the Orchestra. Nash has been cited as “rising star” on saxophone for several years in the Downbeat Magazine Critics Poll and his CDs have often appeared in top ten CD lists by New York Times, Village Voice, Boston Globe, The New Yorker and Jazz Times Magazine. For more information about Nash, please visit http://www.tednash.com/.

Tickets for this concert will be sold exclusively through the Constella Festival.

Tickets: $15 (General Admission) and $10 (Student Rush 1 Hour Prior with Valid ID)

Buy Tickets »

2011-10-22T19:57:00.000-07:00

Classical Revolution:Cincinnati - Constella Festival Edition

Where: Back Room of the Northside Tavern.

When: Sunday October 23, 2011 @ 8pm

4163 Hamilton Avenue, Cincinnati, OH 45223

Classical Revolution is proud and excited to perform this special event in conjunction with the Constella Festival!
Featuring: The Elysium Saxophone Quartet, The Ohio River Brass Quintet, the Revolution Quintet, Tatiana Berman and more!

2011-10-15T20:02:00.001-07:00

Constella presents:
Piazzolla, Prokofiev and Pointe Shoes

Saturday, October 15, 2011 | 6:00pm
Mickey Jarson Kaplan Performance Studio @ Cincinnati Ballet Center| Cincinnati, OH

Chamber music meets the ballet for Piazzolla, Prokofiev and Pointe Shoes. In this program Constella Festival presents two new world premiere works by a creative team of choreographers: Heather Britt, James Cunningham, Andrew Hubbard, Stephen Jacobsen and Missy Lay Zimmer (photos above). Featuring dancers from the Cincinnati Ballet and Exhale Dance Tribe and concert:nova musicians together on stage, the program will include a new choreography set to the music of Sergei Prokofiev’s Quintet, Op. 39. A beautiful duet of dancers will perform to Richard Rodgers’ and Lorenz Hart’s “My Funny Valentine.” The program will conclude with another new choreography set to the music of “Histoire du Tango” by Ástor Pantaleón Piazzolla, which outlines the history of tango in four musical movements from different time periods. Musicians include Boris Astafiev (double bass), Tatiana Berman (violin), Richard Goering (guitar), Jonathan Gunn (clarinet), Timothy Lees (violin), Dwight Parry (oboe) and Joanne Wojtowicz (viola).

concert:nova is an exploratory chamber ensemble that performs traditional and contemporary classical music, presenting world class chamber music in diverse and unusual venues using interdisciplinary collaboration to illuminate the music. Partnerships with dancers, actors and visual artists bring a unique dimension to performances, illustrating each musical work in a modern and powerful way.

For more information about concert:nova, please visit http://concertnova.com/.
For more information about the Cincinnati Ballet, please visit http://www.cballet.org/.

Tickets: $30 (General Admission) and $10 (Student Rush 1 Hour Prior with Valid ID)

Buy Tickets »

2011-10-04T06:48:00.001-07:00

Friday, October 14, 2011 | 6:30pm Fifth Third Bank Theater @ The Aronoff Center for the Arts | Cincinnati, OH

Taking place at the intimate black box Fifth Third Bank Theater at the Aronoff Center for the Arts, Queen City Connections will feature a candlelit chamber music performance by New York Philharmonic principal oboist Liang Wang and several of Cincinnati’s finest musicians including Tatiana Berman, Nathaniel Chaitkin, Jasmine Choi, Dwight Parry, Anna Reider, Yael Senamaud-Cohen and Matthew Zory.

Wang may be familiar to local audiences as he was previously principal oboist of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in 2005-2006. The program will feature selections from Albinoni, Beach, Mozart and Arnold. A post-concert reception will be held immediately following the show at the Alice F. and Harris K. Weston Art Gallery. Additional information about Liang Wang can be found at www.liangoboe.com.

Tickets for this concert will be sold exclusively through the Constella Festival.

Buy Tickets »

Express Cincinnati, October 2011

2011-10-04T06:46:00.000-07:00

An article about Constella Festival
Express Cincinnati

Soapboxmedia.com October 4, 2011

2011-10-04T06:45:00.000-07:00

Development News

New festival draws international attention

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 04, 2011

RELATED IMAGES

DOWNTOWN

Violinist Tatiana Berman loves a good challenge. When the Russian-born transplant saw how little the world knew about Cincinnati’s arts community, she looked for ways to raise her adopted town’s international profile.

She reached out to personal friends and artists she knows and soon the Constella Music Festival was born. Constella brings traditional chamber music, dance and visual art to the heart of the city, downtown. Guest artists, many from Cincinnati, have already achieved international acclaim. For Berman, planning multi-faceted performances that mix and match genres makes the interdisciplinary celebration unique.

“I’ve always enjoyed experiencing many forms of music and art,” Berman says. “They are simply different languages to express feelings and ideas.”

Ballet will be performed while chamber music plays; jazz will be paired with classical piano; romantic Russian piano will accompany visual art displays. One concert will take place in a candle-lit theater.

Constella, with events, spanning three and a half weeks and a variety of venues, allows for a wide range of guest players and audience members to participate. Violinists Joshua Bell and Hilary Hanh, saxophone player, Ted Nash and pianist Alexander Toradze are just a few of the many performers.

Berman founded the event last year and held special events leading up to the first performance, slated for Oct. 13. Berman hopes for plenty of community support to keep the inaugural festival in the spotlight. So far, response has been overwhelmingly positive.

“Every idea needs time to be accepted, but already, so many have shown their support,” Berman says. “I think there is an appreciation that Constella is bringing national and international visibility and talent to Cincinnati.”

By Evan Wallis

http://www.soapboxmedia.com/devnews/021011constella.aspx

2011-09-22T19:22:00.000-07:00

September 25 @ 5pm

Music with a View

Location: The Kenwood by Senior Star
5435 Kenwood Road
Cincinnati, OH, USA

http://www.eventbee.com/v/constellamusicwithaview

Piazzolla: Histoire du Tango

Prokofiev: Quintet op. 39

Timothy Lees - principal violin, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
Tatiana Berman - violin, concert:nova + Constella Festival Founder and Artistic Director
Dwight Parry - principal oboe, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
Jonathan Gunn - principal clarinet, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
Joanne Wojtowicz - viola, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
Boris Astafiev - bass, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra

2011-09-22T19:16:00.000-07:00

IMS Prussia Cove 2011

Concert Programmes in Cornwall

Friday 16 September, 7.30pm – St Buryan Church

Shostakovich - Piano Quintet in G minor, Op.57 (1940)Tatiana Berman, Diana Galvydyte, violin; Hannah Shaw, violin; Christoph Marks, cello; Elisabeth Leonskaja, piano

Saturday 17 September, 2.00pm – St Michael’s Mount

Gideon Klein - Trio for Violin, Viola and Cello (1944) Tatiana Berman, violin; Emma Richards, viola; Matthew Huber, cello

http://www.i-m-s.org.uk/concerts/programmes/

2011-08-09T12:52:00.000-07:00

http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=7677

Estonia
Pärnu (Concert Hall)
08/02/2011 -
Johann Sebastian Bach: Concerto for Two Violins and String Orchestra in D Minor, BWV 1043
Erkki-Sven Tüür: Action.Passion.Illusion
Aaron Copland: Suite from “Appalachian Spring” for 13 Instruments
Fritz Kreisler: Liebesleid – Schön Rosmarin
Antonio Vivaldi: Concerto for Four Violins and String Orchestra in B Minor, Op. 3, No. 10

Ivry Gitlis and Friends

Ivry Gitlis, Tatiana Berman, Anna-Liisa Bezrodny, Miina Järvi, Mari-Liis Päkk, Triin Ruubel, Mari-Liis Ubio (Violin)

Estonian National Youth Chamber Orchestra, Paavo Järvi, Naoki Tokuoka, Martin Sildos, Edward Farmer, Rachel Grubb, Jie Li, Antoine López, Kaspar Mind, Florian Donderer (Conductors)

Ivry Gitlis (Courtesy of the Artist)

It is doubtful that anyone who heard violinist Ivry Gitlis perform Fritz Kreisler’s Liebesleid with the Estonian National Youth Chamber Orchestra August 2 in Pärnu, Estonia will soon forget it.It was a program number and an encore – an encore of an encore – since the audience in Pärnu’s intimate (896-seat) Concert Hall simply would not let him go. The concert, part of the first International Järvi Summer Festival, was titled “Ivry Gitlis and Friends,” and the 88-year-old virtuoso shared the stage with six young violinists (“friends”) in a program that also included Vivaldi’sConcerto for Four Violins in B Minor and Bach’sConcerto for Two Violins in D Minor. The conductor was Paavo Järvi.The event also marked the final concert of the annual Järvi International Conductors Academy with students of the Academy conducting Estonian composer Erkki-Sven Tüür’s 1993 Action.Passion.Illusion for string orchestra and the Suite from Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Springarranged for 13 instruments (1945).

Israeli-born Gitlis is a much-revered figure, legendary as one of the 20th century’s greatest violinists. Though slower now walking on and off the stage, there was nothing diminished in his musicianship or his ability to communicate a musical message. He took his place in the Vivaldi with violinists Tatiana Berman, Miina Järvi, and Mari-Liis Päkk in a May-December demonstration unique to behold. It had propulsion and finesse, neither stylistically baroque nor romantic, but something in between, a kind of meeting of personalities that made its case and proved satisfying to the crowd. At the conclusion, Gitlis kissed each soloist’s hand and blew kisses to Järvi on the podium.

In the Bach Double Concerto, Gitlis partnered with a different violinist in each movement: Mari-Liis Uibo in theVivace, Anna-Liisa Bezrodny in the Largo and Triin Ruubel in the Allegro finale. Of the three, Bezrodny was the most successful in conforming her sound and interpretation to his, though stylistic differences ultimately mattered little. There were flowers for all as they returned to the stage to share a corporate bow.

The Conducting Academy students performed successive movements of the Tüür and Copland, each approaching the podium and taking over from the previous conductor without losing a beat. Naoki Tokuoka of Taiwan opened the concert with Tüür’s Action, giving the music a visual dimension with baton-less boxing and corkscrew gestures. Estonian Martin Sildos followed him, stealing into Passionalmost noiselessly. The movement, written in Tüür’s earlier, Arvo Pärt-influenced style, bears comparison to Samuel Barber’s Adagio for strings, and Sildos built it to almost unbearable intensity. Edward Farmer of the U.K. crafted Illusion with strong, emphatic beats, bringing the work to a fully-rounded conclusion. The three conductors called Tüür, who lives on Hiiumaa Island off the coast of Estonia the Baltic, to the stage for a bow.

Appalachian Spring was led by, in order, Rachel Grubb (U.S.A.), Jie Li (China), Antoine López (U.S.A.), Kaspar Mind (Estonia) and Florian Donderer (Germany). Each invested life and color into the music and yielded the baton smoothly to her/his successor.

It was Gitlis, however, who made the evening unforgettable. He played two pieces by Kreisler, Liebesleidand Schön Rosmarin, treating each with the utmost affection. He worked hand-in-glove with Järvi, approaching the podium for close communication and bending each piece with sly ritards and lifts of the bow, as if inviting a conversation with his listeners. Järvi accomodated every nuance, beaming smiles at both Gitlis and the audience.

In response to rhythmic clapping and a standing ovation, Gitlis played the second movement of Bach’s Violin Concerto in E Major. He played it slowly and beautifully, seeming to suspend time, prompting a second encore:Liebesleid redux and rarefied.

Mary Ellyn Hutton

2011-08-09T12:20:00.000-07:00

http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=7674

Estonia
Ammende Villa, Pärnu
07/31/2011 -
Amy Beach: Theme and Variations for Flute and String Quartet in F-sharp Minor, Op. 80
Ernest Bloch: Prayer “from Jewish Life,” No. 1
Edward Elgar: La Capricieuse, Op. 17
Einar Englund: Introduktsioon ja tokaata
Alexander Glazunov: Spanish Serenade, Op. 20, No. 2
Madis Järvi Moment
Ester Mägi: Flaps of the Night
Gian Carlo Menotti: “Steal Me, Sweet Thief” from The Old Maid and the Thief
Astor Piazzolla: Ave Maria
Manuel Ponce: Estrellita
Robert Schumann: Adagio and Allegro in A-flat Major, Op. 70
Elizabeth Paavel (soprano)
Marius Järvi, Teet Järvi (cello), Maarika Järvi (flute), Mari Järvi, Mihkel Järvi (piano), Tatiana Berman, Miina Järvi, Martin Järvi (violin), Madis Järvi (viola)

The stuffed eagle, wings outspread, hovering over the foyer of landmark Ammende Villa in Pärnu, Estonia, was witness along with a full house, to chamber music by Estonia’s first family of music, the Järvi’s, July 31. Dubbed “Night Music with Järvi’s,” it was an 11-course feast, with selections by, among others, Astor Piazzolla, Alexander Glazunov, Edward Elgar, Manuel Ponce and Amy Beach. The flavor was robustly Järvi, with virtually the entire program performed by relatives (by blood or marriage) of family patriarch, conductor Neeme Järvi. It was the third of five concerts of chamber music during the International Järvi Summer Festival July 28-August 4 in Pärnu.

