In 2024, the first Japanese pianist to win the prestigious Hamamatsu International Piano Competition
Megan Moore MEZZO-SOPRANO
October 12, 2025
“...rich, buttery mezzo tone, a genuinely beautiful voice.” Observer
Bridget Kibbey HARP
November 16, 2025
“...the Yo-Yo Ma of the harp.” Vogue Magazine
March 8, 2026
Winner of the 2024 Leeds International Piano Competition
Tickets: MemorialHallOTR.org or 513-977-8838
Ziggy and Miles DUO GUITARISTS
March 29, 2026
Winners of the 2023 Young Concert Artists International Auditions
CINCINNATI
FESTIVAL 2025
8 Festival Feature: The Brightness of Light: The Muses, the Artists and the Letters
Spotlight: The Anthropocene: River, Rain and What Remains
Spotlight: Jason Alexander Holmes: A Choir Director’s Journey 22 Spotlight: A Partnership Worth Singing About 26 Inside the Chorus: The Power of Singing Together
ARTISTS
28 Renée Fleming, Festival Director 31 May Festival Chorus
32 Chorus Leadership: Matthew Swanson, Director of Choruses; Jason Alexander Holmes, Associate Director of Choruses
May Festival Youth Chorus, Jason Alexander Holmes, Director 36 Cincinnati Boychoir, Lisa Peters, Director 39 Guest Soloists and Conductors
46 Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra CONCERTS
49 VERDI REQUIEM: May 16
58 CHASING THE DAWN: A CHORAL JOURNEY: May 18
69 THE BRIGHTNESS OF LIGHT: May 22
80 VOICE OF NATURE: THE ANTHROPOCENE: May 24
DEPARTMENTS
87 Cincinnati Musical Festival Association
89 Thank You to Our Donors
95 We Applaud Our Subscribers 96 Administration
ON THE COVER: As dawn comes to the forest, a ray of light touches the petals of spring tulips and the voices of nature soar. (Credit: Alan Villegas)
CINCINNATI MAY FESTIVAL
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GREETINGS FROM THE BOARD CHAIR AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Dear Friends,
On behalf of the May Festival, the May Festival Choruses, the Cincinnati Boychoir and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, welcome to the 2025 May Festival!
We are thrilled that internationally renowned American soprano Renée Fleming has brought her passions and artistry to the 2025 May Festival as the Festival Director. The Brightness of Light and Voice of Nature: The Anthropocene are unique artistic projects for Fleming, and both will make their debut on the stage of Music Hall this Festival. In addition to being an opera superstar, Fleming is a devoted advocate for the positive impact the arts can have on our health. Her most recent book, Music and Mind: Harnessing the Arts for Health and Wellness, is a collection of essays, curated by Fleming, from leading experts about the powerful impacts of music and the arts on health and the human experience. As part of the Festival, Fleming will host a panel discussion with local experts, neuroscientists and organizations to bring attention to the intersection of music, health and neuroscience in our everyday lives.
For this second Festival under our new artistic model, Fleming’s programming demonstrates the richness and diversity of thought that are central to this model. Each Festival, we, as audience, as well as chorus and orchestra members, will get to experience the artistic world and viewpoint of a new Festival Director — the prospects and opportunities are exciting!
As former board chair Christy Horan wrote in last year’s welcome letter, the May Festival has been in a period of “transformation,” which has since culminated in the appointment of three new members of the May Festival team. The 2025 May Festival is Matthew Swanson’s first as Director of Choruses. Swanson started his May Festival journey in 2012 as a tenor within the May Festival Chorus. In 2015, he was appointed Conducting Fellow, which led to his appointment as Associate Director of Choruses and Director of the May Festival Youth Chorus. Read more about Matthew’s journey at mayfestival.com/ MeetMatthew. On pages 17–21, David Lyman introduces us to Jason Alexander Holmes, who was appointed Associate Director of Choruses and Director of the May Festival Youth Chorus in July 2024. And, in November 2024, we welcomed our new Executive Director, Julianne Akins Smith, to the May Festival. Smith brings more than a decade of experience in organizational growth and community engagement, along with a passion for welcoming new audiences.
As leading ambassadors and advocates for the vocal community, the May Festival recently welcomed the Cincinnati Boychoir into its fold through an historic alliance between the two organizations. On pages 22–25, writer Hannah
Dr. Michael Curran
Edgar explores how the alliance came to be and its ongoing success.
From the Board of Directors, Choruses, Orchestra, artistic leadership, crew, staff and soloists, we express our deep gratitude for every single audience member, donor and sponsor. All of you help make this world-class event possible — Enjoy the 2025 May Festival!
relationship on pages 8–11. On page 82, discover the story behind the creation of Fleming’s latest commercial recording, Voice of Nature: The Anthropocene before experiencing selections from that project brought to life on the final concert of the 2025 Festival. On pages 13–16, writer Gabriela Godinez Feregrino brings the ideals of “The Anthropocene” to Cincinnati and our connection to the Ohio River. In short, there are many ways to enrich your Festival experience by diving into the stories behind the scenes.
Dr. Michael Curran, Chair, Board of Directors
Dear Friends,
Welcome to the 2025 May Festival!
I am honored to serve as the May Festival’s Executive Director. I am continually impressed by the rich history, dedication, and passion that exudes from the May Festival community, and I am eager to meet and connect with you — the Festival’s donors, audience, singers and community.
I would like to echo Dr. Curran’s words of welcome to 2025 Festival Director Renée Fleming and give a special thank you to her for enriching the new Festival Director model by sharing her unique artistic vision with the May Festival. Within the pages of the program book, readers will discover articles and letters that shed light on the stories behind Fleming’s artistic programming. Composer Kevin Puts’ The Brightness of Light explores the intriguing relationship between two artists: Georgia O’Keeffe (Renée Fleming) and Alfred Stieglitz (Rod Gilfry). Writer Vittoria Benzine dives deep into this long and complicated
I want to extend a special thank you to the members of the May Festival Chorus, May Festival Youth Chorus and Cincinnati Boychoir for your hard work and dedication to the art of choral singing. Without our volunteer chorus members and the countless hours they spend in rehearsal and preparation, the May Festival would not exist.
If this is your first May Festival experience, welcome — it is mine, too! While honoring the rich history of the past, it is my deepest hope to create a Festival experience that draws in ever-new audiences each spring to experience the journey curated by each new Festival Director. From start to finish, this Festival is a place to give yourself space to explore themes of death and life, health and humanity, beauty and nature — all on a grand scale connected by the one universal thread that unites us all: the human voice.
After recently moving to Cincinnati with my husband, four-year-old boy and newborn son, we are overwhelmed by the welcoming atmosphere and impressed by the vibrant artistic community. Thank you for the opportunity to steward the founding organization of Music Hall and the musical community of Cincinnati forward into an inspiring new era. This is very clearly a special community of music lovers and the perfect place for diehard May Festival fans, newcomers, families just like mine, and the generations yet to come. I look forward to enjoying the 2025 May Festival together with you!
Julianne Akins Smith, Executive Director
Julianne Akins Smith
A proud sponsor of the musical arts
LETTER OF WELCOME FROM 2025 FESTIVAL DIRECTOR RENÉE FLEMING
Welcome to the 2025 May Festival!
I am delighted to serve as 2025 Festival Director. For over 150 years, the May Festival has showcased the finest in choral music. It is a privilege to carry this legacy forward with the new artistic model. With a different Director each year, this celebration offers fresh perspectives, artistic innovation and exciting new collaborations. It is exciting to share the stage with fantastic musicians like Director of Choruses Matthew Swanson, the May Festival Choruses, and maestros Juanjo Mena, Robert Moody and Ramón Tebar.
Beyond music’s power to express the most profound ideas and feelings, we are learning more every day about the creative arts’ ability to improve our health and well-being. This year’s Festival has been carefully curated to highlight these benefits. On the stage of Music Hall, you will hear stories about the life of iconic American artist Georgia O’Keeffe; the voice of nature that, though imperiled, inspires us; a composer reconciling his feelings about death; and the universal experiences that carry us from dusk to dawn.
The founding of the May Festival in 1873 catalyzed Cincinnati’s renown for its vibrant music and arts scene. This would not be possible without the passionate audience that gives artists the opportunity to offer new and unexpected musical narratives alongside revered works. From all of us on stage, we are grateful for your dedication to the arts and your support of the Cincinnati May Festival. Together, we will create unforgettable moments and share the joy and unity that only live music can bring. Thank you for being with us at the 2025 May Festival!
Renée Fleming 2025 Festival Director
Credit: Andrew Eccles for Decca
The Brightness of Light: The Muses, the Artists and the Letters
BY VITTORIA BENZINE
It’s easy to feel like art history happens as if it were the weather. Roving winds from Africa birthed Cubism. A high pressure system in Europe yielded Dada. This well-intentioned take on art overlooks the human element, however. What aesthetics would surround our lives today if Andy Warhol never met Jean-Michel Basquiat, or if Alfred Stieglitz never met Georgia O’Keeffe?
O’Keeffe and Stieglitz initially connected 109 years ago via letters — the famed linchpin of their
storied, saucy relationship. The couple exchanged 5,000 letters across 25,000 pages between the time they met, in 1916, and Stieglitz’s death, in 1946. Since then, perspectives on their union have shifted significantly. For several decades, it seemed reasonable to believe there’s no way O’Keeffe, an unknown artist, would have achieved international acclaim without the exposure afforded by her marriage to Stieglitz, who was the most important gallerist, publisher and photographer in American art at the time, single-handedly championing modernism in the States.
O’Keeffe, in turn, became the mother of American modernism, contributing a style all her own to the art-historical canon — at once dreamy,
Above: Palladium print photograph from 1922 by Alfred Stieglitz titled “Georgia O’Keeffe” (Credit: Donated to the public domain by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and through the generosity of The Georgia O’Keeffe Foundation and Jennifer and Joseph Duke, 1997). Above right: An autochrome self-portrait by Alfred Stieglitz from 1907 (Credit: In the public domain through the National Gallery of Art from the Alfred Stieglitz Collection).
natural, mythic and powerful. She knew the nation better, after all. Whereas Stieglitz was a rich Manhattanite with a European education, an ego and an allowance totaling nearly $4,000 a month, O’Keeffe was a Wisconsin-born daughter of dairy farmers who studied art in Chicago, New York City, Virginia, South Carolina and Texas.
She’d certainly heard of Stieglitz along the way, particularly while at Columbia University and the Art Students League of New York — which awarded O’Keeffe tuition to its summer school in Lake George (where the Stieglitzes summered) after her still life of a dead rabbit won a competition.
In 1893, when O’Keeffe was five years old, Stieglitz — nearly 30 — became a co-editor at the American Amateur Photographer magazine. The photo printing business his father bought him handled all imagery for the magazine. He wed Emmy Obermeyer, the sister of his associate. Over the next five years, Stieglitz led two prominent photography clubs, transforming the newsletter for one into the groundbreaking photography magazine
Camera Notes, which he helmed. Stieglitz made it his mission to elevate photography, his great love, to the art-historical importance of painting.
Stieglitz founded the Photo-Secession movement in 1902, then staged the member artists’ first exhibition in 1905 at his new gallery, 291 — catapulting both the movement and the space to renown. 291 later offered seminal American shows to revolutionary artists like Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Auguste Rodin.
O’Keeffe was 18 and studying at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago when 291 opened. Seven years later, she learned to appreciate Japanese compositional techniques through a University of Virginia professor who taught her about the artist Arthur Wesley Dow. In 1914, she studied directly under Dow at Columbia University — then started teaching there in 1915.
In early 1916, O’Keeffe sent her friend, the suffragist Anita Pollitzer, a few new charcoal abstractions called “Specials.” Pollitzer brought them to 291. Stieglitz famously called them the “purest, finest, sincerest things.”
O’Keeffe made her first contact with Stieglitz soon after. “If you remember for a week — why you liked my charcoals that Anita Pollitzer showed you — and what they said to you — I would like to know,” she wrote him in January 1916, adding that she made them “to express myself — things I feel and want to say — haven’t words for.” With Stieglitz, however, she learned to be very poetic.
Upon her death in 1986, O’Keeffe’s letters joined Stieglitz’s papers at Yale, completing the archive of correspondence — with a stipulation not to publish them for 20 years. From this cache emerges a torrid if common love story. Time moves fast, but people change slowly. At the start of their tempestuous romance, O’Keeffe was 28 and Stieglitz was 52. He had much to offer her professionally. Meanwhile, her benefits to him, besides her beauty, were a bit more abstract.
Society has struggled to make sense of such romantic power imbalances. Although there was an age gap between them, both were grown, more-than-willing adults. As evidenced throughout their letters, they truly loved each other. But, they were both fallible, too.
studio — if not domestic bliss. “Coming may bring you darkness instead of light,” he wrote before she left, warning that he didn’t know what he wanted from her. “It’s in Everlasting light that you should live.” Stieglitz knew he couldn’t be a provider.
O’Keeffe arrived, and Stieglitz finally got his lens on her, igniting a 350-part series immortalizing her body, often nude. Stieglitz’s wife, Emmy, walked in on an early session. Emmy never had the head for culture he did, but still shared her allowance with him, hopeful she and their now 20-yearold daughter would earn his love someday. Stumbling in on Stieglitz photographing O’Keeffe ripped off those rosetinted glasses. Emmy told him to stop seeing O’Keeffe, or leave their house.
Society has struggled to make sense of such romantic power imbalances.… As evidenced throughout their letters, they truly loved each other. But, they were both fallible, too.
O’Keeffe — driven yet insecure, that timehonored combination — clearly reveled in her mentor’s admiration. “I am so glad they surprised you,” she wrote to Stieglitz weeks later. “I am glad I could give you once what 291 has given me many times.” Her revelry reinforced his selfimage. Legend has it that O’Keeffe had a crush on Stieglitz’s colleague, the photographer Paul Strand, first. When Strand mentioned letters between himself and O’Keeffe, Stieglitz confessed he fancied O’Keeffe, clearing his lane.
In fact, Stieglitz loved O’Keeffe’s vision so much that he showed 10 charcoal drawings at 291 without her permission, O’Keeffe learned from a friend. He misnamed her “Virginia.” O’Keeffe surprised Stieglitz by showing up at her first 291 solo show the following May. “How I wanted to photograph you,” Stieglitz wrote right after she left. “But I didn’t want to break into your time.” 291 closed that year. Their letters heated up, became explicit. In 1918, Stieglitz invited O’Keeffe to live in New York, promising her a quiet
He chose the latter. One month later, Stieglitz and O’Keeffe were living in Manhattan like newlyweds, making love and making art. Stieglitz may have offered O’Keeffe an enhanced degree of entry into the male-dominated art world, but she unlocked unseen artistic abilities within him. Up until Stieglitz started photographing her, he’d been heralded a far more effective organizer than artist. In 1921, though, Stieglitz got his first solo show in eight years, at Anderson Galleries. Forty-six never-before-seen photos of O’Keeffe debuted — and caused a buzz. These arousing clusters of close-up shots of her body tantalized, in no small part, due to O’Keeffe’s enigmatic personage. The next year, she started incorporating her signature flowers into her paintings, beginning a long and often combative dialogue with critics who viewed them as sexual.
