Classical Concert Reviews Cinci

@cincysymphony continued its 2025-26 season with a pairing of two of the best works by Johannes Brahms and Robert Schumann, under the direction of music director laureate Louis Langrée.Guest pianist Clayton Stephenson (@claytonstephensonpiano), winner of the 2024 Nina SImone Piano Competition, joined them for a vibrant performance of Brahms’ Op.…

What a delight to have @concordiachoir perform at @christchurchcathedralcincy as part of their 2026 tour of the northeast and Midwest. I have a firm belief that Lutheran college choirs rank as some of the finest in the world, both for their purity of sound and the sheer level of artistry…

@cincysymphony continued its 2025-26 season with an exciting program pairing two supreme achievements of classical music during the 18th and 20th centuries, respectively, under the direction of former associate conductor Samuel Lee, making a fabulous return appearance to Cincinnati.The orchestra opened with a sprightly reading of a rarely-performed work by…

@uc_ccm presented its annual graduate student production for 2026 with a double bill of two underrated masterpieces of early 20th-century opera by Kurt Weill and Francis Poulenc in the intimate yet venerable acoustic of CCM’s Cohen Family Studio Theater.Weill’s Mahagonny-Songspiel, composed in 1927, was expanded two years later into the…

What a treat to hear @sevenhillsbaroque perform an all-vocal program of familiar music and otherwise unknown works from the 15th to 18th centuries in the gorgeous acoustics of Holy Spirit Roman Catholic Church in Newport, KY under the collective title Singing through Life’s Journey. Performed by soprano Olivia Knutsen, alto…

@uc_ccm’s Philharmonia continued its winter-spring 2026 semester with a pair of late-Romantic masterpieces performed under the title Midlife Crisis in the acoustical wonder of CCM’s Corbett Auditorium.Joined by two guest alumni soloists, cellist Jonathan Lee (principal cellist of the Dayton Philharmonic (@daytonphilharmonic)) and violist Rebecca Barnes (currently a member of…

@uc_ccm’s Chamber Choir opened its slate of musical offerings for the winter/spring of 2026 with an absolutely SPECTACULAR performance of one of James MacMillan’s most popular and most frequently performed choral works, Seven Last Words from the Cross coupled with Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings, under the direction of CCM’s…

@collegium_cincy presented a rare treat as part of the 2026 Cincinnati Early Music Festival at @christchurchcathedralcincy – an opportunity to hear some of the best examples of standalone choral writing by Johann Sebastian Bach in four of the six motets which survive in his name, sung by an ensemble of…

@cincysymphony continued its 2025-26 season with a program featuring one of the crown jewels of 20th-century symphonic music, Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 4.Under the direction of guest conductor Tabitha Berglund, newly-appointed principal guest conductor of the Dresdner Philharmonie, the orchestra opened with perhaps one of the quirkiest new orchestral scores…

@uc_ccm’s undergraduate Opera D’Arte program presented its winter 2026 semester production, a rare opportunity to hear L’Egisto by Francesco Cavalli (a direct contemporary of Claudio Monteverdi). Presented as part of the 2026 @cincy_early_music_festival, the performance was sensual and evocative, and fit the acoustics of CCM’s Cohen Family Studio Theater surprisingly…