It was 21.00 (9 p.m.) and still light in this northern country on the Baltic Sea, now enjoying its summer respite from the darker, colder months of the year. Ammende Villa, a 1905 Art Nouveau gem built by a wealthy German merchant who came to Estonia in the 18th century, is now a luxury hotel with a famed restaurant and gilded age ambiance second to none. The musicians performed at the far end of the foyer, with people seated before, beside and above them for a cozy, intimate experience. Ammende Villa is often the site of such events, musical and otherwise, and this was a choice evening for festival-goers.

One or more of the family of Teet Järvi (nephew of Neeme), his wife Mari and their children, Marius, Miina, Mihkel, Madis and Martin, and flutist Maarika Järvi (daughter of Neeme) took part in every number on the program. Cellist Marius and pianist Mihkel opened with a performance of Schumann’s Adagio and Allegro that was warm and touching (Adagio) as well as bright and animated (Allegro). Marius handled Glazunov’s Spanish Serenade with rhythmic flair, accompanied by Mari on piano. Teet was joined by Mari in Bloch’s somber, earnestPrayer, the pair returning later in the concert for a soulfulAve Maria by Piazzolla.

Violinist Tatiana Berman lit up the concert with a pair of miniatures, Mexican composer Manuel Ponce’s charmingEstrellita (“Little Star”) and Elgar’s perky, spiccato-ladenCapriceuse, in both of which she was accompanied ably by Mari. Pianist Mihkel had an arresting star turn in Finnish composer Einar Englund’s dramatic Introduction and Toccata (1950), as did Marius in his brother Madis’ angular, athletic Moment (2006) for solo cello. Estonian soprano Elizabeth Paavel performed two numbers, Flaps of the Night (2002) by Ester Mägi, grande dame of Estonian music, and the aria “Steal Me, Sweet Thief” from Menotti’s opera The Old Maid and the Thief. In the former, she was accompanied by Mari, with Miina, Madis, Marius and Tatiana Berman joining in the latter.

The grand finale was Amy Beach’s Theme and Variations for Flute and String Quartet. Composed in 1916, it is an impressive work, with six variations on a nostalgic theme (from Beach’s own “Indian Lullaby”), announced by the strings alone. Flutist Maarika Järvi added her lustrous sound to the string texture in the first, cadenza-like variation. Succeeding variations were dance-like (two and three) with spiccato strings and flute in number four and the instruments sharing melodic interest in number five. It ended with a fugue and a return of the opening theme, bringing the gracious evening to a full-voiced close.

Mary Ellyn Hutton

Jarvi Festival!

2011-07-25T13:17:00.001-07:00

Playing chamber music with the Jarvis and Vivaldi Concerto for 4 violins with Ivry Gitlis!
http://jarvifestival.ee/program/

Tatiana Berman for Soapbox

2011-07-25T13:12:00.000-07:00

TATIANABERMAN

www.soapboxmedia.com

Tatiana Berman has a slight frame and big ambitions. The Soviet-born concert violinist first took up a bow at the age of 5, and she hasn't looked back since. This fall, she launches the Constella Festival, which features 13 multi-disciplinary events highlighting the best in music and art in both Cincinnati and around the world.

Name: Tatiana Berman

Age: Is just a number
Job title: Violinist, artistic director @ Constella Festival of Music and Fine Arts
City of birth: Moscow, Russia
Years in Cincinnati: 7
Neighborhood where you live: Hyde Park

Space that inspires you: Alms Park. The tranquility of nature is relaxing and inspiring. I can breathe more deeply and clear my thoughts. Energizing trails and beautiful views of Cincinnati.

Why you live in Cincinnati: My spaceship broke and I'm still looking for spare parts, help! Kidding aside, I enjoy the balance of the well-paced life and the vibrant and innovative artistic energy of the people in Cincinnati.

If Cincinnati were a tree, it would be . . . a mix between a cherry blossom, a buckeye and a maple tree. New beginnings whilst keeping traditions but ever-changing.

2011-06-24T12:26:00.001-07:00

July 6, 2011

Make it a whole evening with Cincinnat Art Museum's Box Dinners!

DON'T WAIT TO BUY YOUR TICKETS!!

The Art of Dance

July 6, 2011

6:00pm Doors open
6:30-7:30 * NEW! * Box Dinners and Cash Bar (see below for more information)
Enjoy your dinner al fresco in the Museum's lovely sculpture garden!

7:30pm Performance
Cincinnati Art Museum - Alice Bimel Courtyard
953 Eden Park Drive Cincinnati OH 45206 (view directions)

concert:nova's Season Four Finale! The expansive vision of celebrated choreographer Martha Graham in the 1940's gave us two timeless classics: the glorious Appalachian Spring by Aaron Copland and electricCave of the Heart by Samuel Barber. Now staples of both dance and orchestral repertoire, c:n stays true to Graham's spirit of innovation with modern choreography by Heather Britt and Dancers of the Cincinnati Ballet. Set in the beautiful Alice Bimel outdoor courtyard at the Cincinnati Museum of Art, this enchanting evening is a celebration of both the music and art of dance.

Music by Aaron Copland and Samuel Barber
Choreography by Heather Britt and Dancers of the Cincinnati Ballet
concert:nova musicians conducted by Edwin Outwater

TICKETS
$25 general admission
$15 student with ID

BOX DINNERS
$15 for your choice of Turkey Panini with Potato Salad
or Hummus Plate with Vegetables, Pita, Brie and Fruit Skewers

Call the 24/7 Ticket Hotline: 1-800-838-3006
or Cincinnati Art Museum: 513-721-ARTS

or purchase ONLINE at

NOVA:Pass season ticket holders, please RSVP to concertnova@gmail.com! If you'd like to add on a box dinner, you may purchase those HERE.

In partnership with:

This concert is made possible by:

and generous support from c:n Season Sponsors Tom & Dee Stegman and Randolph & Sallie Wadsworth, and Concert Sponsors Jim & Fran Allen

This performance is co-sponsored by:

The Performers
Violin: Timothy Lees, Heidi Yenney, Maxine Kuo and Tatiana Berman

Viola: Joanne Wojtowicz, Rebe Barnes

Cello: Ilya Finkelstein & Theodore Nelson

Bass: Owen Lee

Flute: Randolph Bowman
Oboe: Dwight Parry
Clarinet: Ixi Chen & Jonathan Gunn
Bassoon: Jennifer Monroe
Horn: Lisa Conway
Piano: Julie Spangler

Dancers:
Stephen Jacobsen
Jimmy Cunningham
Thomas Caleb Roberts
Maizyalet Velazquez
Erin Crall
Annie Honebrink
Courtney Connor
Aaron Hanekamp

Edwin Outwater
One of North America’s most creative, dynamic, and engaging conductors, Edwin Outwater is music director of the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony in Ontario, Canada. Now in his fourth season, he has revitalized the orchestra and gained international attention for his innovative projects and brilliant performances. An internationally sought-after conductor, the Washington Post describes Edwin Outwater as having "a lyric sensibility and a gift for blending high drama with subtle, convincing emotion." He is currently music director of the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony in Ontario, Canada and has previously served as resident conductor of the San Francisco Symphony. Visit his website www.edwinoutwater.com.

2011-01-19T06:42:00.000-08:00

http://www.musicincincinnati.com/site/reviews/A_Day_to_Remember_at_HUC_printer.html

From Music in Cincinnati

A Day to Remember at HUC

Posted in: Reviews

By Mary Ellyn Hutton
Jan 18, 2011 - 10:38:08 AM

The Constella Trio. Left ro right: violinist Tatiana Berman, cellist Ilya Fnkelshteyn and violist Yael Senamaud

There was a birthday January 16 in Scheuer Chapel at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Clifton. Also a debut and a world premiere.

The birthday belonged to Bonia Shur, 88, Director of Liturgical Arts (emeritus) at HUC. The debut was by the Constella Trio, violinist Tatiana Berman, violist Yael Senamaud and cellist Ilya Finkelshteyn. The world premiere was Shur’s “Kol Nidre” for solo viola performed by Senamaud.

The chapel was full to overflowing for the late afternoon concert, and extra chairs had to be moved in to accommodate the crowd. All of which augured well for what was also the inauguration of a new concert series at Scheuer Chapel. It is a welcoming space, with well-balanced acoustics that have served chamber music well in the past. One looks forward to upcoming events.

Bonia Shur

Nothing could have been more fitting to open the concert than a work by Shur, a versatile and distinguished composer with a world of music to his credit, not only liturgical, but scores for film, television, theater and dance. (Among other things, Shur collaborated with Johnny Mandel on the score for the hit 1966 film “The Russians are Coming, the Russians are Coming.”)

Born in Latvia, Shur escaped the Nazi invasion, fought in the Russian army in World War II and lived in a kibbutz in Israel before immigrating to the U.S. in 1960. He settled in Cincinnati when he took up his post at HUC in 1974. He and his wife and collaborator, choreographer Fanchon Schur, were warmly greeted by the Scheuer Chapel crowd.

Senamaud did the honors with Schur’s “Kol Nidre,” a setting of the traditional Jewish prayer for Yom Kippur. It is a searching, soulful work from the playbook of Johann Sebastian Bach, with daunting multiple stops for the viola, some in high positions on the instrument. The room was hushed as Senamaud applied her plush tone to its keening lines, earning a warm ovation from the crowd and a kiss on the hand from Shur.

There was an interpolation on the program occasioned by the Cincinnati Pops matinee concert downtown at Music Hall, which delayed Finkelshteyn’s arrival at Scheuer (he is principal cellist of the Cincinnati Symphony and Pops Orchestras). No problem. Berman and Senamaud filled in with the Duo for Violin and Viola in G Major by Mozart – and very handily, too, for an on-the-spot command performance. Their blend was delicious, Berman playing on a 1770 Joannes Gagliano violin on loan from Jules Azzi. There was plenty of energy and propulsion in the outer movements and a lovely, arioso-like slow movement.

“There’s a cellist in the house,” announced host Jonathan Cohen, Director of The Ethics Center and Outreach Education at HUC, introducing Finkelshteyn, who joined Berman and Senamaud in a supple reading of Schubert’s one-movement Trio in B-flat Major, D.471. They followed with Beethoven’s Trio Op. 9, No. 2 in D Major. Beethoven’s four-movement, thorough-going work showed the Constella Trio to be a hndsome addition to the local chamber music scene, where string trios are less represented than string quartets and ensembles with piano. Finkelshteyn’s svelte tone complemented the higher voices beautifully, and there was a real sense of camaraderie within the group. Everyone sang in the slow movement and joined forces in the verve and merriment of the Rondo Allegro finale.

Highlight of the program was Czech composer Gideon Klein’s String Trio, written in 1944, when Klein was in charge of musical activities at Terezin concentration camp. It is an amazing work, a beacon amid the darkness, penned just two weeks before he was deported for Auschwitz at the age of 26.

A cheerful opening movement, capped by a spreading cello chord gave way to a set of variations on a Moravian tune, the heart of the work and its longest movement. Lest anyone get too introspective, however, the trio closes with a short, sassy finale, a rustic dance announced with stamina by Berman.

For reasons of time, the Trio closed with the final movement of Erno Dohnanyi’s Serenade, Op. 10, rather than the complete work. It is upbeat music -- literally upbeat, at the beginning, where scampering sixteenth notes follow a declamatory chord. It was fun to follow along and in particular, to hear Finkelshteyn set up Berman’s restatement of the gutsy Hungarian theme high on her violin’s lowest string.

The concert was preceded by a tribute to Shur, including a slide show, presentation of HUC’s Lifetime Achievement Award by Dean Ken Ehrlich and a proclamation from the faculty by faculty chair Richard Sarason.