Stieglitz’s divorce from Emmy was finalized in 1924. He wed O’Keeffe soon after, hopeful that the stability would help his daughter’s mental health. O’Keeffe loved him enough to acquiesce, even though she knew Stieglitz had already made moves on confidantes like Strand’s wife Beck (who O’Keeffe is believed to have bedded years later) and O’Keeffe’s sister Ida (who’d declined.)
Marriage bore down. O’Keeffe wanted a child, but Stieglitz had watched his daughter suffer, and he feared his ineptitude as a parent. O’Keeffe got restless summering at Lake George. In 1925,
Stieglitz founded The Intimate Gallery. Two years later, a beautiful, young, married Smith graduate named Dorothy Norman started hanging around. Her relationship with Stieglitz began in 1928 — the same year O’Keeffe lost a mural commission for Radio City Musical Hall and was hospitalized for depression. O’Keeffe visited New Mexico with Beck Strand at the behest of a famed patron the following summer, just before Stieglitz opened his largest gallery, An American Place. By 1930, Norman was Stieglitz’s new muse. O’Keeffe started frequenting New Mexico in 1934.
O’Keeffe and Stieglitz exchanged letters all the while. He mourned her absence. At times, she got angry: “I know that one can not control what one feels but one can control the public exhibition of it,” O’Keeffe wrote in July 1934. But, through it all, she wholeheartedly assured Stieglitz she loved him, that separation was best for both of them. She begged him to take care of himself — and understand that without pursuing
Read composer Kevin Puts’ statement about The Brightness of Light on pp. 74–75.
her work, there would be no “her” to enjoy. “You really need have no regrets about me,” she wrote from Taos in July 1929. “You see — I have not really had my way of life for many years.” Stieglitz responded that he’d love her forever. He’d taken her virginity, after all. In her letters, O’Keeffe called New Mexico “my country.” The desert was her loyal lover. When Stieglitz died in 1946, O’Keeffe kicked Norman out of the hospital room. For women, this story has never been anything new. The distinct dynamics of gender, work and art at play in this tale between O’Keeffe and Stieglitz, however, feels truly modern. Would there be an O’Keeffe without Stieglitz — or a Stieglitz without O’Keeffe? Probably. Both artists were so fixated on their professional aims that they’d have made themselves happen somehow. But the specific union of these two talents alone left an indelible impact on art history. Therein lies an argument for embracing love as an element of art and work, no matter what pain it may bring.
Gelatine silver print photograph from 1931 by Alfred Stieglitz titled “Georgia O’Keeffe — Hands and Horse Skull.” (Credit: Donated to the public domain by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and through the generosity of The Georgia O’Keeffe Foundation and Jennifer and Joseph Duke, 1997)
River, Rain and What Remains
by GABRIELA GODINEZ FEREGRINO
Louis Charles Vogt (American, 1864–1939), The Ohio River from Eden Park, 1909–10, oil on canvas, Cincinnati Art Museum; Gift of The Procter & Gamble Company, 2020.111.
FFrom ancient Greek pastoral literature to Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons to oil paintings like Frida Kahlo’s “Naturaleza Viva,” nature’s simultaneous fierceness and tranquility has been a source of infinite artistic inspiration.
The word “Anthropocene” was initially created to categorize the period in time when humans have been the largest influence on the natural world. It was coined by atmospheric chemist Paul Crutzen in 2001 as a proposed geological epoch, though, in 2024, the International Union of Geological Sciences voted against ratifying the Anthropocene as a formal geological term. However, the IUGS included in their published statement that the term has expanded into other disciplines such as “social scientists, politicians, and economists, as well as the public at large,” and as such, “it will remain an invaluable descriptor in human-environment interactions.”
intervention in the 1880s, “the river actually used to be a lot smaller, though it also used to have bigger floods.”
Grote grew up by the river, watching the fog unfurl over it in the mornings. It isn’t difficult to
Print titled “Spring Scene on the Ohio River” from 1885. (Credit: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division)
For artists like Renée Fleming, the term offers a lens to contemplate our relationship with environmental destruction and climate change. Fleming’s album Voice of Nature: the Anthropocene is described as a work that “explores nature as both inspiration and a casualty of humanity.”
The effects of human-caused climate change are all around us. The Natural History Museum in London states, “Carbon dioxide emissions, global warming, ocean acidification, habitat destruction, extinction, and wide scale natural resource extraction are all signs that we have significantly modified our planet.” Locally, Boone County’s Natural Areas Technician Sarah Grote noted the Ohio River as a prime example of our influence on nature. “The Ohio is a lot different now. It’s no longer a free-flowing river, more like a series of interlocking moving lakes because of all the locks and dams.” They explained that, before human
see why the Ohio River has been the subject of so much art throughout the years. Artists like Thomas Hart Benton and writers like Toni Morrison have captured the Ohio River’s unforgiving strength and its beautiful promise of life and freedom.
A sustaining force and a witness to generations of triumphs and tears, the Ohio River holds the hearts of those who live along its shores and deserves protection. Once cared for through generations of rich education by indigenous peoples like the Wahzhazhe Manzhan, Shawandasse Tula and Myaamia, the river became exploited and has suffered extensive pollution through colonialism and industrialization. Today, indigenous peoples continue to advocate for “the critical connection between native sovereignty and environmental preservation.”
Over time, community activism has led to policy reform to restore the river’s health, though the battle is far from over. In 2020, according to Louisville Public Media, “41 million pounds of toxic pollution were released into the Ohio River Basin.” In 2024, the Ohio River
Foundation endorsed the Ohio River Restoration Program Act in Congress that aims to restore the Ohio River watershed, benefiting over 30 million people across 14 states. It is important that legal policy like this protects our environment beyond what we are capable of as individuals. This legislation would establish the Ohio River National Program Office and lead restoration efforts and workforce development to ensure clean water access and protection for the region’s communities.
Conserving what nature we have left is vital. Traditional conservation rhetoric often treats nature as something separate from humanity, to be protected from human influence. However, we must go beyond preservation and engage in stewardship, embracing our responsibility in shaping our environment for the future. Grote says, “In this region, we can’t leave land alone. It might be a nice thought to buy land to keep it from being destroyed by a commercial project, but without stewardship, invasive species will overtake the area.” Half-jokingly, Grote said, “It’ll probably become entirely bush honeysuckle.”
Grote encourages people to participate in the rehabilitation of degraded environments but emphasizes sustainable resource use as a more accessible goal. Small habits can have a big impact. We cannot detach ourselves from nature. We must think of ourselves as an active part of it and reckon with our responsibilities.
Visit the Ohio River Foundation’s website for resources on how to volunteer and donate to the preservation of the river and its ecology: ohioriverfdn.org. And learn how indigenous peoples of Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana continue to advocate for native sovereignty and environmental preservation: UrbanNativeCollective.org.
visits one of Cincinnati’s parks regularly can attest that breaking away from noise pollution and artificial light helps improve focus and reduces anxiety. According to the Harvard School of Public Health, being in nature can also lead to “lower blood pressure and reduced risk of chronic disease” because “green-space exposure is linked to more playtime and less screen time.”
Luckily, Cincinnati is known for its plethora of park options. Whether one is looking to be immersed in greenery in Mt. Airy Forest or looking for a blend of nature and urban design like Smale Riverfront Park, Cincinnati has something for everyone.
This city believes in the power of retreating into nature but also believes in the importance of preservation and promoting environmental stewardship. The effects of the climate crisis are already here.
Our ancient connection with nature is deeply intertwined with our well-being. Today, we can recognize that being in nature is also an obvious source of mental health benefits. Anyone who
In Cincinnati, we are experiencing stronger, more frequent storms and more consistent precipitation, meaning a higher threat of flooding and water supply contamination. The City of Cincinnati reported that “in 2019, large rain events caused hillside instability along Columbia Parkway.” It cost the city two years and $17.6 million, not because they just wanted to fix the parkway, but
Illustration from 1914 titled “River View from Eden Park, Cincinnati, Ohio.” (Credit: Columbus Metropolitan Library)
neighborhood-level solutions to the climate crisis.”
Like an artist carefully selecting their materials and refining their craft, we must make choices that protect and enhance the ecosystems of which we are a part. Reducing our plastic use, switching to reusable items like grocery bags and glass containers, conserving energy and water, using public transportation or cycling, and minimizing overconsumption are all helpful steps toward sustainability and protecting nature. There are many ways to reduce our carbon footprints as individuals. However, it’s important to recognize that policy and legal protections of our precious resources will ultimately lead to a more successful, sustainable future.
The Ohio River serves as a reminder of our impact on the environment and our potential recovery through collective action and policy change. As we continue to confront the effects of climate change, we have to continue examining our relationship with nature. Art, music and coming together as a community are crucial to processing these stark facts about the climate crisis.
because they needed to build with the prevention of future landslides in mind. We are facing a long journey of climate change, but not as passengers, rather as drivers with decisions to make.
Adding to Cincinnati’s long-standing efforts to be a more sustainable city, the 2023 Green Cincinnati Plan emphasizes sourcing local food from regional agriculture, increasing food access and expanding the city’s use of renewable energy. In February, the City of Cincinnati announced the continuation of the Green Cincinnati Plan by opening this year’s grant applications. They will be “investing at least $300,000 this year in dynamic,
Artists like Fleming remind us of Nature’s beauty and fragility, giving us a sense of awe and reverence as audience members. It is this connection that can inspire action. People created these problems, and together, people can solve them.
With our individual and collective commitment to sustainability and stewardship, there is hope for revitalizing our ecosystems and protecting the resources that sustain us. We have to keep gathering, staying informed and talking about these issues, and keep our elected officials accountable. Nature and the arts are places for respite, but more importantly, they are places to find resilience.
Read Renee Fleming’s letter about the inspiration behind her latest commercial recording, Voice of Nature: The Anthropocene, on p. 82.
From top: Dry plate negative of a Steamboat on the Ohio River in Cincinnati, Ohio c. 1906 (Credit: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division). Construction of Pilcher Dam/Lock and Dam No. 43 with heavy machinery on the Ohio River c. 1914–c. 1920 (Credit: James Scott Bryant Collection via the Bobbie Smith Bryant Donation, Office of History, HQ, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers).
JASON ALEXANDER HOLMES: A Choir Director’s Journey
by DAVID LYMAN
Credit: Lyons Photography
The announcement came as a surprise. Jason Alexander Holmes, the director of the Cincinnati Boychoir, had been appointed the May Festival’s Associate Director of Choruses and Director of its Youth Chorus.
That was in March 2024.
From the moment he arrived in Cincinnati in 2019, Holmes ever-so-gradually started popping up all over the place. Whatever it was, local music groups were falling all over themselves to have him conduct for them.
His abilities as a musician were impeccable. But it was more than that. His gentle demeanor, perhaps? Or his genuine affection for those who sang for him? Or possibly it was his eagerness for all manner of musical collaboration.
Small wonder, then, that Holmes would soon become an invaluable asset to the broader music community.
When he became associate director of the Boston Children’s Chorus in 2017, the group posted a short interview with him on its various social media outlets. When asked about his favorite musical genre, he said that it “depends on my mood, the weather, what I’m doing and just about any other variable you could imagine. Some favorites these days are opera (of all periods), R&B, gospel, dancepop, musical theatre and fabulous choral music of all styles. Ask me again tomorrow... :-).”
Small wonder, then, that Holmes would soon become an invaluable asset to the broader music community. He is also the director of Cincinnati’s MLK Chorale and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s Classical Roots Community Choir. He has been music director for a raft of musicals, including at The Carnegie in Covington (Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill, The Wonderful Music of Oz and, later this summer, The Color Purple), with Cincinnati Children’s Theatre (Cinderella, The Wiz Jr.) and with Cincinnati Opera (Liverpool Oratorio).
MAY FESTIVAL SPOTLIGHT
Credit: Mark Lyons
“When I first moved here, I made all the rounds,” he recalls. “I met all the people I could and just let them know that I was always interested in collaborations. Being a newcomer, it was really interesting.”
His friends back in Boston, though, were highly skeptical of his move to the Midwest.
“People in Boston were like ‘Oh, Jason, are you sure you want to move to Cincinnati?’ But I had to remind them that my family in Virginia had said ‘Oh, Jason, are you sure you want to move to Boston?’ And that worked out, didn’t it?”
Cincinnati, as it turned out, has been very, very good to Holmes. And he has, most definitely, returned that kindness.
A month after the May Festival announced Holmes’ appointment, it introduced a new “strategic alliance” between the Festival and the Cincinnati Boychoir.
“Effective July 1, 2024,” the May Festival said, “the organizations will begin operating under the May Festival organizational structure while preserving the Boychoir identity, brand, programming and independent non-profit status.”
“It was an arrangement that made sense on every front,” says Holmes. “Musically, financially, philosophically — we both had shared goals.”
quiet for a moment. “At the Boychoir, we had been through so much together. I didn’t feel comfortable leaving that just as we were getting back on our feet. It felt weird. And wrong. So I shared my reticence with Matthew.”
It was all set into motion, says Holmes, when Matthew Swanson — the May Festival’s Director of Choruses — asked if he might consider leaving the Boychoir to join the May Festival.
“I wasn’t looking for a move,” says Holmes. “But selfishly, there were practical reasons it made sense to me.”
He turns 40 on May 24 — one of those milestones when most of us reflect on where we are headed professionally, personally and financially. Holmes was no exception.
“I have to admit that the idea of really welldefined retirement benefits was very appealing,” he says. “I was completing my fifth year with the Boychoir and had seen them through the Covid lockdown — it was horrible — and ….” He’s very
That launched a healthy bit of institutional brainstorming for both organizations. What would be the benefits — and the downsides — to a deeper organizational collaboration?
“Neither Matthew nor I are legal minds, so we didn’t know what to call it,” says Holmes. They discussed the idea with board members and wellinformed constituents.
In the end, the alliance was regarded as a winwin for both groups. One of the many pluses for the Boychoir is that it was able to become tuition-free last September, matching the “no tuition, no fees” model of the May Festival Choruses.
“It used to cost parents between $500 and $900 a year for their boys to be in the choir,” says Holmes. “Not any more. You know, there is no shortage of
The Cincinnati Boychoir performing for the February 2025 “All Together Now” concert. (Credit: Mark Lyons)
ways to spend money on your kids. It’s great when I can go to a school to visit or do a workshop to be able to say all you need is the desire to sing and the desire to sing with others. Those are the very best reasons to sing.”
For the May Festival, the alliance rounds out a full spectrum of singing opportunities capable of seeing a singer through an entire lifetime of opportunities. Some of them you already know well — the May Festival Chorus, for instance. But did you know about the May Festival MiNiS program geared to children ages 0–12? Or the Cincinnati Choral Academy for grades 3–6 at several partner schools? With the addition of the Cincinnati Boychoir to the roster, there is now a pair of programs for boys with unchanged voices— the Apprentice program for grades 3–6 and the Journey Men program for grades 4–7.
It also completes a circle that began in 1965, when the Cincinnati All-City Boys Choir, as it was known then, made its debut with the May Festival Chorus and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra for a presentation of Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem.
You can hear the relief in Holmes’ voice as he talks of the alliance — a successful resolution to the reticence he described to Swanson. It’s clear the enormity of care he feels for his singers, whatever their age.