2010-12-22T20:46:00.000-08:00

CONSTELLA TRIO

Tatiana Berman

Ilya Finkelshteyn

Yael Senamaud

January 16, 2011 @ 4.30pm

Schueur Chapel, Hebrew Union College

3101 Clifton Avenue, Cincinnati OH 45220

513 402 2482

http://huc.edu/external/email/10/12/constella_trio/

January 18, 2011 @ 7pm

104 Center for Performing Arts, Oxford, OH 45056

Souers Recital Hall, Oxford Campus, Miami University

http://arts.muohio.edu/node/14884

Program

Bonia Shur – Kol Nidre (HUC concert)

Franz Schubert – Unfinished Trio in B flat major, D.471
Ludwig von Beethoven – String Trio in D major, Opus 9, No. 2

Gideon Klein – Trio (Terezin 1944)
Erno Von Dohnanyi – Serenade Opus 10

2010-12-02T10:58:00.000-08:00

December 1, 2010

http://expresscincinnati.p2ionline.com/Flip/sitebase/index.aspx?adgroupid=133895&view=single&pageno=62&webstoryid=15396975&webstoryid2=15396975&FH=53 5

2010-10-15T19:31:00.001-07:00

Tatiana Berman - violin

Yael Senamaud-Cohen - viola

November 7, Sunday @ 3 pm

Northern Hills Fellowship

460 Fleming Road, Cincinnati, OH 45231

A. Joan Wolking

Concert Series 2010/11, the 12th Season

The program:

Bach: Allemanda, Double from Partita no.1 for violin solo in b minor BWV 1002

Bach: Prelude, Allemande, Courante from the Cello Suite no. 6 in D major BWV 1012

Mozart: Duo in G, K 423

Chailly: Improvisation for two

William Ryden: Three Rags for Violin and Viola

Handel-Halvorsen: Passacaglia

http://cpconcerts.synthasite.com/

2010-10-15T18:48:00.000-07:00

November 2 & 3, 2010 7pm
The Great Hall at the Cincinnati Art Museum

CONCERT:NOVA - TWO PART INVENTION

A festival of the Baroque

This two-night festival of the Baroque will showcase some of the most tantalizing works from the period 1600-1750, a time of dramatic expression and vigorous, highly ornamented art. The music of Bach, Telemann, Rameau, Albinoni, Handel and others will come together to transport you to the world of the rococo. What was a typical concert of the time like? What was happening in the world outside? It was a period of scientific discovery and reasoning, a time of exploration and settlement of new lands. What was the literature, architecture, philosophy and tone of the time?

Program // Part One:
Bach Two-Part Inventions
Bach Three-Part Inventions
Rameau Pieces de Clavecin No.5 (Randolph Bowman, flute; Vivian Montgomery, harpsichord)
Vivaldi Concerto for Oboe and Violin (Dwight Parry, oboe; Mauricio Aguiar, violin)
Bach Brandenburg Concerto No.3
Pärt Collage on the Theme B-A-C-H
Bach Arioso from Cantata 156

Program // Part Two:
Bach Two-Part Inventions
Bach Three-Part Inventions
Telemann Paris Quartet #12
Albinoni Sinfonia in G for Strings
Bach Brandenburg No. 2
Barber Capricorn Concerto
Handel Largo from "Xerxes" for strings and winds

Experience the brilliance of c:n soloists Randolph Bowman on flute, Dwight Parry on oboe, Mauricio Aguiar, Tatiana Berman, Gabriel Pegis and Anna Reider on violin along with guest harpsichordist Vivian Montgomery and trumpeters Robert Sullivan and Douglas Lindsay.

TICKETS

Tickets: Call 513-721-ARTS for reservations or click to purchase

2010-09-28T07:39:00.000-07:00

October 14, 2010 @11am

Cincinnati Symphony Club concert

Location:

Queen City Club

331 E 4th St

Cincinnati

Tatiana Berman-violin

Yael Senamaud-Cohen-viola

Mozart Duos

Chaille Improvisation for two

Handel-Halvorsen Passacaglia

2010-06-13T21:39:00.000-07:00

Classical Revolution Cincinnati!

Friday, June 18, 2010 at 9:00pm

Location:	York Street Cafe
Street:	738 York Street
City/Town:	Newport, KY
	View Map

Classical Revolution returns in full force for the International Viola Congress. Come check it at our new fantastic venue, the York Street Cafe.

Program highlights include:

Erno von Dohnanyi: Serenade for String Trio

Tatiana Berman - Violin

Yael Senamaud-Cohen - Viola

Luis Biava - Cello

Astor Piazzolla: Four Seasons

Yuliyan Stoyanov - Violin

Ellen Nettleton - Cello

Tim Smile - Piano

Astor Piazzolla: Histoire du Tango

Tatiana Berman - Violin

Richard Goering - Guitar

and our dear friends from QUINTASAURUS REX!!!!

Since we are hosting this event in collaboration with the International Viola Congress, there are a few surprises up our sleeves.....only way to find out is to be there........as always, the evening is free of charge and we ask very graciously you bring family and friends!

2010-04-26T20:08:00.000-07:00

http://www.musicincincinnati.com/site/reviews/What_s_for_Dinner.html

What's for Dinner?

Mary Ellyn Hutton
Posted: Apr 19, 2010 - 5:35:36 PM in reviews

Art – of all kinds – is what Sunday’s evening’s concert:nova presentation at the Midwest Culinary Institute, was all about.

To call it a “concert” would be too narrow, since boundary-busting is what concert:nova is all about.

Entitled “The Four Seasons,” the program encompassed music, of course, and not just Vivaldi’s iconic “The Four Seasons." Inter-linked with movements from the Vivaldi were Astor Piazzolla’s “The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires” and American composer Aaron Jay Kernis’ “The Four Seasons of Futurist Cuisine (1991).

Kernis’ work introduced another layer of artistry, drama and the spoken word, with guest narrator Naomi Lewin. Lewin is well known in Cincinnati for her distinguished career with radio station WGUC-FM, where she was a popular announcer, a creative programmer (the award-winning series “Classics for Kids”) and a personality/performer in her own right, having done guest narrations for numerous arts groups in town. Lewin is now afternoon drive-time announcer for classical radio station WQXR in New York City, but she likes to re-visit her former home (which she still misses, she says).

A team of MCI chefs led by Ed Smain carried the “Seasons” theme further by creating a meal for concert attendees in the Summit Restaurant. There was videography, also, to enhance the program. During the concert, a film of the chefs preparing dinner in the MCI kitchens was projected onto a screen behind the musicians. Created by Chris Higgenbothom, the film was cleverly synced with the music, making for some interesting “culinary commentary.”

The event’s seasonal theme also celebrated Earth Day (April 22).

It was a natural for concert:nova, which since its founding three years ago has presented multi-media programs of unusual creativity and breadth. (My favorite still remains Samuel Beckett's “Waiting for Godot” with Messiaen’s “Quartet for the End of Time” at Christ Church Cathedral in 2008).

Concert:nova artistic director Ixi Chen introduced the program, though she did not participate musically (she is a clarinetist with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra). The 12-piece ensemble comprised strings, plus Lewin and pianist Julie Spangler in the Kernis. Soloists were violinists Tatiana Berman and Maureen Nelson in movements from the Vivaldi concertos and Mauricio Aguiar and Anna Reider, who took turns performing the Piazzolla.

The concert was divided into four parts according to the seasons, beginning with autumn. Each season was introduced by Lewin, who was accompanied by violinist Manami White, cellist Christina Coletta and Spangler in the corresponding movement from Kernis’ work. His "Four Seasons of Futurist Cuisine" is a setting of texts from F.T. Marinetti’s “The Futurist’s Cookbook,” which takes a satirical whack at the Italian Futurist movement of the early 20^th-century. Taken together, the program made for a sumptuous mix of styles and sounds, from Italian baroque to Argentine tango and Kernis’ post-modern reflection on some of the overblown aspirations of the past century.

“We stand on the last promontory of the centuries,” declared Lewin in the “Manifesto” that opens Kernis’ work to melodramatic flourishes by the piano and strings. What the new century needs is a new cuisine, one able to nourish a population fit to cope with an “evermore high speed airborne life.”

Seasonal first was Kernis’ “Autumn Musical,” a rumbling, atmospheric movement depicting a peasant woman preparing chick peas in oil and vinegar, “seven capers, 25 liqueur cherries, 12 fried fishes,” a sip of wine and a roast quail the diners are only permitted to sniff before they rush out into the darkness.

Violinist Nelson followed with the considerably more contented peasants of Vivaldi’s "Autumn" ("L'autunno," first movement only). On the video screen were images of MCI cooks chopping vegetables briskly. Then it was Reider’s turn in Piazzolla’s “Autumn"("Otono"). Cellist Theodore Nelson introduced the to-die-for melody, which Reider took up with ravishing sound and considerable flair.

Kernis’ “Heroic Winter Dinner” followed, with Lewin describing the gustatory prescription for a group of soldiers about to depart for combat. This included raw meat, decadent sweets and a “final pellet of Parmesan cheese steeped in Marsala,” all set to appropriately turbulent music performed by White, Spangler and Coletta.

Berman put Vivaldi’s “Seasons” in "Winter" mode ("L'inverno”) with a brisk, beautifully ornamented performance of the Largo. She took the concluding Allegro at blitz speed to the final tumble on the ice. On screen, chef Jean-Robert de Cavel and others could be seen preparing onions, pineapple, garlic and potatoes.

Aguiar stepped up with Piazzolla’s “Winter" ("Invierno," which is actually summer in the Southern Hemisphere), a lush movement that conveyed passion, sweetness and a tongue-in-cheek quote from the storm in Vivaldi’s “Summer.”

After intermission, Lewin gave a delightfully stilted reading of Kernis’ “Springtime Meal of the Word in Liberty.” It opened with a parody of the first movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, appended with quotes from Richard Strauss, Bruckner and Wagner (“Grail” theme) for a Futurist style thumb-nosing of Romanticism that waxed positively passionate. The meal, for a pair of young, amorous scholars, included peppers, garlic, rose petals, bicarbonate of soda (“the infinitive of all culinary and digestive problems”), cod liver oil, tortellini and finally a bowl of strawberries poured over their heads by a buxom young girl. Members of c:n provided a riot of barnyard sounds in response.

Vivaldi’s "Spring" (La primavera,"first and second movements) was performed by Berman as de Cavel trimmed the skin from a chicken on the screen. Her exquisite Largo (with violist Heidi Yenney as the barking dog) unfolded as the chicken was wrapped in pastry.

Piazzolla’s frisky, slinky ”Spring" (Primavera”) had Reider sounding a soulful tango with plush pizzicato accompaniment by double bassist Boris Astafiev.

“Nocturnal Love” is the title of Kernis’ summer movement. Hot and steamy it was, too, with Coletta and Spangler floating a languorous melody as a pair of lovers relax on a patio in Capri. What do they get to eat? Ham soaked in milk, said Lewin, also oysters and Asti Spumante as they decide to follow the “fatigues of the table” with those of the bed. The audience was treated to Lewin’s trained mezzo voice, too, as she serenaded them at the end with “O sole mio.”

Violinist Nelson performed Vivaldi’s “Summer” ("L'estate") complete, loosing the full-blown storm movement with muscle and musical conviction after an appropriately timorous Adagio. Aguiar returned with Piazzolla’s “Summer" (Verano”) a lively movement with double-stopped slides, a quote from Vivaldi’s “Winter” (naturally) and lots of fun by the c:n strings, who joined Aguiar with slides of their own, plus playing behind the bridges of their instruments to produce a squeaky sound and a last soft exhalation like air escaping from a popped tire.

There were four stations to graze at the dinner which followed in the Summit Restaurant, one for salad (greens, goat cheese, raspberry vinaigrette), two for entrees (jambalaya and a meat/pasta combination) and one for dessert (ice cream on a cookie crust with cream), plus a choice of red and white wines. Musicians and guests mingled to bring the artful evening to a delicious close.

The event, which was sold out, repeats at 7 p.m. tonight (also sold out) at Via Vite Restaurant on Fountain Square, with post-concert dinner by Chef Cristian Pietoso.

2010-04-07T12:39:00.001-07:00

THE FOUR SEASONS
concert:nova presents
an extraordinary culinary and musical feast for the eyes, ears and palette

Antonio Vivaldi "The Four Seasons"
Tatiana Berman & Maureen Nelson, violin soloists

Astor Piazolla "The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires"
Mauricio Aguiar & Anna Reider, violin soloists

Aaron Jay Kernis "The Four Seasons of Futurist Cuisine"
Naomi Lewin, guest narrator

The performance will feature a video, “From Earth to Table”, with Jean Robert de Cavel,
David Cook, Julie Francis, Meg Galvin, Megan Ketover, John Kinsella.
Created by Chris Higgenbothom and Jim Myatt.

DIFFERENT VENUES / DIFFERENT FLAVORS

MIDWEST CULINARY INSTITUTE
Sunday APRIL 18, 2010 6:00pm
Post-concert dinner is inspired by the music,
and presented at the Summit Restaurant by
the MCI Team and Chef Ed Smain

Midwest Culinary Institute at Cincinnati State
3520 Central Parkway, Cincinnati OH 45220
TICKETS: Advance purchase $50, At the door $75, if available
Click HERE to purchase tickets for April 18.

VIA VITE RESTAURANT
Monday April 19, 2010 7:00pm
Three-course menu created by Chef Cristian Pietoso,
based on the musical selections.

520 Vine Street - on Fountain Square - Cincinnati OH 45202
TICKETS: Advance purchase $50, At the door $75, if available
Click HERE to purchase tickets for April 19.

Both concerts will sell out, so purchase your seats now!

ABOUT THE PROGRAM
Le Quattro Staggioni, or The Four Seasons, are part of a set of twelve concertos entitled Il cimento dell’armonia e dell’inventoine (The Test of Harmony and Invention), published in 1725. Undeniably Vivaldi’s most famous work, each movement of the four concerti is accompanied by individual sonnets penned by Vivaldi himself. The poems are full of literary and sonic allusion: a murmuring stream, howling windstorm, chattering birds, all musically stunning depictions of each season.

Continuing the menu is Le Quattro Stagioni della Cucina Futurismo, (The Four Seasons of Futurist Cuisine) by modern composer Aaron Jay Kernis, who culled the wildly satiric texts of F.T. Marinetti’s Futurist Manifesto (1909) and The Futurist Cookbook (1932). Narrator Naomi Lewin joins the group in this wacky bit of musical melodrama, poking fun at the Italian art movement of Futurism, and appropriately parodies music of Wagner, Bruckner and sappy romantic melodies.

Finally, the Cuatro estaciones porteñas (The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires), a tango-inspired work that intertwines easily recognizable elements from Vivaldi’s concerti, combines exciting and dance-like rhythms with luscious melodies. Piazolla’s nuevo tango style adds a distinct Latin flavor to the pot!

concert:nova would like to give special thanks for Tom Osterman and Ruthann Sammarco for their support of these concerts.

CONCERT:NOVA MEMBERS

Violin: Mauricio Aguiar, Tatiana Berman, Anna Reider
Viola: Joanne Wojtowicz, Heidi Yenney
Cello: Christina Coletta, Theodore Nelson
Bass: Boris Astafiev, Owen Lee
Flute: Randy Bowman, Jasmine Choi
Clarinet: Ixi Chen, Jonathan Gunn
Oboe: Dwight Parry
Bassoon: Jennifer Monroe
Horn: Lisa Conway, Elizabeth Freimuth
Trumpet: Doug Lindsay
Trombone: Cristian Ganicenco
Piano: Julie Spangler
Percussion: Patrick Schleker, Jeff Luft

Board of Directors: Tatiana Berman, Ixi Chen & John Spencer
Production Planning: Boris Astafiev, Adam Butalewicz & Heidi Yenney
Technical production: Paul Schuette & Jerod Sommerfeldt
Artistic Director: Ixi Chen

Get more information, photos, articles and the inside scoop at www.concertnova.com
Visit our blog HERE for artist profiles, interviews, observations and news.

2010-04-01T09:07:00.001-07:00

Saturday, April 3, 2010 @4pm

Concert:nova @

Contemporary Arts Center • 44 East Sixth Street,

Cincinnati Ohio • 45202

513.345.8400 Series 44 +Lukas Ligeti.

Sharing the program is Lukas Ligeti, an eclectic and multi-talented performer!

From Concert:nova Ixi Chen, Tatiana Berman, Ted Nelson and Heidi Yenney

We are very excited to be part of the show.

What is 44?

44 is a performing arts series at the CAC which occurs on the first Saturday of every month. The program is designed to actualize the CAC’s goal of integrating the local arts community within a national and international context. Further, the program seeks to establish downtown Cincinnati and the Center specifically, as a place where creative dialogue occurs and a far-reaching, disparate creative community can come together. To this end, 44 hosts a diverse range of poets, musicians, artists, dancers, and actors and invites them to collaborate and exchange ideas. 44 is free to the public. Wares from 44 performers are available in the CAC store.

2010-03-23T06:48:00.000-07:00

Recital at Werner Hall, Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music

March 10, 2010 @ 6.45pm.

The programme:
Beethoven Sonata op.24, no 5 "Spring"
Brahms Sonata no 3, op. 108 in d minor

Tatiana Berman, violinist
Hitomi Koyama, pianist

2010-02-22T13:16:00.000-08:00

Our Next Concert

CONCERT:NOVA PRESENTS "THE HEART OF MAHLER"

Celebrating the 150th Anniversary of Gustav Mahler's Birth

Wednesday, February 24, 2010
The Former Gap Retail Store
28 W. 4th Street, on the corner of Race St.
Downtown Cincinnati, 45202

Entrance to the Gap on Race Street.
Performance begins at 7:30pm
Tickets $20/ $10 with student i.d. (includes a food and drink reception)
Mix and mingle with the artists and musicians after the concert!

Travel with us to the home of Alma Mahler, where she will host an evening of music in her "parlor".The second program in our Composer's Portrait Series begun last April with "Demystifying Schoenberg", "The Heart of Mahler" takes an intimate look at some of the most personal themes of the composer's life through the eyes of his wife, Alma, and two major works: Das Lied von der Erdeand the epic Fourth Symphony in G Major.

Guest artists:

Amy Warner, as Alma Mahler-Werfel

Jason Slayden, Tenor
Das Lied von der Erde, arr. Arnold Schoenberg

Audrey Luna, Soprano
Symphony No. 4 in G, arr. Erwin Stein

BUY TICKETS NOW!

2010-02-10T22:02:00.000-08:00

Tatiana Berman, violin
Hitomi Kayama, piano
Haeri Suh, piano

College-Conservatory of Music Cincinnati
Saturday, February 20, 2010,
5pm-6pm

Description: RecitalLocation:
WATSON HALL
Organization:
C.C.M. Performance Information 513-556-4183

PROGRAM

Ludwig van Beethoven
Violin Sonata op.24, no 5 in F Major ("Spring")

Sergei Prokofiev
Violin Sonata op. 94, no 2 in D Major

2010-01-27T14:12:00.000-08:00

http://www.musicincincinnati.com/site/reviews/NKU_s_New_Beginnings_Taps_Emotions.html

NKU's "New Beginnings" Taps Emotions

Mary Ellyn Hutton

Posted: Jan 19, 2010 - 6:27:14 PM

There was a triple play at Northern Kentucky University's Greaves Hall January 17.

Opening the Department of Music's "New Beginnings" chamber music series were pianist Sergei Polusmiak, violinist Tatiana Berman and cellist Ilya Finkelshteyn.

Sergei Polusmiak

Tatiana Berman

Ilya Finkelshteyn

Also known as "Sergei and Friends," the annual series features Polusmiak, NKU's distinguished artist-in-residence, and guest artists.

The three joined in an emotionally charged performance of Shostakovich's Piano Trio No. 2 in E Minor, Op. 67. Each artist also performed a sonata or solo work, including Debussy's Sonata for Cello and Piano, Prokofiev's Sonata No. 2 in D Major for Violin and Piano, Op. 94b, and two works for piano solo by Debussy, "La Plus que Lente" and "L'Isle Joyeuse."

The concert marked the Cincinnati recital debut of Finkelshteyn, new principal cellist of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.

The program -- and the performance -- reflected the musicians' combined Ukrainian and Russian heritage. Polusmiak, who is Thomas and Christine Neyer professor of music at NKU, holds the title "Honored Artist of Ukraine," conferred by his native country. Berman and Finkelshteyn. both Russian-born, were both students at the Specialized Music School of the St. Petersburg Conservatory before immigrating to the West.

Finkelshteyn and Polusmiak opened with the Debussy Sonata, a 1915 work written in the shadow of World War I, when the composer was dying of cancer. It is somber, fitful and barely 10 minutes long, marking Debussy's embrace of French music in the 18th-century tradition of Couperin and Rameau. Polusmiak set the stage with his dramatic opening chords, while Finkelshteyn drew out the sorrow and fancy of the work. The two artists were of the same mind, melding ensemble and expression closely. Finkelshteyn's warm, dark tone (he plays a Giovanni Crancino cello, ca.1700) and daunting technique made the most of its deceptive intricacy and deep meaning.

It was violinist Berman's turn in the Prokofiev Sonata, a sunny work arranged by the composer from his Sonata for Flute in D Major, Op. 94. Berman, a founding member of concert:nova, played it with considerable fire. Her performance showed off the Pietro Mantegazza violin she is currently trying out. Though she has been playing it for less than two weeks, the vintage instrument (18th-century) seemed quite at home in her hands. The opening Moderato, a good-natured movement with substantial melodic interest, profited from the instrument's mellow tone (surprisingly like a cello in the cello's high register), as did the Andante with its ribbon-like phrases. She danced nimbly over the strings in the Scherzo, ending with a ringing pizzicato chord. Her real showpiece was the finale, where she executed gymnast's feats leaping into the violin's highest positions and exercising fine bow control and rapid double-stopping.

Polusmiak stoked his Debussy with fire, too, especially in "L'Isle Joyeuse," a 1904 work inspired by the Watteau painting "Embarkation for Cythere." The piece requires close, hand-over-hand playing, fists full of chords and, in Debussy's own words (according to author David Dubal) "all the ways of attacking the piano." Polusmiak pulled it off with zest. By contrast, "Le Plus que Lente" ("The More than Slow"), Debussy's tongue-in-cheek ode to the slow waltz then in style in Paris, was an impressionistic little gem.

Shostakovich's Piano Trio No. 2 in E Minor, Op.67 (1944) was written in memory of Ivan Sollertinsky, a close friend from his student days. It reflects the composer's deep grief, even anger, at death (especially untimely death), and like Mahler in a similar vein, is wrenching to listen to. The three players captured its emotions fully, from the breathy, almost labored harmonics with which the strings open the work, to the unbearably intense finale.

The second movement (Allegro non troppo) was relentlessly percussive, with repeated down bows and rapid crescendo effects. Polusmiak opened the Largo, a threnody for Sollertinsky set as a chaconne (variations on a repeated harmonic progression), all joining in an expression of profound desolation.

The finale (Allegretto) was like a dance to distraction, the string players strumming big chords to Polusmiak's klezmer-like tune, sounded in pealing, fortissimo octaves (Sollertinsky was Jewish). Finkelshteyn and Berman added their own lamentations until it all collapsed in a kind of "amen," with the piano sounding soft chords against string harmonics once again.

"New Beginnings" continues February 26, with Polusmiak and violinist Francis Restesan, and April 25, with Polusmiak and tenor Mark Panuccio. Both recitals are in Greaves Hall. For information, visit www.nku.edu/~music/

2010-01-08T21:56:00.000-08:00

Northern Kentucky University

Department of Music presents

"New Beginnings" Chamber Music Series

January 17, 2010 @ 7:30pm

Greaves Concert Hall

Ilya Finkelshteyn -Cello

Tatiana Berman - Violin

Sergei Polusmiak- Piano

Program:

Debussy Sonata for Cello and Piano

Debussy La Plus que Lente for piano solo

Debussy L'Isle Joyeuse for piano solo

Prokofiev Sonata No. 2 in D Major op. 94b for Violin and Piano

Shostakovich Piano Trio No.2 in E minor op.67 for Piano, Violin and Cello

Admission $10 general, $7 students with ID
Reception to follow

2010-01-08T20:47:00.000-08:00

New York

Sunday, January 3, 2010, 3pm

Steven Isserlis, artistic director and cello
Joshua Bell, violin
Tatiana Berman, violin
Maria Lambros, viola
Jeremy Denk, piano
Judy Kuhn, narrator.

With contagious charm, the celebrated cellist Steven Isserlis, author of Why Beethoven Threw the Stew andWhy Handel Waggles His Wig, returns for a fourth season of concerts that introduce families to our greatest composers.

In this concert, Steven is joined world-famous violinist Joshua Bell as they introduce us to a gentle giant of a man who wrote gentle music of magnificent beauty: the Frenchman, Gabriel Fauré.

2009-12-09T18:26:00.000-08:00

www.Musicincincinnati.com

http://www.musicincincinnati.com/site/reviews/concert_nova_Making_Their_Garden_Grow.html

concert:nova: Making Their Garden Grow

Mary Ellyn Hutton

Posted: Dec 8, 2009 - 12:28:18 AM in reviews

Performing Arvo Pärt's "Fratres" in concert:nova Garden. Video by Charles Woodman (photo by David onthebias.blogspot.com)

A fire hydrant draped in white lights marked the entrance to concert:nova's "Playing with Light" December 7 in the Metaphor Building on Reading Road.

It was just another fanciful touch for concert:nova, which has been dipping into the “fantastic” since its founding in 2007.

Theme of the concert was light, at its scarcest now with the Winter Solstice approaching, making it a fitting tribute to the season of light.

Concert:nova, a dozen musicians from the Cincinnati Symphony and Cincinnati Chamber Orchestras who take“nova” (new) seriously by injecting new ideas and artistic disciplines into classical music and performing in unconventional venues, explored darkness last year, with a concert in the dark in the black box theater at the Contemporary Arts Center.

concert:nova Garden, 534 Reading Road, Cincinnati, Ohio (photo by David onthebias.blogspot.com)

Monday evening in “concert:nova Garden,” an un-renovated space on the ground floor of the Metaphor Building, the lights were on -- and in some highly creative ways. The program was exacting and mostly contemporary, including music by George Crumb, Toru Takemitsu, Andre Jolivet, George Tsontakis and Arvo Pärt.

Anthony Luensman

Charles Woodman

Visual artists Anthony Luensman and Charles Woodman created video and lighting effects to complement and enhance the musical experience.

The concert began with Gregorian chant. With blue light playing on the back wall, a choir of 14 led by Ken Lam and Matthew Peattie sang “O Oriens,” an antiphon for December 21 (date of the Winter Solstice) and “Domine Deus virtutem.”