There is a profound connection between Holmes and his singers. It’s as if he is an extension of the chorus rather than their conductor.
For all of his years in front of audiences and choirs, there is a certain shyness that permeates Holmes. His smile is big and genuine. But it’s as if every question you ask surprises him a little. And maybe it does.
He is, after all, a small-town boy, raised in Ridgeway, Virginia, a tiny town with fewer than 750 inhabitants. Music was not at the heart of the town’s interests. Nestled in the rolling hills in southernmost Virginia — it’s just three miles from the North Carolina border — Ridgeway is in the heart of NASCAR country. If you check out Ridgeway’s appropriately small Wikipedia page, it lists six notable former residents. Three are NASCAR drivers.
Holmes’ high school, Magna Vista High School, touts not just its own livestock barn, but one notable alumnus, Ultimate Fighting Challenge fighter Tony Gravely.
That’s life in Henry County, Virginia — as in Patrick Henry, whose 10,000-acre Leatherwood Plantation was nearby.
But Magna Vista also had an active music program that staged musicals every year. It was there at Magna Vista that young Jason Holmes found his niche.
It would carry him on to the Eastman School of Music and Ithaca College and, eventually, to Cincinnati and the May Festival.
When he was introduced to the young singers of the May Festival Youth Chorus, it was a shock
JASON ALEXANDER HOLMES
Jason Alexander Holmes directing the May Festival Youth Chorus in 2024. (Credit: Mark Lyons)
for some of them. After all, Matthew Swanson was the only May Festival conductor they had ever known.
“For me, it was a difficult change at first,” says 15-year-old Oliver Wagner, a 9th grader at Sycamore High School. “I really, really liked Dr. Swanson. I was used to how his rehearsals were.”
His first encounter with Swanson was just a year earlier, when he auditioned for the MFYC.
“The audition was so much simpler than I expected,” he recalls. “I sang ‘Amazing Grace.’ And there were some rhythm exercises, too. I could have sung a German piece — I speak German — but it seemed difficult.”
From the very start of his May Festival experience, he was thrilled.
“I still remember my first rehearsal,” he says. “I know it was two-and-a-half hours. But it flew by. It felt like 20 minutes. I couldn’t wait to come back the next week.”
And as for his new music director, he has grown to enjoy Holmes.
“He’s very cheerful, so it’s hard not to like him,” says Wagner. “And we’re getting to sing some really great, diverse repertoire. We’re learning one in the native language of Ghana. I have absolutely no clue how to pronounce it yet. It’s in 2/4 and most of the notes are triplets and … it’s really complicated music. I like it.”
Elyse Longbottom, a junior at Indian Hill High School, joined the MFYC just last October. And like Wagner, she has been attracted by the complexity of the music she’s had the chance to sing.
“I went into it expecting it to be a little bit rigorous,” she says. “And I haven’t been disappointed. It’s a way for me to keep performing outside of regular school hours and to be performing with different people.”
Like many of the MFYC choristers, she has a schedule jam-packed with extra-curricular activities. She runs cross-country, regularly performs in school musicals and plays — she did Footloose in February — and is a teen volunteer at the Cincinnati Zoo. As Holmes says, this is a chorus filled with overachievers.
“I was vaguely aware that he (Holmes) was a new conductor this year,” says Longbottom. “But
you couldn’t really tell. He seems so comfortable with us. I really like working with him thus far. He has a great energy and always comes to the table with a lot of ideas. He’s very inspiring that way. And I especially like that he has a little silliness sometimes. He has such a positive vibe. You’re never afraid of doing something wrong. Really, he has been a joy to sing for.”
For his part, Holmes feels pretty much the same way. At one point in an earlier interview, he pondered the relative merits of leading a professional 16-voice choir versus a choir made up of less experienced singers.
“Obviously, the elite choir is appealing,” he says. “But then I think of the realities that go with it. You know, when you work with community choirs, there is something about that avocational group that is so beautiful. And working with kids, too. I have such a passion for teaching that I don’t think I would ever want to give up seeing that moment on a child’s face when they ‘get it,’ when they fall in love with a piece of music. There is nothing like it.”
The May Festival Youth Chorus during rehearsal in 2024, Jason Alexander Holmes directing. (Credit: Mark Lyons)
A PARTNERSHIP WORTH SINGING ABOUT
Last season, the Cincinnati Boychoir and the May Festival announced an historic alliance — here’s how it came to be, and how it’s going.
BY HANNAH EDGAR
Jason Alexander Holmes had a difficult conversation ahead of him.
At the end of 2023, Holmes learned he’d won a job as the Associate Director of Choruses and Youth Chorus Director of the May Festival. That was great news for his career — but bad news for the Cincinnati Boychoir, which was only just getting back on its feet after the pandemic and which he’d led as Artistic Director since 2019.
So, when he met with Boychoir board chairs Katy Sheehan and Emily Reinhold at a Cincinnati café to break the news, he floated an idea he’d already spitballed with May Festival Director of Choruses Matthew Swanson and then-May Festival Executive Director Steven Sunderman. What if the Cincinnati Boychoir came into the fold of the May Festival?
to ‘How can we make a partnership with each other?’” Sheehan recalled.
On its own, the Boychoir was, in Sheehan’s words, “small but mighty.” Before the alliance, the organization had two full-time staff, one part-timer and two hourly employees. All were working overtime to try to rebuild the chorus to its pre-pandemic enrollment. (The Boychoir’s goal is to field 60 singers in time for its 60th anniversary this year.)
In that climate, the prospect of sharing administrative and operational costs with the May Festival was a welcome relief.
“That administrative support was a huge part of what was needed,” Holmes says.
It went over better than he’d imagined. After recovering from the initial shock of Holmes’ announcement, Sheehan herself could see the benefits of such a union “right away.”
“It almost immediately segued from, ‘How are we going to find a new Boychoir director?’
The alliance was just as beneficial for the May Festival. Festival board chair Michael Curran noted that the organization almost always had to pull singers from outside its ranks if repertoire called for a boy chorus or soloist. With the Boychoir under its umbrella, the May Festival was, for example, able to call on the Boychoir for its November Chichester Psalms performance, resulting in Cincinnati Boychoir soprano Elessar DeHoff, clad in the organization’s signature yellow-and-black bowtie, taking center stage as boy soloist.
“We have the MiNis [pre-K education program], we have the teenagers and we have the adults. But we were missing that late-grade-school-to-earlyteenager part,” Curran says.
Both organizations also noted the tough recruitment prospects of male choral singers generally. Men are underrepresented even in the May Festival Chorus. According to Holmes, that gap is trending bigger, not smaller.
Jason Alexander Holmes (Credit: Lyons Photography)
Boychoir board members Katy Sheehan and Bryan Hafertepe
“If you look at the May Festival Chorus, the adult chorus, it’s not 50/50 soprano-alto and tenor-bass. It’s, like, two-thirds soprano-alto and then a third tenor-bass,” Holmes says. “Looking at that, you think, ‘Okay, we’ve got to have something in the pipeline to fix this.’”
Curran and Bryan Hafertepe, the Boychoir’s board secretary, both echo Holmes’ concern.
“The May Festival historically struggles to get young boys and men to audition. The Boychoir was always a bit of a feeder for the changed voices in that organization,” Holmes says.
In the ensuing months, the leaders of both organizations — Swanson and Sunderman from the May Festival and Sheehan and Reinhold from the Boychoir — met to talk more seriously about what such a partnership might look like. Holmes, as the common denominator between the two, came to the table with both organizations’ interests in mind.
“It was never contentious, which you always worry about,” Sheehan says. “We really wanted to make sure we presented a united front.”
Throughout, the executive committee and board of the Boychoir also met separately
May Festival Youth Chorus, Cincinnati Boychoir and Cincinnati Youth Choir performing Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 8, Symphony of a Thousand for the May Festival’s 150th anniversary season in 2023. (Credit: Mark Lyons)
May Festival Youth Chorus and Cincinnati Boychoir singing with the May Festival Chorus in the world premiere performance of James Lee III’s Breaths of Universal Longings at the 2023 May Festival. (Credit: Mark Lyons)
to discuss their own nonnegotiables. The Boychoir endeavored to keep things as consistent as possible for its young singers amid all the changes. For example, it still rehearses at its usual home, the Aronoff Center for the Arts. And the Boychoir is now led by a veteran of the organization, Lisa Peters, its assistant conductor for nearly a decade.
“When the singers [learned] that Jason was stepping over to the May Festival, that was a relief to them, too. It’s a familiar face,” Peters says.
So far, it’s going well for both the Boychoir and May Festival Youth Chorus. Rather than competing for the same demographic, enrollment has increased for both ensembles — “pretty
unheard of” in the context of such a major transition, Holmes notes.
Above all, both organizations agreed, from the beginning, that it was imperative for the Boychoir to retain its own identity. This season, the choir has
The Cincinnati Boychoir warms up with the May Festival Youth Chorus and Cincinnati Youth Choir in advance of their performance of Mahler’s Symphony of a Thousand (Credit: JP Leong)
The May Festival Youth Chorus and Cincinnati Boychoir perform together at the February 2025 “All Together Now” concert, Jason Alexander Holmes conducting; David Kirkendall, piano. (Credit: Mark Lyons)
continued to run its own programming independent of the May Festival.
“The true north in all the conversations was remaining a boy-centric organization,” says Hafertepe. “There are plenty of athletic places for boys to just be boys, but there aren’t a lot of artistic places in society for boys to just be boys.”
For Hafertepe, it’s personal: he was a Boychoir member from 2000 to 2003. He still fondly remembers understudying for a boy soprano role in Music Hall. Hafertepe has since come out as gay, but at the time the secret weighed on his social life.
“When I was playing soccer, I hid parts of myself. Boychoir gave me more space to be me,” he says. “I
don’t think I’m friends with anybody I played soccer with. But I still have probably a half-dozen people I sang with in Boychoir who are still good friends of mine, all over the country.”
Members of the bass section of the May Festival Chorus (Credit: JP Leong)
INSIDE THE CHORUS
THE POWER OF SINGING TOGETHER
BY TYLER M. SECOR
In 2019, Chorus America estimated that more than 54 million Americans sang in choruses — more than one in six of all Americans over the age of 18. And the percentage of singing Americans grows with each passing decade. Anecdotally, the ranks of choruses swelled dramatically post-Covid pandemic as people sought community after the long period of isolation.
With so many people participating in choral singing, there must be clear benefits beyond loving to sing or loving choral music.
Research at the intersection between the arts and health/ wellness is everexpanding, especially with the rise of noninvasive methods of studying brain activity. 2025 Festival Director Renée Fleming has curated a nearly 600-page book of essays from “leading scientists, artists, creative arts therapists, educators
and healthcare providers about the powerful impacts of music and the arts on health and the human experience.” Music and Mind: Harnessing the Arts of Health and Wellness explores topics such as how to love opera, using music to manage chronic pain, the intersection between music and memory, dance and Parkinson’s, and even “The Potential of Group Singing to Promote Health and Well-Being.”
In her overture to the book, Fleming writes the following about the root of her passion for exploring the intersection between art and health:
The many of us who appreciate, create or perform the arts intuitively understand their therapeutic effects on our lives. For me, experiencing art — whether musical, theatrical, or visual — can invoke bliss, a heart-filling satiation, and the gift of being fully present. Additionally, as a performer, I know well how it can produce a flow state, a sense of being in the zone, with my voice transported on long breaths as I attempt to paint a landscape of sound. As a singer, my body is my instrument, so I [was] … hoping to understand what science could teach me about the biological need to express and create. The ideas I encountered … gave form and language to questions I had long harbored, sparked a passion that is continuing to enrich my life.
Credit: JP Leong
Credit: Mark Lyons
Dr. Julene K. Johnson, a cognitive neuroscientist and co-director of the Sound Health Network, noted in her contribution to Music and Mind that group singing led to an overall sense of “feeling good.” As one participant in Johnson’s “Community of Voices” study stated, “The choir — it rejuvenates you. It gives you encouragement, more will to live. Music is medicine for the soul. It’s helped me a lot.”
When Chorus America surveyed singers for their 2019 “The Chorus Impact Study” the results showed that:
• Nearly seven in 10 singers say that singing has helped them socialize better in other parts of their lives.
• 73% of singers reported that choral singing helps them feel less alone or lonely.
• 80% of choral singers expect more good things than bad things to happen to them (compared to 55% of the general public).
• 63% of singers reported that choral singing has made them more open to and accepting of people who are different from them or hold different views.
There is also evidence that, instead of doing the typical ice-breaker or getting-to-know-you activities at gatherings like corporate retreats, attendees should try singing together. Research published by Royal Society Open Science reports the “first evidence for an ‘ice-breaker effect’ of singing in promoting fast cohesion between unfamiliar individuals,” noting that “singing breaks the ice so that individuals feel closer to the group as a whole even if they do not yet know anything about the individual members. Such an effect may overcome time constraints on the creation of individual relationships to allow large human groups to coordinate effectively and quickly.”
Research published in Evolution and Human Behavior suggests that choral singing
not only encourages close social bonding but it also is effective at relieving pain, by stimulating an increase in pain thresholds. Similarly, music therapist Dr. Joke Bradt’s essay, “Music for Chronic Pain Management” found within Music and Mind, states that “a survey of music listening habits in 318 people with chronic pain found that those who engaged more frequently in listening to music, and for whom music was important, reported better quality of life and needed less medical treatment.”
As you listen to the May Festival Chorus sing Igor Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms or Giuseppe Verdi’s Requiem watch how the singers breathe together and how deeply they breathe to create their sound. Respiratory sinus arrhythmia is the clinical term for the “physiologic change in heart rate synchronized with respirations, so that the heart rate increases with inspiration and decreases with expiration” (Cardiac Electrophysiology Clinics). The link between breathing and heart rate suggests that, as singers sing in unison, they breathe together and thus speed up and slow down their heart rates together, thereby creating a bond at a biological level.
For older adults, singing in a chorus can help to maintain cognitive abilities and improve chronic health conditions. Eight in 10 older (65+) choral singers report that singing has kept their mind sharper, and 20% reported that choral singing helped to relieve or improve one or more chronic health conditions (Chorus America).
Although this is just the tip of the research iceberg when it comes to the benefits of singing and singing together, it is clear there is power in choral singing, with positive impacts both on singers’ mental health and their physical wellbeing. As we learned all too well from the mental health effects that came from the pandemic, we are social beings. Singing together helps us understand each other and feel safe with one another. Working together to create music from our lungs soothes our souls and our bodies.
Credit: JP Leong
Credit: Andrew Eccles for Decca
RENÉE FLEMING FESTIVAL
DIRECTOR SOPRANO
Renée Fleming is one of the most highly acclaimed singers of our time, performing on the stages of the world’s great opera houses and concert halls. A 2023 Kennedy Center Honoree, winner of five Grammy® awards and the U.S. National Medal of Arts, she has sung for momentous occasions from the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony to the Diamond Jubilee for Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace. In 2008, she became the first woman in the 125-year history of the Metropolitan Opera to solo headline an opening night gala, and in 2014, she became the first classical artist ever to sing the national anthem for the Super Bowl. In 2023, the World Health Organization appointed her as a Goodwill Ambassador for Arts and Health, and this year at Davos, she became an inaugural member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Arts and Culture Council.