Projection by Charles Woodman from Monterey Aquarium accompanying Charles Crumb's "Vox Balaenae" (photo by David onthebias.blogspot.com)

A bit of theater followed, with flutist Randolph Bowman, cellist Theodore Nelson and pianist Julie Spangler donning black masks for Crumb’s 1971 “Vox Balaenae (“Voice of the Whale”) for Three Masked Players." Crumb specified masks to try to distance the work from the human realm and amplified instruments to help evoke the undersea world. Videos of sea life by Woodman projected onto a large screen adjacent to the players accompanied the performance.

Crumb was inspired to write“Vox Balaenae” by the singing of the humpback whale. Bowman played the leviathan’s role by playing and singing into his flute (often simultaneously) and by whistling, flutter-tonguing and tapping the keys. This created an uncanny effect , especially in the prologue for whale solo, entitled “Vocalise for the beginning of time.” Bowman, Nelson and Spangler fleshed out the watery soundscape on their instruments and on crotales (small, tuned cymbals).

Structurally, it’s a theme and variations framed by the prologue and a touching epilogue, “Sea Nocturne for the end of time.” The five variations are named for Earth’s geologic eras like “Archeozoic,” “Proterozoic,” etc. It delivered a message. Bowman’s introductory “Vocalise” was interrupted by sharp piano chords followed by ominous plucking by Nelson reminiscent of the opening bars of Strauss’ “Also Sprach Zarathustra” symbolic of man’s intrusion on the marine environment (the screen is dark in the epilogue).

All three players had lots to do: Spangler on “prepared” piano (objects placed in or on the piano to alter the sound) where she moved between the keyboard and the strings, which she strummed for breathtaking, whooshing sounds. Nelson introduced the dream-like theme using fingered harmonics.

There was little chance of the visuals overwhelming the music here. Woodman, professor of fine arts at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, provided gorgeous, sensual images from Monterey Aquarium in California, including oozy white and pink jellyfish and schools of silvery fish against a deep blue background.

Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu’s 1981 “Rain Tree” for percussion trio was another highlight. Brady Harrison and Jeff Luft on marimbas and crotales and CSO principal timpanist Patrick Schleker on vibraphone and crotales evoked novelist Kenzaburo Oe’s 1980 “Clever Rain Tree” about a tree whose leaves collect water, to be released when it no longer rains. They played in front of a shimmering wall of glass prisms suspended over a black curtain with a video of sunlight on water projecting through them.

Communication among the three players was remarkable as they negotiated the work’s complex rhythms while conveying its sense of a steady, “dripping” pulse.

Flutist Randolph Bowman performing Andre Jolivet's "Chant de Linos" (photo by David onthebias.blogspot.com)

Bowman starred again after intermission in Jolivet’s 1941“Chant de Linos” for flute, harp and string trio. Extremely difficult – deliberately so, having been commissioned for a flute competition at the Paris Conservatoire – it caused no problems for Bowman. The CSO’s principal flutist is not only a daunting technician, but a master of tone production (no one I know plays the flute more sweetly).

“Chant de Linos” refers to an ancient Greek funeral lament. (Linos ended badly. By various accounts, he was either torn apart by dogs at birth or, having grown up to become a great musician, was killed by his inept student Hercules or the jealous god Apollo.) The work contains dance rhythms in 7/8 time, slow elegiac passages and sharp outcries of grief. Bowman, harpist Gillian Benet Sella, violinist Anna Reider, violist Heidi Yenney and cellist Nelson conveyed its contrasting emotions vividly. Woodman’s accompanying video, of landscapes shot at different angles that gradually came together to form mirror images, was engrossing.

Tsontakis’ octet “Gymnopedies” invites visual imagery by its very titles: “Magical,” “Glistening,” “Cascades” and “Bratty.” Performed by violinist Tatiana Berman, violist Yenney, cellist Nelson, flutist Bowman, clarinetist Ixi Chen, French hornist Matt Annin, harpist Sella, pianist Spangler and percussionist Schleker and led by CSO assistant conductor Lam, the music spoke for itself, with vivid musical imagery for each movement (upward surges in "Glistening," for example). The colored light projected onto the wall – blue for “Cascades,” red for “Bratty” -- was mostly superfluous, though it made a ravishing image reflected on Sella’s golden harp.

Pärt’s “Fratres” was performed by Berman, Reider, Yenney and Nelson in a version for string quartet. Written in Pärt’s ethereal, tintinnabuli style, it comprises a sequence of chords sounded initially by harmonics and repeated in a strictly ordered descent over an open-fifth drone in the second violin and pizzicato punctuation by the cello. The music takes on warmth and vibrato as it descends into mid-range before tapering off at the end. The first violin and viola are directed to re-tune their lowest strings downward, necessitating adjustment of bowing and fingering to match the altered timbre and pitch of the instruments.

The quartet met these not insignificant demands admirably, including Reider on her ten-minute, Zen-like drone. Part’s sense of spiritual passage -- of a unity attained -- was conveyed with skill and refinement.

To close the program, the singers returned for a repeat of “O Oriens” and, in the luminous spirit of the holiday season, Thomas Tallis’ “O Nata Lux” (“Light Born of Light”).

The concert drew a crowd of 200, causing an unexpected delay in the starting hour and standing-room-only for some listeners. There were also occasional (minor) electrical problems.

Nevertheless, you wanted to cheer for the volunteer-driven group, which handled tickets, tech support, logistics and complimentary food and drink (from Via Vite, Coffee Emporium and Madisono's gelato) with energy and good humor.

C:n’s next program will be in February, the exact date to be announced. Dubbed “The Essential Mahler,” the concert will celebrate the 150^th anniversary of Gustav Mahler’s birth and will feature chamber ensemble versions of his “Das Lied von der Erde” and Symphony No. 4.

2009-11-18T18:00:00.000-08:00

Concert:nova - Playing with Light!

December 7, 2009

7.30pm

538 Reading Rd

Cincinnati 45202

2009-10-07T14:15:00.000-07:00

http://www.musicincincinnati.com/site/reviews/concert_nova_Keeps_the_Latin_Rolling.html

concert:nova Keeps the Latin Rolling

Mary Ellyn Hutton

Posted: Oct 5, 2009 - 12:45:01 AM in reviews

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musicians of concert:nova

concert:nova tangoed into the night at the Contemporary Arts Center Sunday (Oct. 4), carrying on the Latin beat struck by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra Friday and Saturday at Music Hall.

There was a bandeonist, American-born Ben Bogart from Buenos Aires, also soprano Ellen Wieser, pianist Audrey Causilla and guitarist Richard Goering.

concert:nova musicians included violinists Mauricio Aguiar and Tatiana Berman, violist Heidi Yenney, cellist Theodore Nelson, bassist Owen Lee, flutist Randolph Bowman and clarinetist Ixi Chen.

Providing the something extra that is part of all c:n concerts were dancers from Tango del Barrio, Chuck Reder, Debby Vigna, Julie Barnett, Nuria Lopez-Ortega, Jake Moscovitch, Ella Moscovitch and Tony Seta.

(Tango del Barrio is a local Argentine social club that offers classes in Argentine tango and sponsors regular tango dances. Visit them at www.TangoDelBarrio.com)

Program-wise, it was like tapas buffet, with 15 selections, from Manuel de Falla to Ljova, ranging from Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil and Spain.

CSO principal oboist and c:n member Dwight Parry, rose in his lapel, emceed the event and provided engaging commentary (hear him play on other c:n concerts this season).

First on the menu was actually a bagel, i.e. "Bagel on the Malecon" by New Yorker Lev Zhurbin, also known as Ljova, who tapped Cuban son to conjure eating a bagel on Havana's boardwalk. Originally for "vjolas" (violist Zhurbin's spelling of violas), it was performed spiritedly by Aguiar, Yenney and Nelson.

Violinist Berman, smartly attired in a mottled red dress with spike-heeled red shoes, joined them in the Allegro violento e agitato (Parry: "very angry") of Ginastera's 1948 String Quartet No. 1. Aguiar drew a gutsy sound from his violin, playing high on its lowest string (G) against a steady rhythm by the other members of the quartet. Canadian-born Wieser wore a red rose in her hair and displayed a lovely lyric voice in two of the "Cuatro Madrigales Amatorios" ("Four Love Songs") by Joaquin Rodrigo. They were a contrasting pair. The first, "Vos me matasteis" (You've killed me") was about painful love. The second was a complaint, "De donde venis, amore?" ("Where have you been, love?") sung with foot-tapping, arms-crossed consternation.

Goering and Nelson introduced both a composer and his work with the first two movements from the Sonata for Guitar and Cello by Brazilian Radames Gnatalli (1906-88). Composed in 1969, it was one of the finds on the program, colorful and melodic, with irregular rhythms and the cello sometimes strummed like a second guitar.

Ginastera's "Impresiones de la Puna" refers to the land of the Incas, said Parry and it, too, was very rewarding. Scored for flute (Bowman) and string quartet (Berman, Aguiar, Yenney and Nelson), it has three movements. The mysterious "Quena" began with the flute in its dark, lowest register. "Cancion" contrasted lush, sweetly melodic sections with more agitated ones. Randolph shone brightly in the alternately animated and relaxed "Danza."

Soprano Wieser and a string quintet, including Lee on double bass performed the Aria (Cantilena) from Villa Lobos' "Bachianas Brasilieras" No. 5. Scored lavishly for eight cellos in the original, it nevertheless sounded full and rich, with violist Yenney offering a soulful melody at one point. Wieser sang with great tonal beauty, and her hummed reprise cast a bewitching spell.

Following intermission came the lighter half of the program, including eight tango selections. Four of them were accompanied by Tango del Barrio's skilled dancers.

It opened, however, with four of Falla's "Siete canciones populares espanoles" (Seven Popular Spanish Songs) performed by Bowman and Causilla. These are exquisitely evocative works. You could almost feel the teardrops falling in "Asturiana" about a pine tree that "weeps to see me weeping." "Jota" anticipates the jota from Falla's later "Three-Cornered Hat," while "Nana" was a gentle, Spanish-inflected lullaby. The "pain in the heart" in "Polo" was manifest by pounding piano and strident flute, capped by Bowman's final, high-pitched exclamation.

Another highlight was "Nightclub 1960" for violin and guitar. It is the third installment in Piazzolla's "Histoire du Tango," a set of four movements outlining the evolution of the tango, from its seamy origins in turn-of-the-century Buenos Aires bordellos to its present state as exalted by classical composers (like Piazzolla). Rose in the scroll of her violin, Berman gave it a richly colored, beautifully shaped rendition -- from brightly focused to feathery to sassy -- kindled by expressive vibrato and piquant effects like scratching behind the bridge with her bow.

There was more Piazzolla, including "Escualo," for violin, bandoneon, double bass and piano, where bandoneonista Bogart used the instrument both percussively and as a melodic double for the violin. The heat of the tango dissipated in a downward fizzle by Aguiar at the end.

The dancers took the floor in Eduardo Arolas' "Comme il faut," an upbeat tango, followed by Piazzolla's mournful "Oblivion" for instruments alone.

Jerzy Peterburshsky's dramatic "El sol sueno," where even the double bass gets the melody, featured Aguiar, clarinetist Chen, Nelson, Bogart, Lee and Causilla. Uruguayan Rosita Melo's "Desde el Alma" ("From the Soul") was a cheerful waltz tango, with violins in thirds and dancers again sweeping the floor in front of the stage. It was fun to see the women improvise kicks and leg wraps in response to the men's lead (in tango the man always leads) and each couple executing different patterns.

(Yenney, who wore a very cool pair of black tango shoes with red straps, looked as if she should have taken a turn with them.)

Piazzolla's "Milonga del Angel" for violin (Aguiar), guitar, bandoneon, double bass and piano, had a jazz flavor tinged with blues, and the dancers returned for the finale, Manuel Carretero's "Ella es asi" ("She's like that") where all ten musicians gave the concert a bright, energetic finish.

The concert was followed by an after-party at Nada restaurant across the street on Walnut.

The next concert:nova performance will be in December (date to be announced) at the c:n garden, 538 Reading Rd. The program, "Playing with Light" will feature video artist Charles Woodman and visual artist Tony Luensman, who will provide visual commentary on music by George Crumb, Arvo Pärt, Andre Jolivet and Toru Takemitsu.

In February there will be a "Mahler Project" in celebration of the composer's 150th anniversary, with chamber ensemble versions of his "Das Lied von der Erde" and Fourth Symphony.

April will bring "Four Seasons" by Vivaldi, Piazzolla and American composer Aaron Jay Kernis' "Culinary Four Seasons."

In May, c:n will welcome choreographer Heather Britt, dancers from Cincinnati Ballet and a team of local composers led by Joel Hoffman, who will "interpret" Saint-Saens'"Carnival of the Animals."

The c:n season concludes in June with "Mirror in the Mirror," a celebration of fugue and counterpoint, with a presentation of video artist Trinidad MacAuliffe's visual interplay of live and pre-recorded c:n musicians.

All dates will be announced.

For information, visit www.concertnova.com

2009-10-07T14:13:00.000-07:00

The Cincinnati Enquirer A happening at the CAC

Posted by jgelfandOctober 5th, 2009, 3:24 pm

Concert:Nova

The night after the Cincinnati Symphony’s fantastico Latin evening, the tango continued with a group of musicians of the CSO and Chamber Orchestra in an improbable place — the lobby of Cincinnati’s Contemporary Arts Center.

Eight musicians of Concert:Nova – Cincinnati’s most innovative music ensemble — presented a wonderful evening of Latin gems, from the familiar (Villa-Lobos’ Bachianas Brasilieras No. 5) to Ginasteras’ “Impresiones de la Puna,” a spectacular find.

The group — violinists Mauricio Aguiar and Tatiana Berman, flutist Randy Bowman, clarinetist Ixi Chen, bassist Owen Lee, cellist Ted Nelson, violist Heidi Yenney and emcee Dwight Parry (oboist) — collaborated in sensuous tangos and wonderful Latin discoveries with guitarist Richard Goering, soprano Ellen Wieser and pianist Audrey Causilla. They even flew in a guy who plays bandoneon from Argentina — Benjamin Bogart, an American ex-patriot and “tango fanatic.” And yes, there were dancers from a local Argentine tango social club, Tango del Barrio.

Afterwards, the party continued at Nada, across the street. More than 80 music lovers turned out, even though the event only seemed to be publicized via e-mail and Facebook.

Is this kind of intimate show the future of classical music?

P.S. I’m pleased to report that Zaha Hadid’s architecture is also acoustically friendly for musical performance. Wonder if she had acoustics in mind when she designed it?

Part of Concert:Nova’s uniqueness is its theme under artistic director Ixi Chen of groundbreaking performance art in unexpected places. They have even performed at Children’s Hospital… The next concert is in December at a basement known as CN Garden on Reading Road… with video artist Charles Woodman, visual artist Tony Luensman, and the music of George Crumb, Arvo Part, Andre Jolivet and Toru Takemitsu…

Posted in: CSO, Local Music Groups, Updates, Visual art |

Tags: Cincinnati arts, Cincinnati entertainment, Concert:Nova, Contemporary Arts Center, CSO, Zaha Hadid

This entry was posted on Monday, October 5th, 2009 at 3:24 pm and is filed under CSO, Local Music Groups,Updates, Visual art. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can trackbackfrom your own site.

2009-04-06T20:34:00.000-07:00

http://www.musicincincinnati.com/site/reviews/Schoenberg_with_a_Heart.html

Schoenberg with a Heart

Mary Ellyn Hutton
Posted: Apr 6, 2009 - 2:29:25 PM in reviews

Arnold Schoenberg

The most profound words heard Sunday evening at the Concert:Nova presentation "Demystifying Schoenberg" -- other than his music itself -- were these, uttered by actor Michael Burnham:

"No one wanted to be, someone had to be, so I let it be me."

As Burnham explained -- in an astonishing performance as the composer who revolutionized music in the 20th century -- this is how Schoenberg answered an officer in the Austrian army in World War I who asked him if he were "this notorious Schoenberg."

His reputation as the composer who had "emancipated dissonance" had preceded him.

The concert, held on the "garden" level ground floor of the Metaphor building on Reading Road in Over-the-Rhine, drew a capacity audience (well over 100 with extra chairs brought in). This is something of a feat for the still fear-inducing composer, especially on a rainy night with tornado warnings in effect.

Central to it was Burnham, whose German accent, wire-rimmed glasses poised on the end of his nose, and wry and often impassioned delivery imparted an unforgettable humanity to the composer. His lines were drawn from Schoenberg's writings and comments, tailored to the music on the concert. It was a tour de force that simply must become a permanent part of C:N's repertoire.

So why did somebody have to be the "notorious" Schoenberg?

When the Viennese composer (born 1874) came along, traditional harmony --i.e. key-centered music that sounds "good" to the ears -- had been stretched to the breaking point by composers like Mahler, Richard Strauss, Debussy, Scriabin, etc.

Now what? That was the question. Schoenberg did not shrink from seeking an answer. Free atonality (he preferred to call it "pantonality") was OK as far as it went, but it needed to have some kind of structure to build on. After much consideration (and vitriol for freeing "dissonance"), he invented one with what he defined as the "method of composing with 12 tones related only with one another."

So-called "12-tone" or serial music was born and with it, the Second Viennese School (Schoenberg and his pupils Anton Webern and Alban Berg, as successors to Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, or the First Viennese School).

The music on Sunday's program, performed by members of the chamber ensemble Concert:Nova with soprano Meng-Chun Lin, pianist/Schoenberg scholar Steven Cahn and conductor Kenneth Lam, spanned Schoenberg's stylistic development.

There were excerpts from his light-hearted, completely tonal Cabaret Songs (1901) to his Serenade, Op. 24 (1924), where the possibilities of 12-tone composition bloom artistically (not just intellectually).

In between were selections from his Op, 23 Piano Pieces (1920-21), "Book of the Hanging Gardens" (1910) and expressionistic "Pierrot Lunaire" (1912). In "Pierrot," now one of his most often performed works, the "reciter" (singer) employs Sprechstimme or "speech-voice," where the voice falls away from sung pitches in speech-like fashion.

The concert ended with the 1909 Chamber Symphony No. 1, where Schoenberg's identity as an arch-romantic in the Strauss/Mahler tradition speaks loud and clear.

Meng-Chun Lin, a splendid soprano currently pursuing her doctor of musical arts degree at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, inhabited everything she sang, beginning with three of the Cabaret Songs, "Galathea," "Mahnung" ("Warning") and Aria from "The Mirror of Arcadia." All were delivered in a full, rich voice shaded with expression and enhanced with delightful stage acting. Cahn's accompaniment set the theatrical mood vividly.

Lin communicated stark seriousness, her gaze fixed forward, in numbers three, four and ten from "Book of the Hanging Gardens," a set of despairing love poetry for voice and piano completed during a marital crisis (Schoenberg's first wife Mathilde eloped briefly with a painter).

She handled her Sprechstimme to telling effect in three excerpts from "Pierrot" --"Mondestrunken" ("Moondrunk"), "Valse de Chopin" (a horrific waltz) and "O Alter Duft" ("O Ancient Fragrance"), conveying well its sickly mix of madness and calculation. She was joined here by C:N members Heidi Yenney (violin/viola), Randolph Bowman (flute/piccolo), Ronald Aufmann (clarinet/bass clarinet) and Marcus Kuchle (piano), all keenly in tune with the bizarre melodrama.

Cahn, professor of theory at CCM who wrote his doctoral dissertation on Schoenberg, exemplified one of the composer's famous remarks in two of the Five Piano Pieces, Op. 23, "Sehr langsam" and "Sehr rasch" ("Very slowly" and "Very quickly"). These aphoristic works -- the two pieces are about three-minutes' total -- were among his first experiments with 12-tone writing and, as such, posed a challenge for its first listeners, including Berg. Said Schoenberg in effect: "My music is not bad, just performed badly." Cahn, who obviously "gets" this music, performed them commitedly and extremely well.

Following intermission -- a delicious few moments with complimentary wine and snacks for the crowd -- the concert concluded with two of the composer's works for larger ensemble.

Serenade, Op. 24, featured violinist Tatiana Berman, violist Yenney, cellist Christina Coletta,clarinetist Jonathan Gunn, bass clarinetist Aufmann, guitarist Richard Goering and Brian Deyo on mandolin. Lam conducted. The Serenade is, as Cahn put it, "one beautiful melody after another," and, though composed using Schoenberg's 12-tone method, it is. The contrast of instrumental colors contributes to the ear-pleasing effect, with guitar and mandolin against the bowed/plucked strings and woodwind timbres. Heard were "Lied" (a song without words) and"Tantzscene" ("Dance scene"). Berman's distinctively sweet tone illuminated "Lied," while"Tanzscene" manifested shape, regular rhythms and melody, including a charming clarinet solo with accompaniment. What more could anyone want?

If there were any doubts about the emotion in Schoenberg's music -- an object of the program was to dispel that notion, said artistic director/C:N clarinetist Ixi Chen -- they were dispelled with the concluding Chamber Symphony No. 1, led with considerable energy and insight by Lam.

The ensemble comprised violinists Mauricio Aguiar and Berman, violist Yenney, cellist Coletta, double bassist Owen Lee, flutist Bowman, clarinetists Jonathan Gunn, Chen and Aufmann, oboists Dwight Parry and Lon Bussell, bassoonists Hugh Michie and Jennifer Monroe and French hornists Elizabeth Freimuth and Lisa Conway. One would have thought an undiscovered work by Richard Strauss had just come to light, so filled with passion (and downright Straussian heroism) the music was.

The 20-minute work falls into several distinct sections, including a lovely slow "movement" introduced by double bass harmonics. At one point, there was a clue of the direction the composer was about to take with harmony in an upward succession of fourths. Tonal harmony is built on triads (thirds).

Freimuth and Conway soared at the end in a full-bodied conclusion that drew whoops from the crowd.

Look for C:N, which has performed in many different kinds of venues, including clubs, bars, restaurants and museums, to appear in local jazz clubs in the near future. Spotted in the crowd Sunday were prominent members of Cincinnati's jazz community.

2009-04-06T20:29:00.001-07:00

Concert:Nova demystifies Schoenberg

Concert review

By Janelle Gelfand • jgelfand@enquirer.com • April 6, 2009

The mere mention of Arnold Schoenberg, the father of 12-tone music, makes some concertgoers want to flee. But on Sunday, Concert:Nova, a groundbreaking ensemble of musicians, set the music of Schoenberg in a striking new light.

Concert:Nova’s program, “Demystifying Schoenberg,” mounted in a basement space in Pendleton which the group calls “The Garden,” was an eye-opening fusion of concert and theater. Concert:Nova, consisting mainly of Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra players, aims to present a “multi-sensory perspective,” mounting performances in various spaces around the city. This space, with its exposed-brick walls and pipes in the ceiling (which provided ambient water noise) became part of the theatrical experience.

Actor Michael Burnham, drama professor at the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music, was superb as the composer, who looked back on his life between musical selections. Speaking in a German accent with a touch of Yiddish, he spoke from an engaging script culled from Schoenberg’s own writings and speeches (by CCM professor Steven Cahn, who also performed on piano). The actor as composer alternately recalled his premieres, raged against critics and spoke philosophically about his life and his work.

It was an ideal way to humanize this oft-maligned composer, and proved to be an evening of discovery for many in the standing-room-only audience. The program included Schoenberg’s lyrical, post-romantic “Kammersymphonie” No. 1, as well as “Pierrot Lunaire,” one of his most haunting works on the road to abandoning tonality.

The first half featured music with voice. Soprano Meng Chun Lin, a doctoral student at CCM and pianist Cahn, opened with three “Cabaret Songs,” written in 1901 in Berlin. It was a rare lighter side of Schoenberg, and Lin communicated the songs with warmth and humor.

Three songs from “Book of the Hanging Gardens” suited her voice wonderfully. The last, “The beautiful flowerbed,” was movingly phrased, and the pianist tackled its rich chords with weight. Cahn also found emotional depth in the short Op. 23 Piano Pieces.

Three selections from “Pierrot Lunaire,” expressionist song settings of poems by Albert Giraud, was another highlight. Lin soared through the melodramatic “Sprechstimme,” and projected its sense of drama. The atmosphere of the small ensemble, conducted by Kenneth Lam, was magnificent, and pianist Marcus Kuchle contributed a magical touch in “Drunk with Moonlight.”

After intermission, Lam, who is assistant conductor of the CSO, led larger ensembles in the “Serenade” Op. 24 and Schoenberg’s Chamber Symphony No. 1 of 1906. It was a treat to hear the Chamber Symphony for 15 instruments, which looks back to romanticism as much as ahead to the composer’s new style. The musicians gave it an impassioned reading, and Lam was a confident leader through its rapid changes of mood and meter.

One caveat: The intimate room was not always ideal for hearing all of Burnham’s lines or seeing players, something the founders may want to address in future programs.

Visit www.concertnova.com for news about future performances. What did you think? Review this concert at Cincinnati.Com/Entertainment.

2009-03-22T21:44:00.000-07:00

Was he the Doctor Faustus of 20th century music? The nice old man who lived across the street from Shirley Temple? Both? You decide when concert:nova presents The Music That Changed Music on April 5, 2009 7PM at the c:n Garden, 538 Reading Road in downtown Cincinnati.

DEMYSTIFYING SCHOENBERG: The Music that Changed Music

featuring

Michael Burnham, as Schoenberg

Meng Chun Lin, Soprano

Steven Cahn, Schoenberg Historian, Piano

Kenneth Lam, Conductor

with concert:nova performing selections from

Book of the Hanging Gardens

Cabaret Songs

Piano Pieces, Op. 23

Pierrot Lunaire

Serenade, Op. 24

Chamber Symphony No. 1

As complex as the century he struggled to influence and reflect, composer Arnold Schoenberg comes alive in a theatrical collaboration between acclaimed actor Michael Burnham and Schoenberg historian Dr. Steven Cahn. Together with c:n, they have scripted a compelling multi-disciplinary work that interweaves the man and his music. With guest artists Meng Chun Lin, soprano and conductor Kenneth Lam, concert:nova musicians will perform selections that trace the arc of Schoenberg’s evolution.