Renée’s latest recital and concert program, Voice of Nature: the Anthropocene, inspired by her 2023 Grammy-winning album, includes an original film created by the National Geographic Society to reflect the musical selections. In 2024 at the Metropolitan Opera, she reprised her role in The Hours, an opera based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel and award-winning film. In 2023, she portrayed Pat Nixon in a new production of Nixon in China at the Opéra de Paris. Renée’s anthology, Music and Mind: Harnessing the Arts for Health and Wellness, was published in 2024. A prominent advocate for research at the intersection of arts, health and neuroscience, Renée launched the first ongoing collaboration between the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and America’s largest health research institute, the National Institutes of Health. She created her own program called Music and Mind, which she has presented in more than 70 cities around the world. She is now an advisor for major initiatives in this field, including the Sound Health Network at the University of California San Francisco and the NeuroArts Blueprint at Johns Hopkins University.
Renée has recorded everything from complete operas and song recitals to indie rock and jazz. In 2023, Decca released a special double-length album of live recordings from Renée’s greatest performances at the Metropolitan Opera. Known for bringing new audiences to classical music and opera, Renée has sung not only with Luciano Pavarotti and Andrea Bocelli, but also with Elton John, Paul Simon, Sting, Josh Groban and Joan Baez. Renée’s voice is featured on the soundtracks of Best Picture Oscar winners The Shape of Water and The Lord of the Rings
Co-Artistic Director of the Aspen Opera Center and VocalArts at the Aspen Music Festival, Renée is also Advisor for Special Projects at LA Opera and Artist Development Advisor at Wolf Trap Opera. Renée’s other awards include the 2023 Crystal Award from the World Economic Forum in Davos, the Fulbright Lifetime Achievement Medal, Germany’s Cross of the Order of Merit, Sweden’s Polar Music Prize and honorary doctorates from 10 major universities.
www.reneefleming.com
Renée Fleming appears by arrangement with IMG Artists, www.imgartists.com.
Ms. Fleming’s jewelry is by Ann Ziff for Tamsen Z.
MAY FESTIVAL CHORUS
The May Festival Chorus is endowed by the Betsy & Alex C. Young Chair
MATTHEW SWANSON, Director of Choruses
Jason Alexander Holmes, Associate Director of Choruses & Youth Chorus Director
The May Festival Chorus has earned national and international acclaim for its musicality and command of repertoire. Consisting of 150 avocational singers who collectively devote more than 45,000 hours in rehearsals and performances annually, the Chorus is the core artistic element of the Cincinnati May Festival and the official chorus of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati Pops. The premier choral ensemble in Cincinnati, the May Festival Chorus has garnered
Caitlin Ahmann-Miller, 2*
Hannah Bachmann, 2*
Tracy Bailey, 24*
Cassandra Bailey-Langjahr, 1*
Avery Bargassé, 7*
Mark Barnes, 8
Deborah Barnett, 1
Karen Bastress, 26
Jim Baxter, 34
Emily Benoit, 1
Mariah Berryman, 1
Nathan Bettenhausen, 4*
Kenny Bierschenk, 8
Jennifer Blair, 2
Ryan Block, 2*
Laurel Boisclair Ellsworth, 20
David Bower, 4*
Andrew L. Bowers, 9
Scott Brody, 10*
Douglas J. Bruestle, 14*
Dawn Bruestle, 20
Darren Bryant, 4
Sage Bushstone, 1
Caitlyn Byers, 3
Christopher Canarie, 31*
Miriam Cantwell, 1
Timothy Carnahan, 1
Renee Cifuentes, 8
Rachel Curran, 1
Steven L. Dauterman, 43*
Grace Devoid, 1
Kathy Dietrich, 11*
Jennifer Dobson, 8
Brian Donaldson, 13
Bethany Dorsel, 1
David Dugan, 3
Donna Dunlap, 2*
Douglas J. Easterling, 10*
Sarah Fall, 3
Lindsey Fitch, 11
Benjamin Flanders, 2*
Steve France, 20*
Amanda Gast, 4
Alex Getz, 1
Ella Giesler, 1
David Gillespie, 3
Joelle Graham, 2*
Anita Marie Greer, 36*
Bella Gullia, 2
Grace Guthrie, 1
Melissa Haas, 7
Emma Hage, 1
Dana Harms, 17
Sally Vickery Harper, 54
Mary Wynn Haupt, 23*
Carolyn Hill, 14
Grace Ho, 1
Mark Hockenberry, 4*
Jason Alexander Holmes, 1
Leah Hoover, 1
Sarah Keeling Horseman, 15
Kim P. Icsman, 28*
Spence B. Ingerson, 35
Karolyn L. Johnsen, 53
Alexandra Kesman, 10
Erin Kieffer, 1
Jenifer Klostermeier, 6
Andrew Kneer, 1
Fansheng Kong, 4
Takuya Konishi, 4
Lisa Koressel, 25
Alex Kress, 2
Judith C. LaChance, 47
Hilary Landwehr, 36*
Julie Laskey, 21
Jim Laskey, 15
Megan Lawson, 10*
Kevin Leahy, 7*
Matthew Leonard, 3*
Jennifer Leone, 2*
Scott Lincoln, 1
Robert Lomax, 7
Katherine Loomis, 5
Alexx Lujan, 1
Elaine P. Lustig, 15
Julia Marchese, 4
Audrey Markovich, 4
Noelle Marousis, 1
Melissa A. Martin, 19
John McKibben, 7
Teri McKibben, 17
Christopher Meleski, 1
Justine Merritt, 7
Andrew Miller, 3*
Salvador Miranda, 2*
Jennifer Moak, 11*
James Murray, 1
H Scott Nesbitt, 15*
Scott C. Osgood, 23
Mary Patton, 1
Alison Peeno, 6
Amy M. Perry, 13*
James V. Racster, 43
Jason Ramler, 23
Kristi C. Reed, 14*
Brian Reilly, 4*
Larry Reiring, 16*
Beth Roberts, 19*
Christy Roediger, 3
Laura Ruple, 1
Hannah Schafer, 2
Julia H. Schieve, 30
Amanda Schwarz Rosenzweig, 4
Ann Schwentker, 6
Molly Scruta, 6*
Emily Seedle, 2*
A.J. Seifert, 1
Adam Shoaff, 12
Sarah Stoutamire, 8
Kristie Stricker, 3
Katherine Sullivan, 2
Nikki Tayidi, 1
Katie Tesmond, 2
Joshua Wallace, 18
Megan Weaver, 12
Mark Weaver, 19*
Gary Wendt, 19*
Paul Wessendarp, 5
Tommy Wessendarp, 4*
Stephen West, 4
Robin Rae Wiley, 3*
Patricia Wilkens, 4
Nathaniel Wilkens, 1
Taraneh R. Wilkinson, 3
Evan Young, 1
Barry Zaslow, 41
Meg Zeller, 1
Olivia Zimmerman, 2
Numbers behind chorus members’ names signify their years of service. Those celebrating anniversaries of five-year increments are honored with lapel pins they proudly wear with their May Festival uniforms.
*Member of the May Festival Chamber Choir
Margaret Eilert, 2*
Karen Scott-Vosseberg, 8* THE MAY FESTIVAL CHORUS The May Festival Chorus is endowed by the Betsy & Alex C. Young Chair
Emma Lawrence, 1
national and international attention through numerous PBS broadcasts and award-winning recordings, many in collaboration with the CSO and Pops. Most recently, a live recording of Robert Nathaniel Dett’s The Ordering of Moses featuring Music Director Laureate James Conlon conducting the Chorus and CSO at Carnegie Hall was released to critical acclaim in 2016 on Bridge Records, and, in 2017, the Chorus re-released its popular a cappella holiday recording Christmas with the May Festival Chorus on the Fanfare Cincinnati label. The Chorus is also featured on several Pops recordings, which have sold more than 10 million copies worldwide. mayfestival.com/chorus
MATTHEW SWANSON, Director of Choruses
Matthew Swanson is Director of Choruses for the Cincinnati May Festival, a cornerstone of the Cincinnati arts community since its founding in 1873. He is the artistic leader of the May Festival’s choral ensembles — the May Festival Chorus, the May Festival Chamber Choir, the May Festival Youth Chorus and the Cincinnati Boychoir — and collaborates with the annually appointed Festival Director to craft programming for the May Festival. He conducts and prepares the May Festival Chorus — the core artistic element of the Cincinnati May Festival and the official Chorus of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati Pops — for their performances at historic Music Hall and beyond. As Director of Choruses, he also leads the May Festival Conducting Fellowship, a collaboration of the May Festival and the Choral Studies Program at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.
Previously, Matthew Swanson was the Associate Director of Choruses, Youth Chorus Director and Director of Special Projects for the May Festival. Beyond the May Festival, he has been affiliated with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra and the Swedish Radio Choir, Lincoln Center (New York), CCM and Xavier University, along with other educational and cultural institutions in the U.S. and abroad. He is frequently engaged as a host and
presenter of lectures, concerts and broadcasts in Cincinnati, New York and elsewhere.
Swanson is a native of southeast Iowa and was educated at the University of Notre Dame, CCM and King’s College, Cambridge. He held the May Festival Conducting Fellowship in 2015. Prior to his fellowship appointment, he sang in the May Festival Chorus and worked in the CSO Box Office.
JASON ALEXANDER HOLMES
Associate Director of Choruses and May Festival Youth Chorus Director
Jason Alexander Holmes is a music educator and performer from Ridgeway, Virginia and serves as the associate director of choruses for the Cincinnati May Festival. Before coming to Cincinnati, he was director of educational programming at the Boston Children’s Chorus. Prior to his time in Boston, Holmes taught music at the elementary and secondary levels in Rochester, NY. He also led the University of Rochester Gospel Choir and the Eastman Young Children’s Chorus. Holmes holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music and Ithaca College.
Choirs under Holmes’ direction are consistently praised for their energetic, unified tone and engaging performances. He is known for innovative programming that celebrates the cultural context while encouraging singers and audiences alike to stretch their awareness by living in many different musical worlds. Pedagogically, Holmes is committed to implementing culturally responsive practices in music education. He has given workshops and taught sessions on this topic at professional development seminars, schools and conferences.
At the core of Holmes’ teaching and performing is the belief that we are all expressive and musical beings who deserve to witness and participate regularly in moments of truth and beauty.
Read more about Jason in “Jason Alexander Holmes: A Choir Director’s Journey” on p. 17.
Credit:
Krista DeVaul
HEATHER MacPHAIL, Accompanist
Heather MacPhail has been the accompanist for the May Festival Chorus since 1990. She is a frequent keyboardist with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, performing on all keyboard instruments. Since 1997, she has been staff accompanist at Miami University, where she supervises and coaches students in accompanying, teaches organ, and performs with faculty and guest artists. MacPhail has performed as piano soloist with area ensembles and in recital on local concert series.
Heather MacPhail is organist/director of music ministries at Westwood First Presbyterian Church in Cincinnati and maintains a private teaching studio for piano and organ. She holds a Master of Music degree in accompanying and a Bachelor of Music degree in piano performance from the University of Cincinnati CollegeConservatory of Music.
IN RECOGNITION OF RETIRING CHORUS MEMBERS
The May Festival acknowledges with gratitude and appreciation those Chorus members who conclude their membership in the May Festival Chorus at the close of the 2025 Festival.
Those retiring from the Chorus, with their service years, are:
Barry Zaslow, 41 years
Ryan Block, 2 years
ANDREW MILLER
May Festival Conducting Fellow
Andrew Miller, a Cincinnati-based conductor, tenor and instrumental instructor, serves as May Festival Conducting Fellow for the 2024–25 season.
In addition to his work as a choral singer with the May Festival Chorus and Vocal Arts Ensemble, Miller maintains an active performing schedule as a conductor and clinician. He most recently directed the choir and class guitar programs at Covington Catholic High School in Northern Kentucky, a tenure highlighted by collaborations with several area universities and a performing tour to Carnegie Hall in New York City. He also serves as Director of Music at St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church in Cincinnati.
Prior to his work in Cincinnati, Miller served as the director of the University of Louisville Singing Cardsmen while completing his Master of Music degree in choral conducting under the direction of Dr. Kent Hatteberg. He also served as an assistant for all university choruses and presented an eclectic Requiem Mass as his conducting recital, including a world premiere by Louisville composer Blake Wilson.
Miller completed his undergraduate degree in music education at the University of Kentucky in 2015 under the direction of Dr. Jefferson Johnson and Dr. Lori Hetzel and is currently pursuing doctoral studies in choral conducting at CCM.
The May Festival is grateful to Ginger Warner for her generous support of the Conducting Fellowship.
Credit: Lyons Photography
Credit: Mark Lyons
MAY FESTIVAL YOUTH CHORUS
JASON ALEXANDER HOLMES, Director
David Kirkendall, Accompanist and Assistant Director
Lisa Peters, Musicianship Instructor
Edy Drieth, Interim Chorus Manager
Kathleen Moran, Chorus Librarian
The May Festival Youth Chorus connects, inspires and educates young people through the study and performance of choral music. Since its founding in 1987, the Youth Chorus has appeared annually at the May Festival to perform choralorchestral works with the May Festival Chorus, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and internationally renowned conductors and soloists. In addition, the Youth Chorus presents its own concert series and collaborates with cultural institutions and organizations throughout greater Cincinnati.
Highlights of the Youth Chorus experience include a broad range of repertoire; annual commissions and world premieres; free professional voice instruction; access to free and discounted tickets to the May Festival, CSO and Pops concerts; frequent concert appearances with the CSO and Pops at Music Hall and Riverbend Music Center; and a community of enthusiastic and skilled peer musicians from across the Tri-State. Notably, the Youth Chorus is tuition-free; acceptance is based solely on ability.
The May Festival Youth Chorus is generously supported by the BAI Foundation
Additional ongoing support provided by the following:
DAVID KIRKENDALL, Accompanist and Assistant Director
David Kirkendall served as choral director at Princeton High School in Cincinnati from 1980 to 2013. He has been assistant director and accompanist for the May Festival Youth Chorus since 2006 and has also served as accompanist for the Vocal Arts Ensemble of Cincinnati since 2017.
Kirkendall completed his undergraduate degree, as well as a master’s degree in Choral Conducting, at the University of Cincinnati CollegeConservatory of Music (CCM). He attended the Choral Conducting Institute at the Aspen Music Festival and has also completed studies for the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Choral Conducting at the University of Illinois. He provided continuo realizations for the Roger Dean edition of the Vivaldi Gloria and has an SSA arrangement published with Alfred Music.
2025 YOUTH CHORUS AWARD WINNERS
John Hauck Foundation Scholarship
The May Festival Youth Chorus is pleased to award the John Hauck Foundation Scholarship to Sam Bringle and Emily Wendt. The scholarship annually supports graduating Youth Chorus members who plan to study music, or the arts more broadly, at the university level.
James Bagwell Award
The Youth Chorus is pleased to honor Jenavieve Southcombe with the James Bagwell Award. Named for Dr. James Bagwell, conductor of the Youth Chorus 1997–2018, the award honors a singer who demonstrates musical curiosity, a strong record of academic achievement and exemplary commitment to the Youth Chorus.