The program illuminates the emotional qualities of both Schoenberg and his music, not just the legendary intellectual force of his thinking or his innovative techniques. This thought-provoking exploration of one of the most unforgettable composers of the 20^th century looks into Schoenberg's musical headspace, provides a sense of his world and his personality, and a side of the music many people miss.

As Schoenberg said, "I'm somewhat sad that people talk so much about technical methods when it comes to my music. All music, all human work, has a skeleton, a circulatory and nervous system. I wish that my music should be considered as an honest and intelligent person who is saying something he feels deeply, and which is of significance to us all."

Tickets are $20, $10 for students and seniors, at the door or click here to purchase tickets in advance.

The c:n garden is in downtown Cincinnati at 538 Reading Road between Pendleton and Liberty in the Metaphor Building.

Park on Reading Road, or in the self-pay lot across the street.

Enjoy post concert wine, other light refreshment and conversation with the musicians.

About concert:nova.

Founded in 2007, concert:nova is a chamber ensemble that creates a modern, new concert experience. Drawn primarily from members of the Cincinnati Symphony and Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, the ensemble demonstrates the importance of combining classical and modern chamber music with dance, theater, photography, film, and the spoken word to create an experience that is vital and relevant to contemporary audiences.

concert:nova brings its unique sound and vision to the Cincinnati’s landscape of galleries, coffee houses, museums and found spaces. The ensemble creates the engaging and up-close exchange between musicians and audiences for which chamber music was originally created. For further information, visit www.concertnova.com, call (513) 321-5073 or contact c:n at info@concertnova.com

2009-02-04T07:42:00.000-08:00

February 2, 2008

Polusmiak, Berman-Järvi Share "New Beginnings" at NKU

Mary Ellyn Hutton

Sergei PolusmiakTatiana Berman-Jarvi

What do you get when you put Russian and Ukrainian musicians together onstage? Energy problems? (Analogy to the clash between the two countries over energy policy shamelessly intended.)

Quite the contrary, there was musical energy to spare Friday evening in Northern Kentucky University’s Greaves Concert Hall.

The occasion was NKU’s “New Beginnings,” a chamber music series featuring distinguished artist-in-residence Sergei Polusmiak and guests. Polusmiak, a native of Kharkiv, Ukraine, welcomed Russian born violinist Tatiana Berman-Järvi -- neither was fazed by the Arctic weather outside -- for a program aptly described as a “mixture of French beauty and Russian power.”

“French beauty” referred to three Gallic works, Olivier Messiaen’s 1932 Theme and Variations for Violin and Piano, Sonata for Violin and Piano by Debussy and Sonata in A Major for Violin and Piano by Cesar Franck.

The “Russian power” denoted Rachmaninoff’s muscular Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat Minor, Op. 36, as well as power of a subtler sort, Tchaikovsky’s lovely “Meditation,” Op. 42, No. 1, for Violin and Piano.

Polusmiak, “Honored Artist of Ukraine,” who immigrated to the U.S. in 1998, is a cogent example of the great tradition of piano playing exemplified by Vladimir Horowitz and his sister Regina, with whom Polusmiak studied in Ukraine.

Berman-Järvi has been putting audiences on notice since coming to Cincinnati in 2004 (she is married to Cincinnati Symphony music director Paavo Järvi) that she is an exceptional artist who concedes nothing to today’s top-ranking fiddlers. A product of the Yehudi Menuhin School in England and London's Royal College of Music, she displays her violinistic pedigree in everything she does.

She opened with the Messiaen, a work of mystical embodiment in the manner of his well known “Quartet for the End of Time” (performed by Berman-Järvi and members of the chamber group Concert:Nova at Cincinnati’s Christ Church Cathedral in December).

Berman-Järvi possesses a distinctive tone – ineffably sweet, with a rapid, precise vibrato that she applies with exquisite musicianship. Even the most intense moments never veer into excess or self-indulgence, but serve the music. (Three-quarters of a violinist’s tone, is a product of the player, not the instrument -- Berman-Järvi plays on an 1840 violin by British violin maker William E. Hill.)

These gifts, allied to technique in spades, served her and the music well in the Messiaen, where she soared above pealing chords by Polusmiak in the final variation, in the Tchaikovsky “Meditation,” which she capped with a silvery, stratospheric, high D, and, indeed, throughout the concert.

Polusmiak can be a volcanic pianist and he was in the Rachmaninoff Sonata No. 2, a work which lends itself to such playing. In three movements, the last two played without pause, the music is often turbulent, even angry, with volleys of notes pouring from the keyboard. At such moments, Polusmiak seemed to have all 88 keys in his hands, helpless to do anything but his bidding, aided by effective, liberal pedaling.

The second movement was gentle and quasi-rhapsodic, the final movement tumultuous in the extreme, drawing an instant standing ovation from the crowd. Obviously immersed in his playing and the excitement of the moment, Polusmiak waved from the wings rather than returning to center stage to acknowledge the applause (perhaps needing to retreat for de-compression).

The two violin/piano sonatas followed after intermission. Debussy’s Sonata, composed in the shadow of World War II, had a sometimes wistful, fluid elegance, from the Berman-Järvi's soft, opening statement to the playful second movement and the brisk finale.

Franck’s A Major Sonata made a sterling finish to the recital (Franck composed it for Belgian violinist Eugene Ysaye, music director of the CSO from 1918-22). Collaboration by the two artists was superb here, Berman-Järvi applying her bow expertly and judiciously for a big, lustrous sound which she could plateau easily to match Polusmiak’s. Twice they shaped the Sonata’s cyclical opening theme to a blossoming climax.

Beginning with ominous rumblings in the piano, the second movement grew impetuous and wonderfully expressive. The violin/piano dialogue in the third movement was touching, powerful and evenly matched, setting a serious mood that melted charmingly in the finale. Here they took off after one another in high good humor (it is structured imitatively), working up to an exuberant ending and earning another standing ovation.

http://www.musicincincinnati.com/site/reviews/Polusmiak_Berman-J_rvi_Share_New_Beginnings_at_NKU.html

2009-02-04T07:38:00.000-08:00

February 3, 2009

Concert::Nova Does It in the Dark

Mary Ellyn Hutton

Concert:Nova

There were no hallucinations at Monday evening’s “Concert in the Dark” at the Contemporary Arts Center.

For that, the chamber group Concert:Nova may need to perform in Mammoth Cave or nearby Carter Caves in Kentucky. There it is possible – and routinely done as part of visits to the caves -- to extinguish all light and be in profound darkness. (It is well recognized that deprivation of one sense, such as sight or hearing, tends to sharpen the others.)

Still, the performance in the CAC’s “black box” Performance Space gave its listeners an idea of what that experience might be like. Cincinnati neuro-scientist Christopher Brubaker enlightened the audience with a lecture on music and the brain, which he interspersed among the five works on the program.

They were: Handel/Halvorsen’s Passacaglia for Violin and Viola; Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 4; Charles Koechlin’s Sonata for Two Flutes, Op. 75; “Fratres” for String Quartet by Arvo Pärt; and “Last Round” by Osvaldo Golijov.

C:N performers included violinist/violist Mauricio Aguiar, violinists Eric Bates, Tatiana Berman-Järvi and Anna Reider, violists Heidi Yenney and Joanne Wojtowicz, cellists Theodore Nelson and Susan Marshall-Petersen, bassist Skip Edwards and flutists Randolph Bowman and Jasmine Choi.

Logistics were tricky, even in the lower level CAC Performance Space. The musicians performed behind a black screen and used stand lights with blue gel filters to read their music (performing from memory would have been the impractical alternative).

There was ambient light in the room and one’s eyes quickly adjusted to it so that there was never a feeling of losing one’s bearings. One could listen with closed eyes, but this does not fool the brain into thinking it is truly dark. Some listeners focused their gaze on the floor or otherwise compensated to achieve the feeling of total darkness.

For this listener, the feeling was of being offstage at a concert. To demonstrate the true effect of the experience -- dark vs. light, seeing the performers vs. just hearing them -- the screen was taken down after Golijov’s “Last Round,” which was then repeated with the musicians in full view.

This is what drove the experiment home. “Last Round” is an elegy for Argentine composer Astor Piazzolla, who took the tango from the bordello to the concert hall with his many tango-inspired compositions. It is a kind of simulated bandoneon, the accordion-like instrument closely associated with the tango. There were squeeze-box sounds, much skittering by a double string quartet and tango rhythms galore. To actually see the players perform this evocative music multiplied its impact many fold, suggesting that visual stimulus plays an important role in the emotional aspect of music.

It also emphasized what most music-lovers already know: that there is nothing like a live performance, where the eyes as well as the ears can be drawn into the experience, and why having the right venue for a concert is so important.

In his remarks, Brubaker explained how the brain perceives music, from its reception in the ear to its transmission to the brain and how it is processed. Unlike sight, there is no single music center in the brain, he said. Pitch, timbre (color), melody, harmony and rhythm involve different brain centers, which also differ in location and degree between musicians and non-musicians.

Music's effect on the emotions is more mysterious, he said, but brain scans of people listening to music that gives them chills clearly show that it activates the same pleasure pathways as drugs, food and sex.

He also explained that unfamiliar music can prompt the “fight or flight” response and referred to the famous riot that accompanied the world premiere of Stravinsky’s revolutionary “Rite of Spring” in Paris in 1913. (After it became "familiar" -- a very short time after the premiere -- it was received with adulation and went on to become one of the century’s most popular works.)

C:N artistic director Ixi Chen says that with brain science such an important field of research right now, she would like to make “Concert in the Dark” an annual event.

Perhaps a run out to Carter Caves is in order?

http://www.musicincincinnati.com/site/reviews/Concert_Nova_Does_It_in_the_Dark.html

2009-01-25T22:45:00.000-08:00

The NKU Department of Music proudly presents:

Chamber Music Series "New Beginnings"

Sergei Polusmiak - Piano

Tatiana Berman -Violin

Friday, January 30, 2009, 8 p.m.

Greaves Concert Hall

Northern Kentucky University

Program

Messiaen Theme and Variations for violin and piano

Tchaikovsky Meditation for violin and piano, opus 42 No.1

Rachmaninoff Sonata no. 2 for piano in B flat minor, opus 36

Debussy Sonata for violin and piano

Frank Sonata for violin and piano in A major

2009-01-25T22:39:00.000-08:00

CONCERT:NOVA does it in the dark

with (UN)SEEN, CONCERT IN THE DARK

Monday February 2, 2009 8:00PM

at the CONTEMPORARY ARTS CENTER

$20 ($10 CAC Members, ETA and Students with ID)

C:N continues its second season with (UN)SEEN, a concert in the dark, a performance that will challenge the listener's experience by turning OFF the lights... How is live music heard differently without visual cues? What role does sight really play in our perception of live music? Inspired by the science of hearing, psychoacoustics and neurology, C:N will explore these questions with neuroscientist Chris Brubaker PhD, in an experimental performance that seeks to expand our understanding of music and the workings of the ear and mind. Part performance, part science experiment, (UN)SEEN is guided listening experience that will turn live music inside out.

Works will include:

HANDEL/HALVORSEN Passacaglia featuring Mauricio Aguiar + Anna Reider

JS BACH Brandenberg Concerto No 4 featuring Tatiana Berman, violin, Randolph Bowman + Jasmine Choi, flutes

KOECHLIN Sonata for Two Flutes

OSWALDO GOLIJOV Last Round for String Nonet

ARVO PART Fratres for String Quartet

Lois & Richard Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art

44 E. 6th Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202 - 513.345.8400

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Founded in 2007 and entering its second season, concert:nova represents a new dynamic force in Cincinnati's musical experience, and is pleased to announce our new project space, the CONCERT:NOVA Garden, sponsored by Urban Sites. Comprised of a diverse core ensemble featuring Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Chamber Orchestra musicians, concert:nova seeks to expand the traditional concert experience and provide a unique artistic understanding by building creative and expressive collaborations through the integration of dance, theatre and visual media into each adventurous project, presented in exciting and non-traditional venues. By performing renegade works in renegade spaces, the group is dedicated to producing content that is provocative, compelling and relevant to Cincinnati audiences in today's world.

Upcoming performances:

April 2009 Demystifying Arnold Schoenberg. An intimate portrait of the man, musician and philosopher. Chamber Symphony No 1, selections from the Book of the Hanging Gardens, Pierrot Lunaire, Serenade Op. 24 and Cabaret Songs.

May 2009 C:N and Beyond Ballet. A dynamic program of music in motion. John Adams, Arvo Part, and Samuel Barber.

________________________________

THANK YOU to our main sponsors:

The Know Theater

John + Farah Palmer

The Otto Budig Family Foundation

Urban Sites

Please visit www.concertnova.com or contact the C:N team at info@concertnova.com for more info about this innovative ensemble and upcoming events.

Waiting for the End of Time: review

2008-12-20T22:02:00.000-08:00

December 20, 2008

Messiaen and Beckett: CONCERT:NOVA Contrasts Hope and Despair

Mary Ellyn Hutton

http://www.musicincincinnati.com/site/reviews/Messiaen_and_Beckett_CONCERT_NOVA_Contrasts_Hope_and_Despair.html

Julianna Bloodgood as (L to R) Vladimir and Estragon in "Waiting for Godot"

“Waiting for the End of Time,” CONCERT:NOVA’s December 19 program at Christ Church Cathedral in Cincinnati, was an exquisite event. Rarely have so many things come together to form a satisfying whole, in this case music, drama and visual art presented in an environment singularly appropriate to it.

In addition, it marked, to my knowledge, the only observation of the centennial of French composer Olivier Messiaen to take place in Cincinnati this year.

Born 100 years ago December 10, Messiaen wrote his famous “Quartet for the End of Time” while interned in a German prisoner of war camp during World War II. It was premiered at Stalag VIII-A in Görlitz, Germany (now Poland) for an audience of fellow prisoners and guards in January, 1941. Informed by the composer’s deep religious faith, it takes the side of hope in a dismal, hope-less world.

CONCERT:NOVA members Ixi Chen (clarinet), Tatiana Berman (violin), Theodore Nelson (cello) and Julie Spangler (piano) performed Messiaen's Quartet along with spoken excerpts from Irish writer/playwright Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot” delivered with presence and conviction by Cincinnati actress Julianna Bloodgood. Beckett’s 20^th-century classic takes a despairing view of the world, i.e. there is really nothing to hope for.

The powerful visual element was created by photographer/visual artist Trinidad Mac-Auliffe who compiled images of Bloodgood as each of the four main characters in the play to be projected simultaneously with the music. The black-and-white photos (taken during a 12-hour photo shoot, said Bloodgood) presented the actress in various combinations of clothing, facial hair and headgear.

Written in 1948-49 (originally in French), “Waiting for Godot” is a two-act play about two friends (Vladimir and Estragon) waiting beside a tree for someone named Godot. They do not actually know Godot, but they have been told to meet him and somehow feel that it is important. They wait for two acts, during which a pair named Pozzo and Lucky (master and slave) drop by. At the end of both acts, a mysterious Boy tells them Godot has been delayed but will come the next day. They pass the time aimlessly with chat and mundane matters, even contemplating suicide as a release from boredom.

By contrast, Messiaen’s Quartet was suggested by passages from chapter 10 of the Book of Revelation where an angel proclaims “that there should be time no longer” and that “the mystery of God should be finished.” The eight movements are correlated to the biblical text. Four are for the full quartet, one for solo clarinet, one each for cello and piano and violin and piano, one for a trio of violin, cello and clarinet. The whole lasts about 48 minutes. Bloodgood and members of C:N dressed in tones of cream and white. The spacious interior of the church, with its warm-wood fittings, stained glass windows, massive cross hanging over the nave, seasonal evergreens and poinsettias, was a thoroughly fitting and gracious venue for the concert.

The opening “Liturgy of Crystal” contrasted the pre-dawn awakening of birds (clarinet and violin against a shimmering background) with images of Estragon trying to remove his boots (“Together again,” comments Vladimir). Vladimir peered into his hat (his thoughts) and Estragon fell asleep during “Vocalise for the Angel who announces the End of Time,” where the quartet gave powerful imagery to the biblical vision of the seventh angel who “set his right foot upon the sea and his left foot on the earth.”

Clarinetist Ixi Chen created incredible sonorities in “Abyss of the Birds,” a moving, eight-minute meditation on (according to Messiaen’s notes for the work) “the sadness” and “weariness” of Time. A feat for the clarinetist, it calls for extremes of pitch and dynamics. Meanwhile on the video screen, Pozzo and Lucky appeared, Pozzo ate chicken and philosophized with Vladimir.

Cellist Nelson soared in “Praise to the Eternity of Jesus,” one of two movements exalting the attributes of Christ. Meanwhile, Bloodgood gave voice to a trivial spat between the waiting pair, who make up and conclude “What do we do now that we are happy? Wait for Godot.” The tree (a symbol of the Cross?) has sprouted leaves in act II of the play, from which Bloodgood interpolated further abstracts to “Dance of Fury, for the Seven Trumpets,” a rhythmically complex and strenuous movement where the quartet emulated apocalyptic sounds.

In the penultimate “Tangle of rainbows, for the Angel who announces the end of time,” music from the second movement recurred, as did Pozzo and Lucky on the video screen. Pozzo is now blind, subservient to Lucky and in need of help. Vladimir wrestles with aiding him but concludes “What are we doing here . . . waiting for Godot.” The C:N musicians crafted vivid colors and effects here, from the rich, emotive sound of the instruments in unison to steely arpeggios by violinist Berman and passionate trills by all (as Pozzo and Lucky exited).

It was Berman’s moment in the final movement, “Praise to the Immortality of Jesus,” and she rose to it splendidly. The music paints the soul’s ascent to heaven (compare the composer’s “L’Ascension”), an eight-minute exercise that finishes in stratospheric heights on the violin. Berman has the ability to play with the deepest intensity while avoiding any hint of shrillness or diminishing the beauty of her sound, which blended with the beauty of the cathedral itself.

Bloodgood drew the musicians into the play after the music ended by giving them Vladimir and Estragon’s final words after being told that Godot is again not coming, but will come the day after: Vladimir: “Shall we go?” Estragon: “Yes, let’s go,” followed by lights out and no movement at all.

CONCERT:NOVA L to R: Owen Lee, Tatiana Berman, Patrick Schleker, Mauricio Aguiar, Heidi Yenney, Cristian Ganicenco, Christine Coletta, Randolph Bowman, Ixi Chen, Elizabeth Freimuth, Eric Bates

CONCERT:NOVA is a chamber group drawn mostly from the Cincinnati Symphony and Chamber Orchestras. Now in its second season, C:N continues its series of collaborative, multi-media events with “Concert in the Dark” February 2 at the Contemporary Arts Center, a concert that C:N says will “challenge the listener’s experience with live performance by turning off the lights completely.” “Demystifying Arnold Schoenberg” follows in March, “Beyond Ballet, a program of “music in motion” in May (John Adams, Arvo Pärt, Samuel Barber) and “Mirror in the Mirror” in June, featuring live interactive video and works by J.S. Bach, Ollie Mustonen, Michael Fiday and others.

For information, visit http://www.concertnova.com/

2008-12-19T11:57:00.000-08:00

Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Onstage: concert:nova
By Matt Morris

Concert:nova best describes its cross-disciplinary mash-ups of music, theatre and art as “conversations.” For the upcoming Friday night performance, bits of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot will be performed by Julianna Bloodgood against video work by Trinidad Mac-Auliffe and a revival of Oliver Messaien’s chamber piece Quartet for the End of Time. These works, when at play with one another, contrast situations of finding meaning, especially in adverse circumstances (Messaien created his music while a prisoner during WWII). But, in places, that meaning will no doubt be contradicted by the strains of Absurdism that run through Beckett's work. Best of all, c:n will be performing this work in Christ Church Cathedral (318 E. Fourth St. Downtown), a poignant setting for exploring such issues, including the wait for “Godot” himself. 8 p.m. performance with a 9:30 p.m. reception. $20; $10 students and ETA members.

Video interview from www.cetconnect.org

2008-12-14T21:37:00.001-08:00

December 7, 2008
http://www.cetconnect.org/MediaPlayer.aspx?vid=3376

Waiting for the End of Time

2008-12-01T19:47:00.000-08:00

December 1, 2008

CONCERT:NOVA takes the stage with the moving and provocative world premiere conversation, Waiting for the End of Time. With a video piece by visual artist Trinidad MacAuliffe, C:N will perform Oliver Messaien's poignant chamber work, Quartet for the End of Time, set against abstracts from Samuel Beckett's classicWaiting for Godot, performed by Julianna Bloodgood. This enthralling juxtaposition creates a conversation between two master artists and allows the audience to peek into their lives, ideas and motivations.
The themes of hope, despair, faith and timelessness collide with the political and cultural history of the 20th century in this poignant and deeply collaborative work. Creating a forum for the conversation between two great ideologies, C:N starts with Messaien's pivotal Quartet for the End of Time, composed while a prisoner in a World War Two concentration camp. Messiaen's encounters with a cellist, a clarinetist and violinist and the musicians' evolving friendship inspire an extraordinary work attesting to the eternal freedom of spirit over the temporal captivity of the body. Using abstracts from Beckett's great work Waiting for Godot, the quest for hope and understanding is framed by stunning visuals, music, movement and text.
Featuring visual artist Trinidad Mac-Auliffe and actor Julianna Bloodgood.

C:N musicians: Tatiana Berman (Violin), Ixi Chen (Clarinet), Ted Nelson (Cello) and Julie Spangler (Piano).
Coinciding with the centenary of Messiaen's birth in December 1908, this is a touching and heartfelt message in tune with the spirit of the holiday season.
Preview Performance:
Date/Time: Monday, December 15, 2008
Time: 7 pm performance, 8:30 pm reception
Suggested Admission: $20 at the door/$10 students and ETA members

Venue: CONCERT:NOVA Garden The C:N Garden is located at 532 Reading Road, Cincinnati, OH 45202 in the Metaphor Studios Building. Street parking and parking lots available adjacent to the space. Light beverages and bites available at the reception.

Performance:Date/Time: Friday, December 19, 2008
Time: 8 pm performance, 9:30 pm reception
Admission: $20 at the door/$10 students and ETA members

Venue: Christ Church Cathedral
The Christ Church Cathedral is located at 318 E. Fourth Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202, on the corner of 4th and Sycamore downtown. Parking is available in the 303 Building on the corner of 3rd and Broadway.
______________________________
Founded in 2007 and entering its second season, concert:nova represents a new dynamic force in Cincinnati's musical experience, and is pleased to announce our new project space, the CONCERT:NOVA Garden, sponsored by Urban Sites. Comprised of a diverse core ensemble featuring Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Chamber Orchestra musicians, concert:nova seeks to expand the traditional concert experience and provide a unique artistic understanding by building creative and expressive collaborations through the integration of dance, theatre and visual media into each adventurous project, presented in exciting and non-traditional venues. By performing renegade works in renegade spaces, the group is dedicated to producing content that is provocative, compelling and relevant to Cincinnati audiences in today's world.
Please visit www.concertnova.com or contact the C:N team at info@concertnova.com for more info about this innovative ensemble and upcoming events.

2008-11-18T10:51:00.000-08:00

Concert:Nova smashes tradition

2008-10-27T18:53:00.000-07:00

October 26, 2008

The Cincinnati Enquirer

By Janelle Gelfand

They call it renegade chamber music - a new kind of performance art merging music, dance, acting and visual media in unexpected places. The founders of Concert:Nova, a chamber ensemble of Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra musicians, say they are tossing traditional classical presentations out the window. The idea, they say, is to close the gap between performers and audience.
"It's no longer about the artist telling the audience about the art. It's taking away the construct of performing and just being able to experience the art," says clarinetist and artistic director Ixi Chen.
Concert:Nova will open its second season on Thursday in the "UnMuseum" at the Contemporary Arts Center, downtown.
The first concert, "Where the Wild Things Are," a takeoff on Maurice Sendak's popular children's book, is emblematic of the group's mission. It's being presented as an "installation" at the CAC, where fantastical illustrations of the tale by Till Lassmann, a German illustrator and animator, will accompany the music that tells the story of Max's journey to the land of the Wild Things.
The musicians will transform into an electro-acoustic ensemble - including Owen Lee on electric bass and Tanya Berman on electric violin - for a fusion of classical, rock and avant-garde by New York composer Randall Woolf.
They hope their collaborative ideas will create a new forum for dialogue about art and break down some of the barriers surrounding classical music.
They have mounted their projects in spaces such as the downtown bar Twist, Below Zero Lounge and Know Theatre in Over-the-Rhine. This year, they hope to branch into alternative venues, such as a parking garage or an airport hangar, "to bring different elements of the city into our art," Chen says.
The five-concert season will include projects with actors, artists and members of Cincinnati Ballet. In December, Concert:Nova will team with artist Trinidad Mac-Auliffe and actor Julianna Bloodgood for a concert of Olivier Messiaen's "Quartet for the End of Time," composed in a World War II concentration camp, paired with Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot."

If you go
What: Concert:Nova: "Where the Wild Things Are"

When: 7 p.m. Thursday

Where: UnMuseum, Contemporary Arts Center, Downtown Cincinnati

Tickets: $20, $10 Enjoy the Arts/Start members or students; 513-321-5073, www.concertnova.com

Halloween revelers: Wear your "Wild Things" costume and stay for a free reception.

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20081026/ENT03/810260328/1028/ENT

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