Enrichment Scholarship Program
The Youth Chorus is pleased to honor Sophia Clever as the recipient of the Enrichment Scholarship, available to all members who attend enrichment events and concerts outside of MFYC rehearsals, enroll in the MFYC voice lesson program, audition for solo opportunities and finish the year with an examplary attendance record.
Credit: Lyons Photography
Carter J. Allen, Sycamore High School
Ava Altenau, Seton High School
Seth Barry, Oak Hills High School
Isabella Bauer, Williamsburg Schools
Hope Bowden, Clark Montessori High School
Lenora Braukman, Saint Ursula Academy
Sam Bringle, Sycamore High School
Anna Burkhart, Turpin High School
Cameron Carnahan, Little Miami High School
Romeo Ciolino, Walnut Hills High School
Sophia Clever, Saint Ursula Academy
Thanh-Tam Dao, Walnut Hills High School
Lucy Dixon, Madeira High School
Alijah Frost, Wyoming High School
Mary Hollon, Simon Kenton High School and Ignite Institute
Natalie Hoover, Highlands High School
Vris Hossain, Wyoming High School
Genevieve Howard, Newport Central Catholic
Dez Flynn Hutchens, Campbell County High School
Naomi Jackson, Sycamore High School
Aiden Jin, Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy
Mason Jones, Williamsburg Schools
Madeleine Kasman, The Seven Hills School
Preston Koeninger, Newport Central Catholic High School
Nick Kruckeberg, St. Francis de Sales Lebanon
Claire Kruckeberg, Ursuline Academy
Talula Lane, Covington Latin School
Emily Lewis, Seton High School
Zachary Li, The Schilling School for Gifted Children
Elyse Longbottom, Indian Hill High School
Kelly Lonneman, SCPA
Grace Manning, Highlands Middle School
Sylvie Martin, Highlands High School
Ella Martin, St. Therese School
Adriana Mayfield, Colerain High School
Pearl Morey, Makers Academy and homeschool
Runako Muvirimi, The Summit Country Day School
Charles Rahner, The Summit Country Day School
Pearl Ramstetter, Makers Academy and homeschool
Norah Shadwell, Highlands High School
Nathan Share, SCPA
Seava Sierra King, Villa Madonna Academy
Jenavieve Southcombe, SCPA
Oliver Wagner, Sycamore High School
Eden Walker, SCPA
Emily Wendt, Holy Cross High School
Daniel Winhusen, The Summit Country Day School
Adelynn Woodward, The Summit Country Day School
Sam Wright, Covington Classical Academy
Maggie Zink, Woodland Middle School
CINCINNATI BOYCHOIR
LISA PETERS, director
Sara Cahall, accompanist
Patrick Apfelbeck, chorus manager
Cincinnati Boychoir is a choir for male-identifying youth of all musical abilities from across the Greater Cincinnati Region. Founded in 1965, the Boychoir is a teaching and performing organization that offers musical enrichment, performance and touring opportunities.
Boychoir vocal ensembles are directed by professional music educators who teach a curriculum not only of musical skills but cultural appreciation, empathy, self-discipline, leadership, mentorship and a spirit of volunteerism.
Boys from grades 3–12 attend weekly rehearsals, and commit from six weeks to a full academic year. Each week, all boys come together for a combined rehearsal in which older boys are empowered as big brothers to younger boys, teaching them the nuts and bolts of music
and singing, as well as how to tie their bowtie, and more.
The Cincinnati Boychoir presents approximately 20 annual performances in the greater Cincinnati region and have performed concerts and completed residencies both at home and abroad.
The Boychoir strives to be accessible to boys of all racial, ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds, affording them the opportunity to experience the life-changing impact of immersive arts participation.
LISA PETERS, conductor
Lisa Peters is a graduate of the Ithaca College School of Music in Ithaca, New York, where she received a Bachelor of Music Education degree with an emphasis in choral and vocal music. In addition, she
holds a master’s degree in Education with music emphasis from Xavier University. Peters taught high school choir in the Cincinnati area for 30 years, finishing her career at the nationally ranked Walnut Hills High School. Since her retirement from high school teaching, Peters has stayed active as a local music educator and choral conductor. She held the position of adjunct choral director at Mount St. Joseph University and has taught voice privately for the Mount St. Joseph Music Academy and the Northern Kentucky University preparatory department. She also held the position of children’s chorusmaster for Cincinnati Opera for a number of seasons. Peters has sung with numerous groups in Cincinnati, including the Cincinnati Opera chorus, Cincinnati Camerata and the Christ Church Cathedral Choir. Peters is currently director of choirs at St. Barnabas Episcopal Church and associate director of the Cincinnati Choral Society, where she also sings alto and is a member of its board of directors. Peters has been on the artistic staff of the Cincinnati Boychoir for a number of years and was named director starting with the 2024–25 season.
SARA CAHALL, piano
Sara Cahall is currently working in the Cincinnati area as a collaborative pianist, organist and choral director. Her positions include Associate Professor of Choral Activities at Thomas More University, where she directs Dolce, the auditioned women’s chorus. She is also an accompanist for the Cincinnati Boychoir and Minister of Music at Ascension & Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Wyoming, OH. She completed a Bachelor of Arts degree at Bowling Green State University, a Master of Music degree from The University of Arizona in 2017, and partial doctoral studies at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM). During her studies at CCM, she also served as organ scholar at Christ Church Cathedral Cincinnati.
CINCINNATI BOYCHOIR
Ambassador Tenors/Basses
Alexander Gentil, Milford High School
Alexander Shelton, Bridgetown Middle School
Andrew Prevost, Walnut Hills High School
Christian Bedinghaus, Highlands High School
Clark Hamlet, School for Creative and Performing Arts
Elessar DeHoff, Princeton Community Middle School
Enairs Turnbow, Moeller High School
Ishaik Craig, Harrison Junior High School
Jackson Metz, Harrison High School
Joel Leptak-Moreau, School for Creative and Performing Arts
Madden Menz, Highlands High School
Nicholas Kruckeberg, St. Francis de Sales Lebanon
Otto Heckman, Walnut Hills High School
Owen Flora, McNicholas High School
Rex Hornsby, School for Creative and Performing Arts
Ryan Keller, John Paul II School
Santiago Dreher, The Seven Hills School
Ambassador Trebles
Aaron O’Rourke, St. Margaret of York School
Beckett Zoller, Wyoming Middle School
Cody Ching, Mariemont Junior High School
David Erisman, Spencer Center for Gifted and Exceptional Students
Hezekiah House, Walnut Hills High School
Kaeden James, Reading Community Elementary School
Max Hughes, Mason Middle School
Stefano Adams-Orejuela, Xavier Montessori
Theodore Miritello, Spencer Center for Gifted and Exceptional Students
Journeymen
Adam Tuemler, St. Dominic’s School
Anthony Williams, Pleasant Ridge Montessori School
Christopher Omolayo, John P Parker School
David Santamaria, Maddux Elementary
Dominic Miller, Mason Middle School
River Maynard, Beechwood Elementary School
Simon Foster, School for Creative and Performing Arts
MAY 16: VERDI REQUIEM
RAMÓN TEBAR, conductor
Spanish Conductor
Ramón Tebar is currently principal conductor and artistic director of Opera Naples and artistic director of Spain’s Arantzazu Festival.
He was previously music director of the Orquesta de Valencia, artistic director of the Florida Grand Opera and principal guest conductor of Valencia’s Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia.
In the 2024–25 season he returns to the San Francisco Opera and Hamburg State Opera for La bohème, Ópera de Tenerife for Madama Butterfly, Florida Grand Opera for Carmen and Cincinnati Opera for Tosca. This season, he will also return to the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Calgary Philharmonic, Orquesta Sinfónica de Puerto Rico and Bilbao Orkestra Sinfonikoa for symphonic concerts.
Some of Tebar’s previous guest appearances in the opera pit include engagements at the Vienna State Opera (Madame Butterfly, La bohème, Turandot, Don Pasquale), Gran Teatre del Liceu (L’elisir d’amore), Frankfurt Opera (Francesca da Rimini), Hamburg State Opera (Don Pasquale), Cincinnati Opera (Carmen, Roméo et Juliette, Turandot), Royal Swedish Opera (La Cenerentola), Deutsche Oper Berlin (Madama Butterfly), Opéra national de Lorraine (I Capuleti e i Montecchi), Gothenburg Opera (Tosca), Savonlinna Festival (Carmen), Pamplona’s Baluarte Theater (Otello), Teatro Regio di Parma (Giovanna d’Arco), Ópera de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Rigoletto, Simon Boccanegra) and Teatro Lirico di Cagliari (I puritani), among others.
In addition to his operatic career, Tebar is sought after as a guest conductor with symphonic orchestras around the world. He has conducted the Spanish National Orchestra several times, and he further guested with many of Spain’s other orchestras. Beyond Spain, Tebar has guest conducted such orchestras as the Philharmonia in London, Prague Philharmonia, Het Gelders Orkest, Malaysian Philharmonic, Armenian Philharmonic, Orchestre de l’Opéra de Rouen Normandie, RobertSchumann-Philharmonie Chemnitz, Daejeon Philharmonic, Aalborg Symphony, Szczecin Philharmonic, St. Petersburg Symphony, San
Antonio Symphony and the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Perú. Tebar was also previously the artistic director of the Santo Domingo Music Festival in Puerto Rico.
Tebar’s work can also be heard on recordings with Joseph Calleja and the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana on the Decca label and with Gregory Kunde and the Orquesta Sinfónica de Navarra on Universal. ramon-tebar.com
ANGELA MEADE, soprano
American soprano
Angela Meade is the winner of both the Metropolitan Opera’s 2012 Beverly Sills Artist Award and the 2011 Richard Tucker Award.
In 2008, she joined an elite group of history’s singers when, as Elvira in Verdi’s Ernani, she made her professional operatic debut on the Met stage. Since then, she has fast become recognized as one of today’s outstanding vocalists, excelling in the most demanding heroines of the 19th-century bel canto repertoire as well as in the operas of Verdi and Mozart.
In the 2024–25 season, Angela Meade makes notable returns to Teatro La Fenice, the Metropolitan Opera, Bayerische Staatsoper and Teatro Carlo Felice in celebrated role portrayals. She returns to the Metropolitan Opera as Leonora in Il trovatore in David McVicar’s critically acclaimed production, conducted by Daniele Callegari. She sings the title role in Lucrezia Borgia in Munich and makes her role debut as the title role in Die Liebe der Danae at Teatro Carlo Felice with Fabio Luisi. Concert appearances include Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with the Nashville Symphony and Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with the San Diego Symphony and Rafael Payare.
On the concert stage, Meade has appeared as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Boston Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Houston Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Orchestre Métropolitain (Montréal), Philadelphia Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, San Antonio Symphony and Seattle Symphony, among others.
Photo: Faye Fox
A native of Washington State and an alumna of the Academy of Vocal Arts, Meade has triumphed in an astounding number of vocal competitions: 57 in all, including many of the opera world’s most important prizes. In addition to being a winner at the 2007 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, as documented in The Audition, a film subsequently released on DVD by Decca, she was also the first singer to take first prize in both the opera and operetta categories of the prestigious Belvedere Competition. angelameade.com
J’NAI BRIDGES, mezzo-soprano
In the 2024–25 season, the two-time Grammywinning American mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges makes her role debut as Maddalena in Verdi’s Rigoletto at the Metropolitan Opera. She returns to Seattle Opera in her role debut as Didon in Les Troyens and sings the title role in Carmen in her debut at the Wiener Staatsoper. Her concert engagements include Erika in Vanessa with the National Symphony Orchestra and engagements with Symphony Tacoma, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Chamber Players and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. In New York City, she gives a solo recital as an artist-in-residence at the Kaufman Music Center and joins the Dessoff Choirs in Verdi’s Requiem at Trinity Church. Bridges recently made her Lincoln Center debut performing Peter Lieberson’s Neruda Songs and sang the role of Mary in John Adams’ El Niño at the Metropolitan Opera to critical acclaim.
Bridges has emerged as a leading figure in classical music’s shift toward conversations of inclusion and racial justice in the performing arts. In 2022, she was announced as one of the Kennedy Center’s NEXT50 cultural leaders and appeared with The National Philharmonic in the world premiere of Adolphus Hailstork’s A Knee on the Neck that same year. Bridges led a highly successful panel on race and inequality in opera with the Los Angeles Opera that drew international acclaim. Bridges was also featured in the Converse shoe brand’s All Stars Campaign for its “Breaking Down Barriers” collection and performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel for two episodes of the digital Sound/Stage series. She was also a part of the Global Citizen movement’s Global Goal campaign, a program
that also included Coldplay, Shakira, Usher and more, and she was featured as a “DVF” Woman, a campaign started by clothing designer Diane Von Furstenberg recognizing leading women who also love fashion.
Bridges is a recipient of the prestigious 2018 Sphinx Medal of Excellence Award, a 2016 Richard Tucker Career Grant, first prize winner at the 2016 Francisco Viñas International Competition, first prize winner at the 2015 Gerda Lissner Competition, a recipient of the 2013 Sullivan Foundation Award, a 2012 Marian Anderson Award winner, the recipient of the 2011 Sara Tucker Study Grant, the recipient of the 2009 Richard F. Gold Grant from The Shoshana Foundation and the winner of the 2008 Leontyne Price Foundation Competition. jnaibridgesmezzo.com
JONATHAN BURTON, tenor
Tenor Jonathan Burton is engaged to sing the most demanding roles in the tenor repertoire, including Cavaradossi in Tosca, Calaf in Turandot, Dick Johnson in La fanciulla del West and Radames in Aida
The 2024–25 season highlights include Burton’s performances as Cavaradossi at Pittsburgh Opera. He will also be seen as Turiddu in Cavalleria rusticana at Pittsburgh Opera, Canio in Pagliacci with Utah Opera and the tenor soloist in Verdi’s Requiem with Key Chorale. Additionally, he will perform Britten’s War Requiem with the Columbus Symphony and portray Steve Wozniak in The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs at Washington National Opera.
In the 2023–24 season, Burton performed as Canio at Nashville Opera and Austin Opera and Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly with Virginia Opera, returned to Palm Beach Opera as Cavaradossi, and joined the Madison Symphony as the tenor soloist in Verdi’s Requiem. He also made his debut at the Washington National Opera as Calaf. Additionally, Burton joined The Dallas Opera’s opening night performance as Cavaradossi, replacing an ailing colleague.
In the 2022–23 season, Burton sang the Prince in Rusalka and Manrico in Il trovatore at Pittsburgh Opera, des Grieux in Manon Lescaut at North Carolina Opera, Canio at Opera San Antonio, and both Calaf in Turandot and Paul in Die tote Stadt at Opera Colorado. Burton also made his Santa Fe Opera debut as Cavaradossi.
Photo: Dario Acosta
A protégé of Lorin Maazel, Burton sang under the famed maestro in multiple productions at the Castleton Festival, concerts in Washington, D.C., and in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the reopening of Teatro La Fenice. jburtontenor.com
DAVID LEIGH, bass
American bass David Leigh, a graduate of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, has been described by Opera News as “a bass of unusual agility, depth and darkness” and is internationally known for his visceral and intelligent singing. In the 2024–25 season, Leigh debuts at the Opéra national de Paris as Virgilio in Pascal Dusapin’s world premiere production of Il Viaggio, Dante, conducted by Kent Nagano and Rocco in Fidelio with Washington National Opera; in concert, he makes two appearances with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, both with Semyon Bychkov, first in Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass on tour in Karlovy Vary and at Carnegie Hall, and then Pater Profundus in Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 as part of the Prague Spring Festival, which will later be released as a recording. Elsewhere, he joins the Rochester Philharmonic for Mozart’s Requiem and the Nashville Symphony for Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, and he presents a solo concert with Minnesota Opera.
In the 2023–24 season, David Leigh returned to Opernhaus Zürich for Hagen in Götterdämmerung, a role he repeated later in the season as part of the complete Ring cycles, including Fafner in Siegfried, as well as Commendatore in Don Giovanni with the Canadian Opera Company. In concert, he performed as Hagen in Act III of Götterdämmerung with Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
David Leigh comes from a family of artists: his father, Mitch Leigh, was the Tony-winning composer of Man of La Mancha; his mother, Abby Leigh, is an American painter whose work is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum and the Whitney, among others; and his sister, Eve Leigh, is a multiple award-winning playwright. He studied music composition at Yale University and holds master’s degrees in Voice and Opera from Mannes College and the Yale School of Music, respectively; at Yale he also received the Harriet Gibbs Fox Prize. He has received awards from the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions,
the McCammon Competition at Fort Worth Opera, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and a 2017 top prize from the Wagner Society of New York. davidleighbass.com
MAY 18:
CHASING THE DAWN: A CHORAL JOURNEY
MATTHEW SWANSON, conductor
Turn to p. 32 for a biography of May Festival
Director of Choruses Matthew Swanson.
JASON ALEXANDER HOLMES, conductor
Turn to p. 32 for a biography of May Festival
Associate Director of Choruses and May Festival
Youth Chorus Director Jason Alexander Holmes.
LISA PETERS, conductor
Turn to p. 36 for a biography of Cincinnati Boychoir Director Lisa Peters.
MAY 22: THE BRIGHTNESS OF LIGHT
JUANJO MENA, conductor
Juanjo Mena began his conducting career in his native Spain as artistic director of the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra in 1999. His uncommon talent was soon recognized internationally with appointments as principal guest conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic and chief guest conductor of the Orchestra del Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa. In 2011, he was named chief conductor of the BBC Philharmonic, which he led for seven seasons, taking the orchestra on tours of Europe and Asia and conducting annual televised concerts at the Royal Albert Hall as part of the BBC Proms. His BBC tenure featured, notably, performances of Bruckner symphonies, as well as a cycle of Schubert symphonies, and set new standards for the interpretation of Spanish and South American repertoire. He held the position of principal conductor of the Cincinnati May Festival, the longest-running choral festival in North America, served by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, until 2023. His tenure reinvigorated the Festival’s repertoire with previously unheard music and new commissions (Julia Adolphe, James MacMillan, Missy Mazzoli, Ellen Reid, James Lee III), and expanded its audience both in numbers and in demographic reach.
Photo: Jiyang Chen
Photo:
Michal
Novak
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A sought-after guest conductor, Juanjo Mena has led Europe’s top ensembles and also appears regularly with all the major orchestras in his native Spain. Following his North American debut with the Baltimore Symphony in 2004, he has conducted most of the continent’s leading orchestras. In Asia, he is a regular guest conductor of the NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo.
During the 2024–25 season, Juanjo Mena returns to conduct the New York Philharmonic, with Renée Fleming and Rod Gilfry as soloists. Other guest performances this season include returns to the Dallas Symphony, Baltimore Symphony and the NHK Symphony Orchestra. In Europe, he returns to the Berlin Philharmonic, Spanish National Orchestra, Barcelona Symphony, Orchestra Filarmonica della Fenice and the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, among others.
In the world of opera, Juanjo Mena conducted a new production of Arthur Honegger’s Joan of Arc at the Stake with Marion Cotillard in the leading role, paired with Debussy’s La damoiselle élue staged by Madrid’s Teatro Real in 2022. His operatic repertoire also includes Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman; Richard Strauss’ Salome, Elektra and Ariadne auf Naxos; Bartók’s Duke Bluebeard’s Castle; and Schoenberg’s Erwartung, as well as productions of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, and Beethoven’s Fidelio and Britten’s Billy Budd.
Mena’s latest release is a disc of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 6 with the BBC Philharmonic on Chandos. His rich discography with the BBC Philharmonic on Chandos also includes an acclaimed Gabriel Pierné release selected as a Gramophone Editor’s Choice, Weber symphonies, Ginastera’s orchestral works to mark the composer’s centenary, and new reference recordings of lesser-performed Spanish repertoire, including Arriaga’s orchestral pieces, works by Albéniz, Montsalvatge and Turina, as well as three discs of works by Manuel de Falla featuring his opera La vida breve
Juanjo Mena studied conducting with Sergiu Celibidache following his musical education at the Madrid Royal Conservatory, where he was mentored by Carmelo Bernaola and Enrique García Asensio. In 2016, he was awarded the Spanish National Music Award. He lives with his family in his native Basque Country. juanjomena.com
RENÉE FLEMING, soprano
Turn to p. 28 for a biography of soprano and Festival Director Renée Fleming.
ROD GILFRY, baritone
American baritone Rod Gilfry is a twotime Grammy Award nominee, singer and actor who has performed in all of the world’s music capitals. His most recent Grammy Award nomination was for his performance in the title role of Messiaen’s monumental opera Saint François d’Assise in Amsterdam. Best known as an opera singer, he is also an acclaimed recitalist and concert artist and appears frequently in musical theater classics. His discography of 28 audio and video recordings includes the DVD and CD of his oneman show My Heart is So Full of You. His radio program, Opera Notes on Air, aired on K-Mozart 105.1 FM in Los Angeles for over three years. With over 80 roles in his repertoire, Gilfry sings music from the Baroque to that composed expressly for him. He was brought to worldwide attention when he created the role of Stanley Kowalski in the 1998 premiere of André Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire at the San Francisco Opera, opposite Renée Fleming. Other world premieres include Nicholas in Deborah Drattell’s Nicholas and Alexandra (Los Angeles, opposite Plácido Domingo); Nathan in Nicholas Maw’s Sophie’s Choice (London, Washington D.C.); Jack London in Libby Larsen’s Every Man Jack (Sonoma, CA); Edward Gaines in Richard Danielpour’s Margaret Garner (Detroit, Cincinnati, Philadelphia); the title role in Marc-André Dalbavie’s Gesualdo (Zurich); and Master Chen in Christian Jost’s Rote Laterne (Zurich). Recently, he originated the role of Walt Whitman in Matthew Aucoin’s Crossing in Boston, Los Angeles and San Diego; the Father in Aucoin’s Eurydice with Los Angeles Opera; Alfred Stieglitz in Kevin Puts’ The Brightness of Light, opposite Renée Fleming; Claudius in Brett Dean’s Hamlet with the Met, Bayerische Staatsoper, Glyndebourne Festival and Adelaide Festival; Mr. Potter in Jake Heggie’s It’s a Wonderful Life in Houston and San Francisco; and David Lang’s the loser in New York City and Los Angeles.
In the 2024–25 season, Rod Gilfry performs Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte with James Conlon at LA Opera and additional dates of Kevin Puts’
Photo: Soulcatcher Studio
The Brightness of Light with Renée Fleming with the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Toledo Symphony and Lyric Opera of Kansas City.
Gilfry devoted an entire season to the music of Rodgers and Hammerstein, starring as Emile de Becque in the U.S. National Tour of the Lincoln Center production of South Pacific, a production that garnered seven Tony Awards. He also appeared as Captain von Trapp with the Théâtre du Châtelet in The Sound of Music, with his daughter, Carin Gilfry, in the role of his character’s daughter, Liesl.
A lifelong Californian, Gilfry resides in Rancho Cucamonga with his wife, Tina. rodgilfry.com
MAY 24: VOICE OF NATURE: THE ANTHROPOCENE RENÉE FLEMING,
soprano
Turn to p. 28 for a biography of soprano and Festival Director Renée Fleming.
ROBERT MOODY, conductor
Conductor Robert Moody celebrates his ninth season as music director of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra and 18th season as music director of Arizona Musicfest. He was named music director of the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra in June 2024.
In 2022, Moody was invited to conduct the Lakeland Symphony Orchestra in Florida in a
gala concert with Renée Fleming. Following that experience, he was immediately named Principal Opera Conductor for Lakeland Symphony/Opera.
Prior to Memphis, Moody was music director of both the Portland Symphony (Maine) and the Winston-Salem Symphony (North Carolina).
During the 2024–25 season, Moody debuts with Lyric Opera of Kansas City and Tulsa Opera, both in performances with Renée Fleming, and with the Tampere Philharmonic and Romania’s Filarmonica Banatul; he also returns to conduct the Portland and Greensboro symphony orchestras.
He has led many of the major orchestras and opera companies of the world, including the Chicago, Dallas, Houston and Toronto symphony orchestras; the Los Angeles and Buffalo philharmonics; the Minnesota Orchestra; and Washington National Opera. Internationally, his recent engagements include the Aachen and BadenBaden symphony orchestras in Germany, Orquesta Filarmónica de Bogotá (Colombia), and the Vienna Chamber Orchestra (Austria). He made his debut in China in 2024 with the Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra. He is a frequent guest conductor in South Africa, returning this season for the third time to conduct the three major orchestras there — Cape Town, Johannesburg and KZN Philharmonic in Durban.
Passionate about mentoring the next generation of musicians, Moody has spent recent summers conducting at the Sewanee Summer Music Festival, National Repertory Orchestra and Highlands Opera Festival.
Moody’s work is available on several commercial recordings, including the Canadian Brass albums Bach and Legends, R. Carlos Nakai’s Fourth World album, and with the Memphis Symphony Orchestra and trumpet legend Ryan Anthony on his Re:mission Rubato album.
A South Carolina native, Moody holds degrees from Furman University and the Eastman School of Music, where he earned his conducting degree with Donald Neuen. Additional studies included an undergraduate term abroad in Vienna and a summer of study with Otto-Werner Mueller at Le Domaine Forget in Quebec. He is a Rotarian and has served on the boards of AIDS Care Services, Winston-Salem YMCA, WDAV Classical Radio and the Charlotte Master Chorale. robertmoodymusic.com
Photo: Jamie Harmon
With a legacy dating back 130 years, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra is considered one of America’s finest and most versatile ensembles. In the 2025–26 season, Cristian Măcelaru joins the Orchestra as its 14th Music Director, after serving as Music Director Designate in the 2024–25 season. The Orchestra also performs as the Cincinnati Pops, founded by Erich Kunzel in 1977 and currently led by John Morris Russell with Damon Gupton serving as Principal Guest Conductor. The CSO further elevates the city’s vibrant arts scene by serving as the official orchestra for the Cincinnati May Festival, Cincinnati Opera and Cincinnati Ballet.
Since its inception in 1895, the CSO has dedicated itself to seeking and sharing inspiration with the Greater Cincinnati community through the transformative power of music. With a vibrant and dedicated history, the CSO has commissioned more than 200 new works and presented more than 300 world or U.S. premieres, solidifying its role as a cornerstone of musical innovation. The CSO’s commissioning legacy includes two Fanfare Projects, the first during World War II and the second during the Covid-19 pandemic, that sought to inspire, uplift and provide meaning during pivotal moments in our nation’s shared history through the universal language of music. In
Connecting
addition to its commissioning efforts, the CSO and Pops can be heard around the world through more than 300 commercial recordings, including those on the Orchestra’s own label, Fanfare Cincinnati.
The CSO is committed to its vision to be the most relevant orchestra in America, realized through a focus on serving the entire community and continually innovating ways in which the Orchestra presents music. Recent examples include One City/ One Symphony, fostering city-wide discussions through music; Lumenocity®, blending music and visual art with Music Hall’s illuminated façade; Look Around, uniting Cincinnati’s arts community at Washington Park; and CSO Proof, the Orchestra’s flagship program for innovative concert experiences and formats.
The CSO is also dedicated to enriching and expanding access to music education through the power of culturally inclusive music to nurture and inspire lifelong learning. Focusing on Learning, Playing and Developing, the Orchestra brings music education to the Greater Cincinnati community through youth orchestras, Musicians in Schools and one of the United States’ longestrunning Young People’s Concerts series, launched over 100 years ago.
cincinnatisymphony.org
World, Celebrating
Arts!
FIRST VIOLINS
Stefani Matsuo
Concertmaster
Anna Sinton Taft Chair
Felicity James
Associate Concertmaster
Tom & Dee Stegman Chair
Philip Marten
First Assistant Concertmaster
James M. Ewell Chair++
Eric Bates
Second Assistant Concertmaster
Serge Shababian Chair
Kathryn Woolley
Nicholas Tsimaras–
Peter G. Courlas Chair++
Anna Reider
Dianne & J. David Rosenberg Chair
Mauricio Aguiar§
Anne G. & Robert W. Dorsey Chair
Minyoung Baik
Jo Ann & Paul Ward Chair
James Braid
Marc Bohlke Chair given by Katrin & Manfred Bohlke
Rebecca Kruger Fryxell
Clifford J. Goosmann & Andrea M. Wilson Chair
Elizabeth Furuta
Gerald Itzkoff
Jean Ten Have Chair
Joseph Ohkubo
Luo-Jia Wu
Jonathan Yi
SECOND VIOLINS
Gabriel Pegis
Principal
Al Levinson Chair
Yang Liu*
Harold B. & Betty Justice Chair
Scott Mozlin**
Henry Meyer Chair
Kun Dong
Cheryl Benedict
Evin Blomberg§
Sheila and Christopher Cole Chair
Rose Brown
Rachel Charbel
Ida Ringling North Chair
Chika Kinderman
Charles Morey
Hyesun Park
Paul Patterson
Charles Gausmann Chair++
Stacey Woolley
Brenda & Ralph Taylor Chair++
VIOLAS
Christian Colberg
Principal
Louise D. & Louis Nippert Chair
Gabriel Napoli
Acting Associate Principal
Grace M. Allen Chair
Julian Wilkison**
Rebecca Barnes§
Christopher Fischer
Stephen Fryxell
Melinda & Irwin Simon Chair
Caterina Longhi
Denisse Rodriguez-Rivera
Dan Wang
Joanne Wojtowicz
CRISTIAN
MӐCELARU, Music Director Designate
Louise Dieterle Nippert & Louis Nippert Chair
JOHN MORRIS RUSSELL, Cincinnati Pops Conductor
Louise Dieterle Nippert & Louis Nippert Chair
Matthias Pintscher, CSO Creative Partner
Damon Gupton, Pops Principal Guest Conductor
Louis Langrée, Music Director Laureate
Samuel Lee, Associate Conductor
Ashley and Barbara Ford Chair
Daniel Wiley, Assistant Conductor
Ashley and Barbara Ford Chair
CELLOS
Ilya Finkelshteyn
Principal
Irene & John J. Emery Chair
Lachezar Kostov *
Ona Hixson Dater Chair
Norman Johns**
Karl & Roberta Schlachter Family Chair
Drew Dansby§
Daniel Kaler
Peter G. Courlas–Nicholas Tsimaras Chair++
Nicholas Mariscal
Marvin Kolodzik & Linda S. Gallaher
Chair for Cello
Hiro Matsuo
Laura Kimble McLellan Chair++
Alan Rafferty
Ruth F. Rosevear Chair
Tianlu (Jerry) Xu
BASSES
Owen Lee
Principal
Mary Alice Heekin Burke Chair++
Luis Celis*
Thomas Vanden Eynden Chair
Stephen Jones**
Trish & Rick Bryan Chair
Boris Astafiev§
Gerald Torres
Rick Vizachero
HARP
Gillian Benet Sella
Principal
Cynthia & Frank Stewart Chair
FLUTES
Randolph Bowman
Principal
Charles Frederic Goss Chair
Henrik Heide*
Haley Bangs
Jane & David Ellis Chair
PICCOLO
Rebecca Pancner
Patricia Gross Linnemann Chair
OBOES
Dwight Parry
Principal
Josephine I. & David J. Joseph, Jr. Chair
Lon Bussell*
Stephen P. McKean Chair
Emily Beare
ENGLISH HORN
Christopher Philpotts
Principal
Alberta & Dr. Maurice Marsh Chair++
CLARINETS
Christopher Pell
Principal
Emma Margaret & Irving D. Goldman Chair
Joseph Morris*
Associate Principal and E-flat Clarinet
Robert E. & Fay Boeh Chair++
Ixi Chen
Vicky & Rick Reynolds Chair in honor of William A. Friedlander
BASS CLARINET
Ronald Aufmann
BASSOONS
Christopher Sales
Principal
Emalee Schavel Chair++
Martin Garcia*
Hugh Michie
CONTRABASSOON
Jennifer Monroe
HORNS
Elizabeth Freimuth
Principal
Mary M. & Charles F. Yeiser Chair
David Alexander
Acting Associate Principal
Ellen A. & Richard C. Berghamer
Chair
Molly Norcross** ‡
Sweeney Family Chair in memory of Donald C. Sweeney
Lisa Conway
Susanne & Philip O. Geier, Jr. Chair
Duane Dugger
Mary & Joseph S. Stern, Jr. Chair
Charles Bell
Donald & Margaret Robinson Chair
TRUMPETS
Anthony Limoncelli
Principal Rawson Chair [OPEN]
Jackie & Roy Sweeney
Family Chair
Alexander Pride†
Otto M. Budig Family Foundation Chair++
Christopher Kiradjieff
TROMBONES
Cristian Ganicenco
Principal
Dorothy & John Hermanies Chair
Joseph Rodriguez** Second/Assistant Principal Trombone
Sallie Robinson Wadsworth & Randolph L. Wadsworth Jr. Chair
BASS TROMBONE
Noah Roper
TUBA
Christopher Olka
Principal
Ashley & Barbara Ford Chair
TIMPANI
Patrick Schleker
Principal
Matthew & Peg Woodside Chair
Joseph Bricker*
Morleen & Jack Rouse Chair
PERCUSSION
David Fishlock
Principal
Susan S. & William A. Friedlander Chair
Michael Culligan*
Joseph Bricker
Morleen & Jack Rouse Chair
Marc Wolfley+
KEYBOARDS
Michael Chertock
James P. Thornton Chair
Julie Spangler+ James P. Thornton Chair
CSO/CCM DIVERSITY
FELLOWS~
Lucas Ferreira Braga, violin
Melissa Peraza, viola
Manuel Papale, cello
Caleb Edwards, double bass
Wendell Rodrigues da Rosa, double bass
LIBRARIANS
Christina Eaton
Principal Librarian
Lois Klein Jolson Chair
Elizabeth Dunning
Associate Principal Librarian
Cara Benner
Assistant Librarian
STAGE MANAGERS
Brian P. Schott
Phillip T. Sheridan
Daniel Schultz
Mike Ingram
Andrew Sheridan
§ Begins the alphabetical listing of players who participate in a system of rotated seating within the string section.
* Associate Principal ** Assistant Principal † One-year appointment
‡ Leave of absence
+ Cincinnati Pops rhythm section
++ CSO endowment only
~ Funded by The Mellon Foundation
INVEST ENGAGE INNOVATE LEAD
Grantee Spotlight: INSPIRATION STUDIOS, INC.
Inspiration Studios, Inc., and Sonny Spot Too are two Southwest Ohio organizations serving people with developmental disabilities. In 2023, they collaborated to create a new mural for Sonny Spot’s computer and technology room.
courtesy of the organziation
Investing state and federal dollars, the Ohio Arts Council funds and supports quality arts experiences for all Ohioans to strengthen communities culturally, educationally, and economically.
Learn more about our grant programs and resources, find your next arts experience, or connect: OAC.OHIO.GOV.
RAMÓN TEBAR, conductor
ANGELA MEADE, soprano
VERDI REQUIEM
FRI MAY 16, 7:30 pm | Music Hall
J’NAI BRIDGES, mezzo-soprano
JONATHAN BURTON, tenor
DAVID LEIGH, bass
MAY FESTIVAL CHORUS, Matthew Swanson, director
The May Festival Chorus is endowed by the Betsy & Alex C. Young Chair
CINCINNATI SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, Cristian Măcelaru, Music Director Designate
Giuseppe VERDI Requiem Mass (1813–1901)
Requiem and Kyrie
Sequence (Dies irae)
Offertorio (Domine Jesu)
Sanctus
Agnus Dei
Lux aeterna
Libera me
Tonight’s concert is made possible through endowment gifts from the friends and family of the Joan P. and Oliver L. Baily Fund.
The 2025 May Festival is presented by Fort Washington Investment Advisors. The 2025 May Festival is sponsored by Chavez Properties.
The appearance of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra is generously supported by the Louise Dieterle Nippert Musical Arts Fund of the Greenacres Foundation.
Tonight’s concert will last approximately 90 minutes. There is no intermission.
The appearance of Ramón Tebar in tonight’s performance is made possible in part by a generous endowment gift in memory of Mr. and Mrs. LeRoy R. Brooks
The appearance of Angela Meade in tonight’s performance is sponsored by made possible in part by a generous endowment gift from Dr. and Mrs. Morton Harshman.
The appearance of J’Nai Bridges in tonight’s performance is sponsored by Isaiah Hyman.
The appearance of Jonathan Burton in tonight’s performance is sponsored by Barry Zaslow.
The appearance of David Leigh in tonight’s performance is made possible in part by Hixson Architecture Engineering Services
This evening’s pre-concert talk is sponsored by Drs. William Hurford and Lesley Gilbertson
This evening’s lobby entertainment is made possible in part by Robert A. Atterton Steinway Pianos, courtesy of Willis Music, is the official piano of the May Festival.
Giuseppe Verdi was, above all, a patriot. From his earliest years, he was an ardent supporter of the Risorgimento — the “resurgence” of ancient national pride — to free Italy from foreign domination and unify it under a single, native rule. Although he never personally manned the barricades, he became, through his music, one of the most illustrious embodiments of the Italian national spirit.
Almost all of Verdi’s early operas ran afoul of the censors because of the political implications of their plots. In 19th-century Europe, no one doubted that music and drama could inspire strong emotions and, perhaps, even action. The political arbiters were ever wary about allowing ideas of insurrection or royal fallibility to escape from the stage into the public consciousness. One such idea that did slip through their suspicious examination, however, was contained in Verdi’s Nabucco of 1842. The chorus Va, pensiero, sull’ali dorate (“Fly, thoughts, on wings of gold”), sung by the Israelites captive in Babylon longing for their lost homeland, was quickly adopted by the Risorgimento as an anthem of struggle for Italy’s freedom. So great and enduring was the fame of this stirring music that it was sung by the crowds that lined the streets for Verdi’s funeral procession almost six decades later.
During the insurrections of 1848, the name VERDI became a rallying cry for the nationalists and was scrawled across walls and carried on signs. Besides being a tribute to their beloved composer, the letters of his name were also an acrostic for
“Vittorio Emanuele, Re d’Italia,” the Duke of Savoy whom the nationalists were fighting to bring to power as “King of Italy.” When the Count of Cavour called the first parliamentary session of the newly united Italy in 1859, Verdi was elected as the representative from Busseto. Though reluctant to enter the political arena, he was sufficiently patriotic and cognizant of his standing with his countrymen to accept the nomination.
With his love of country and constant efforts to promote Italian culture, Verdi viewed the death of Rossini in Paris on November 13, 1868 as a national tragedy. He wrote to the Countess Maffei, “A great name has disappeared from the world! His was the most vast and most popular reputation of our time and he was a glory of Italy.” Verdi felt that a musical memorial should be erected to Rossini — not as a religious expedient to usher his soul into heaven, or as an expression of personal grief (the two were never close friends), but rather as an act of patriotism. One of the great Italians was gone, and Verdi believed the nation should properly mourn his passing.
Verdi proposed the composition of a composite Requiem Mass for Rossini to which the leading Italian composers would contribute. (“No foreign hands!” he insisted.) The performance was to take place on the first anniversary of Rossini’s death. Following Verdi’s instructions, the composers were chosen by lot by the publisher Giulio Ricordi, and each was assigned a section of the work. The closing Libera me fell to Verdi. However, preparations for the Rossini Mass foundered on Verdi’s proposal that all those involved offer their services free of charge. The 12 other composers agreed to this, and the Mass was actually written, but the performers could not be secured. The project was canceled, and the manuscripts were returned to their composers, whose reputations faded along with the prospects for the memorial Mass — Platania, Mabellini and Cagnoni, for example, are unknown today, even in Italy. (The scores for this Messa per Rossini were discovered in Ricordi’s archives in 1970 by musicologist David Rosen during his research in preparing the complete edition of Verdi’s works. A performance of the work, its first ever, took place in Stuttgart on September 11, 1988 under
Giuseppe Verdi (Credit: Giovanni Boldini)
the direction of Helmuth Rilling; the New York Philharmonic gave the American premiere on October 12, 1989. A recording was released on the German label Hänssler Classic.) Verdi’s Libera me was filed away and forgotten, as were the plans for the Rossini Requiem.
In 1871, Alberto Mazzucato, a friend of Verdi’s and a composition teacher at the Milan Conservatory, discovered the Libera me manuscript in Ricordi’s vaults. He was enraptured with its beauty and wrote to its creator urging him to complete the entire work. Verdi responded, “Your words nearly prompted me to compose the whole Mass.... Think what a disastrous result your praise could have had! But have no fear; this is only a temptation, which, like others, will pass.” He continued that to add yet another Requiem to the “many, many” that existed was “useless.” Soon, however, he was to find a use for such a work and give in to the temptation to take up his Libera me once again.
Alessandro Manzoni was one of the dominant figures of 19th-century Italy. His poems, plays and novels spoke to the Italian soul as it quested
for freedom and national identity. His most famous work was the novel I promessi sposi (“The Betrothed”), which was considered not only the greatest Italian prose piece of the time, but also, as William Weaver noted, “a kind of stylebook for the country, which...was linguistically chaotic.” Manzoni’s book accomplished for Italy what Luther’s translation of the Bible had done 300 years before for Germany — brought a standardized language to a country factionalized by innumerable dialects.
Verdi venerated Manzoni. He often referred to him as “a saint” and his letters show boundless admiration for the great writer. Of I promessi sposi he said, “In my opinion he has written a book that is not only the greatest product of our times, but also one of the finest in all ages which has issued from the human mind. And, more than being just a book, it is a comfort to humanity as well.... My enthusiasm for this work is undiminished; nay, it has increased with my understanding of humanity; for this book is true, as true as ‘truth’ itself.” After the two first met in 1868, Verdi wrote, “What can I tell you of Manzoni? How to express the new, inexplicable, happy feeling which the sacred presence of this man
MUSIC AND MIND: Conversation with RENÉE FLEMING
TUE MAY 20, 5:30 PM Ballroom, Music Hall
Exploring the power of music in supporting humanity’s overall mental and physical well-being with leading local experts, neuroscientists and organizations.
Sponsored by John and Susan Tew MayFestival.com
aroused in me? I would have knelt before him if men worshipped men.”
Manzoni died at the age of 87 on May 22, 1873. Verdi was stricken with grief. A few days after receiving the news he wrote, “With him ends the most pure, the most sacred, the highest of our glories. I have read many of the newspapers, and not one of them speaks of him as he should be spoken of. Many words, but none of them profoundly felt.” Verdi could not bring himself to attend the funeral. While thousands of mourning Milanese poured into the streets of the city to witness Manzoni’s funeral procession, Verdi stayed at his country home, Sant’Agata, too distraught to leave until he found the strength to make a private visit to the graveside on June 3rd. As he had been five years earlier with the passing of Rossini, Verdi was again inspired to commemorate the death of a great Italian with a memorial Mass. He sent his proposal to compose a Requiem in honor of Manzoni to the mayor of Milan, and it was eagerly accepted. When the mayor expressed his appreciation, Verdi replied, “You owe me no thanks for my offer to write a Requiem for the anniversary of Manzoni’s death. It is an impulse, a need of my heart which impels me to honor, as far as I can, this Great Man whom I so respected as a writer, and have revered as a man, a model of virtue and of patriotism.”
Verdi scheduled the Requiem’s premiere for the first anniversary of Manzoni’s death and began the score immediately. Remembering his earlier experience with the Rossini Requiem, however, he decided this time to control the entire project himself — composition, preparations and performance. He revived the Libera me for inclusion in the Manzoni Requiem, but he newly composed the rest. As the work proceeded, he arranged for performers, printing and publicity, and he even conducted acoustical tests to determine the most suitable of Milan’s churches for the premiere. The work was finished on April 10, 1874, and the first performance six weeks later in San Marco Cathedral was a complete success.
While he had undertaken the Requiem as an act of homage and patriotism, Verdi managed the venture as he did his operas — in a professional, commercial manner. Long before the success of the premiere, he planned three subsequent performances at La Scala in anticipation of the desire to hear the new work. The Requiem was
in such demand throughout Italy that Verdi instructed Ricordi to invoke the law, if necessary, to prevent unauthorized performances, such as those which took place in Ferrara with a brass band as accompaniment, and in Bologna, with only four pianos.
Verdi carefully organized the tour that took the Requiem to the capitals of Europe following its initial Milan performances. He conducted seven performances at the Opéra-Comique in Paris in 1874, and eight more the following year, when he was made a Commander of the French Legion of Honor. The London premiere was such a special event that the impresario there engaged a chorus of 1,200 to sing in the Albert Hall. The audiences in Vienna packed the auditorium for four performances, undaunted by stifling temperatures caused by a fierce June heat wave. Verdi, like Rossini and Manzoni, had become an Italian hero.
British musicologist Sir Donald Tovey thought that the opening Requiem aeternam (“Eternal rest”) was “the most moving passage in all Verdi’s works.” The initial gesture, in the cellos, comes as if from a great distance and establishes the grave solemnity of the movement. The chorus intones a sweet, pathetic invocation for departed souls that leads directly into the Kyrie eleison (“Lord, have mercy”), a broad, flowing prayer for divine compassion.
The Dies irae is among the most graphic and dramatic of all liturgical texts. It paints the aweinspiring “Day of Wrath,” when the world will stand in judgment. Verdi rose to the challenge of these words with music “full of things terrifying and at the same time moving and pathetic,” wrote the critic Filippo Filippi following the premiere. This movement, which occupies fully one-third of the Requiem’s length, is divided into nearly a dozen successive scenes, which cover a range of musical moods and technical devices far beyond the scope of these notes to discuss. Just a few examples in the opening pages must suffice: the shattering hammerblows and the tumultuous terror of the beginning; the approaching summons of the trump’s last call (Tuba mirum — “Trumpet wondrous”); the breathless fear of the bass soloist standing aghast at the resurrection of dead souls (Mors stupebit — “Death stupefying”). Such evocatively expressive depictions abound in the Dies irae. It is one of the 19th century’s most magnificent musical panoramas.
The Offertorio (Domine Jesu Christe — “Lord Jesus Christ”) that follows comes like a halcyon spring breeze after the winter’s blast. Its gently swaying rhythm and huge melodic arches bear to celestial reaches the supplicant’s entreaty to deliver the departed from the pains of hell. Its contrasting center section (Quam olim — Hostias — Quam olim repeated) is followed by a brief return of the gentle opening music, giving the movement a symmetrical structure.
The Sanctus (“Holy, Holy, Holy”) begins with a joyous shout. Verdi then launches a bracing fugue on two subjects for divided chorus, which is followed by an antiphonal setting (i.e., choruses in alternation) of the Hosanna. Embedded in the propulsive rhythmic vibrancy and elaborate textures of this movement is more than a hint of pedantry, as if Verdi were showing his critics that he was no “mere” opera composer, incapable of writing counterpoint. He knew his craft — thoroughly — and here he put some of its most learned techniques on display. In the same spirit, one afternoon shortly before he began the Requiem, he had some free time, and he dashed off a string quartet just to prove that he was no stranger to the Germanic styles of composition.
Agnus Dei (“Lamb of God”), the shortest movement of the Requiem, is also the simplest. Plain in texture and introspective in expression, it is dominated by the voices with only the sparsest orchestral accompaniment. The Lux aeterna
(“Light eternal”) is memorable for some of the most ethereal, translucent orchestral scoring in all of Verdi’s works.
The concluding Libera me (“Deliver me”) is the remnant of the earlier Requiem for Rossini. In the Manzoni Requiem, the movement consists of several sections: an introductory verse for soprano soloist that rises from a freely chanted beginning, a recall of the tempestuous Dies irae movement, a reminiscence of the opening Requiem aeternam in a breathtakingly beautiful setting for unaccompanied chorus and soprano, and a fugue that concludes with the quiet, resigned chanting that opened the movement. It is now thought that the fugue and the opening chant were the only music originally written for the earlier Mass, and that the Dies irae and Requiem aeternam reminiscences were inserted when the work was newly composed for the Manzoni commemoration.
Verdi’s Requiem is one of music’s greatest masterpieces, providing artistic, emotional and spiritual sustenance whenever it is performed. No amount of discussion or analysis could exhaust its content, and yet any comments on it seem almost unnecessary — the Requiem speaks eloquently for itself and its composer. Perhaps it is most prudent to agree with Johannes Brahms, a curmudgeonly soul disinclined to compliments, who honored his Italian colleague when he said, simply, “Verdi’s Requiem is a work of genius.”
—Dr. Richard E. Rodda
Requiem and Kyrie (Soloists and Chorus)
Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine,
Rest eternal grant them, O Lord; et lux perpetua luceat eis. and let perpetual light shine upon them. Te decet hymnus, Deus, in Sion, There shall be singing unto Thee in Zion, et tibi reddetur votum in Jerusalem. and prayer shall go up to Thee in Jerusalem. Exaudi orationem meam. Hear my prayer. Ad te omnis caro veniet. Unto Thee all flesh shall come. Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison. Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy.
Dies
irae (Chorus)
Dies irae, dies illa
This day, this day of wrath solvet saeclum in favilla, shall consume the world in ashes, teste David cum Sibylla. so spake David and the Sibyl.
Quantus tremor est futurus,
Oh, what great trembling there will be quando Judex est venturus when the Judge will appear cuncta stricte discussurus! to examine everything in strict justice!
Tuba mirum (Bass and Chorus)
Tuba mirum spargens sonum
The trumpet, sending its wondrous sound per sepulchra regionum, across the graves of all lands, coget omnes ante thronum. shall drive everyone before the throne. Mors stupebit et natura, Death and nature shall be stunned cum resurget creatura when all creation rises again judicanti responsura. to stand before the Judge.
Liber scriptus (Mezzo-Soprano and Chorus)
Liber scriptus proferetur,
A written book will be brought forth, in quo totum continetur, in which everything is contained, unde mundus judicetur. from which the world will be judged. Judex ergo cum sedebit, So when the Judge is seated, quidquid latet apparebit, whatever is hidden shall be made known, nil inultum remanebit. nothing shall remain unpunished.
Quid sum miser (Soprano, Mezzo-Soprano and Tenor)
Quid sum miser tunc dicturus?
What shall such a wretch as I say then? Quem patronum rogaturus, To which protector shall I appeal, cum vix justus sit sicurus? when even the just man is barely safe?
Rex tremendae (Soloists and Chorus)
Rex tremendae majestatis,
King of awesome majesty, qui salvandos salvas gratis, who freely saves those worthy of salvation, salva me, fons pietatis! save me, fount of pity!
Recordare (Soprano and Mezzo-Soprano)
Recordare, Jesu pie,
Recall, dear Jesus, quod sum causa tuae viae, that I am the reason for Thy time on earth, ne me perdas illa die. do not cast me away on that day. Quaerens me, sedisti lassus, Seeking me, Thou didst sink down wearily, redemisti crucem passus; Thou hast saved me by enduring the cross; tantus labor non sit cassus. such travail must not be in vain.
Juste judex ultionis, Righteous judge of vengeance, donum fac remissionis award the gift of forgiveness ante diem rationis. before the day of reckoning.
Ingemisco (Tenor)
Ingemisco tamquam reus, I groan like the sinner that I am, culpa rubet vultus meus, guilt reddens my face, supplicanti parce, Deus. Oh God, spare the supplicant. Qui Mariam absolvisti
Thou, who pardoned Mary et latronem exaudisti, and heeded the thief, mihi quoque spem dedisti. hast given me hope as well.
Preces meae non sunt dignae, My prayers are unworthy, sed tu bonus fac benigne, but Thou, good one, in pity ne perenni cremer igne. let me not burn in the eternal fire. Inter oves locum praesta Give me a place among the sheep et ab hoedis me sequestra, and separate me from the goats, statuens in parte dextra. let me stand at Thy right hand.
Confutatis (Bass and Chorus)
Confutatis maledictis,
When the damned are cast away flammis acribus afflictis, and consigned to the searing flames, voca me cum benedictis. call me to be with the blessed. Oro supplex et acclinis, Bowed down in supplication I beg Thee, cor contritum quasi cinis, my heart as though ground to ashes: gere curam mei finis. help me in my last hour.
Dies irae, dies illa
This day, this day of wrath solvet saeclum in favilla, shall consume the world in ashes, teste David cum Sibylla. so spake David and the Sibyl.
Lacrimosa (Soloists and Chorus)
Lacrimosa dies illa
Oh, this day full of tears qua resurget ex favilla when from the ashes arises judicandus homo reus; guilty man, to be judged: huic ergo parce Deus. Oh Lord, have mercy upon him. Pie Jesu, Domine, Gentle Lord Jesus, dona eis requiem. grant them rest. Amen. Amen.
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Offertorio: Domine Jesu Christe (Soloists)
Domine Jesu Christe, rex gloriae, Lord Jesus Christ, King of glory, Libera animas omnium fidelium defunctorum deliver the souls of the faithful departed de poenis inferni from the pains of hell et de profundo lacu. and the bottomless pit. Libera eas de ore leonis, Deliver them from the jaws of the lion, ne absorbeat eas tartarus, lest hell engulf them, ne cadant in obscurum; lest they be plunged into darkness; sed signifer sanctus Michael but let the holy standard-bearer Michael representet eas in lucem sanctam, lead them into the holy light, quam olim Abrahae promisisti as Thou didst promise Abraham et semini ejus. and his seed.
Hostias et preces tibi, Domine, Lord, in praise we offer to Thee laudis offerimus, sacrifices and prayers, tu suscipe pro animabus illis, receive them for the souls of those quarum hodie memoriam facimus: whom we remember this day: fac eas, Domine, de morte Lord, make them pass transire ad vitam, from death to life, quam olim Abrahae promisisti as Thou didst promise Abraham et semini ejus. and his seed.
Sanctus (Chorus)
Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus, Holy, holy, holy, Dominus Deus Saboath! Lord God of hosts! Pleni sunt coeli et terra gloria tua. Heaven and earth are full of Thy glory. Hosanna in excelsis! Glory to God in the highest! Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in excelsis! Glory to God in the highest!
Agnus Dei (Soprano, Mezzo-Soprano and Chorus)
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, Lamb of God, that takes away the sins of the world, dona eis requiem. grant them rest.
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, Lamb of God, that takes away the sins of the world, dona eis requiem sempiternam. grant them eternal rest.
Lux aeterna (Mezzo-Soprano, Tenor and Bass)
Lux aeterna luceat eis, Domine, May eternal light shine upon them, O Lord, cum sanctis tuis in aeternam, with Thy saints forever, quia pius es. for Thou art good.
Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, Lord, grant them eternal rest, et lux perpetua luceat eis. and let perpetual light shine upon them.
Libera me (Soprano and Chorus)
Libera me, Domine, de morte aeterna Deliver me, O Lord, from eternal death in die illa tremenda, in that awful day, quando coeli movendi sunt et terra, when the heavens and earth shall be shaken, dum veneris judicare saeculum per ignem. when Thou shalt come to judge the world by fire. Tremens factus sum ego et timeo, I am seized with fear and trembling, dum discussio venerit atque venture ira: until the trial shall be at hand and the wrath to come: quando coeli movendi sunt et terra. when the heavens and earth shall be shaken. Dies irae, dies illa, That day, that day of wrath, calamitatis et miseriae, of calamity and misery, dies magna et amara valde, a great day and exceeding bitter, dum veneris judicare saeculum per ignem. when Thou shalt come to judge the world by fire.
Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, Lord, grant them eternal rest, et lux perpetua luceat eis. and let perpetual light shine upon them. Libera me, Domine, etc.
Deliver me, O Lord, etc.
CHASING THE DAWN: A CHORAL JOURNEY
SUN MAY 18, 2 pm | Music Hall
MATTHEW SWANSON, conductor
JASON ALEXANDER HOLMES, conductor
LISA PETERS, conductor
MAY FESTIVAL CHORUS and MAY FESTIVAL CHAMBER CHOIR, Matthew Swanson, director; Heather MacPhail, pianist
The May Festival Chorus is endowed by the Betsy & Alex C. Young Chair
MAY FESTIVAL YOUTH CHORUS,
Jason Alexander Holmes, director; David Kirkendall, pianist
CINCINNATI BOYCHOIR, Lisa Peters, director; Sara Cahall, pianist
Traditional Song This Little Light of Mine * arr. Block, Holmes Kathy Dietrich, soloist and Swanson
Ephraim AMU As m Yi Di Ka (1899–1995)
Natalie HEMBY (b. 1977), Crowded Table
Lori McKENNA (b. 1968) Grace Manning, soloist and Brandi CARLILE (b. 1981) arr. Ramsey
Sarah QUARTEL Bird’s Lullaby (b. 1982)
E. Pauline Johnson, poet
Tonight’s concert will last approximately 90 minutes. There is no intermission.
Today’s concert is sponsored by Chris and Beth Canarie.
The 2025 May Festival is presented by Fort Washington Investment Advisors. The 2025 May Festival is sponsored by Chavez Properties.
The appearance of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra is generously supported by the Louise Dieterle Nippert Musical Arts Fund of the Greenacres Foundation. David von Kampen’s arrangement of “Every Night When the Sun Goes In” was commissioned through the support of Sherry and Mark Holcomb
The appearance of Matthew Swanson in today’s performance is sponsored by David and Elaine Billmire. The appearance of Jason Alexander Holmes in today’s performance is sponsored by Connico, Bryan Hafertepe & Graham Hunter in honor of the Cincinnati Boychoir’s 60th Anniversary
The appearance of Lisa Peters in today’s performance is sponsored by The Board of Directors of the Cincinnati Boychoir
The appearance of the May Festival Youth Chorus in today’s performance is sponsored by Dr. Rob and Ashley Altenau Family with additional support from the Beatrice Aldrink Idema Foundation.
The appearance of the Cincinnati Boychoir Ambassadors in today’s performance is made possible in part by a generous gift from Dr. Thomas Lesher. Steinway Pianos, courtesy of Willis Music, is the official piano of the May Festival.
Henry PURCELL Evening Hymn (1659–1695)
Traditional Song Every Night When the Sun Goes In * arr. von Kampen
Cassandra Bailey-Langjahr and Margaret Eilert, soloists
Morten LAURIDSEN Prayer (b. 1943)
Dana Gioia, poet
LAURIDSEN Sure on this Shining Night
James Agee, poet
Alfred SCHNITTKE Movement IV, “Complete this Work,” from Concerto for Choir (1934–1998)
Shayla BLAKE Bring Your Dreams Along and Patricia MOCK
Abbie BETINIS Lumen (b. 1980)
Pēteris VASKS Māte saule (“Mother Sun”) (b. 1946)
Jānis Peters, librettist
Lili BOULANGER Hymne au Soleil (“Hymn to the Sun”) (1893–1918)
Megan Lawson, soloist
Susan LaBARR Where the Light Begins (b. 1981)
Jan Richardson, author
Stephen PAULUS “Hymn to the Eternal Flame” from To Be Certain of the Dawn (1949–2014)
Dawn Bruestle, Grace Guthrie, Julia Marchese and Kristi Reed, soloists
Michael Dennis Browne, librettist
Ben PARRY Flame (b. 1965)
Luther Ronzoni “Brand New Day” from The Wiz * VANDROSS (1951–2005)
arr. Block, Holmes and Swanson
* The arrangements of “This Little Light of Mine,” “Every Night When the Sun Goes In” and “Brand New Day” are world premieres.
CHASING THE DAWN: A CHORAL JOURNEY
Completing Cincinnati’s Music Hall in 1878 met important needs in a thriving “singing city,” which needed dedicated spaces to support its many choirs. Work had begun earnestly two years prior, and, by 1878, work had accelerated so the space would be ready in time to host that year’s May Festival. Music Hall has thus always been linked to the May Festival. Yet, as Director of Choruses for the May Festival Matthew Swanson notes, the 2025 edition marks the first time the Festival’s choruses will perform a strictly choral concert in Music Hall as part of the Festival. To be sure, Swanson says, the choruses have long presented chorusonly concerts, including during the Festival and in nearby spaces like Covington’s Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption, but never as a Festival program in Music Hall.
Swanson and colleagues Jason Alexander Holmes (Associate Director of Choruses) and Lisa Peters (Artistic Director of the Cincinnati Boychoir) have crafted “Chasing the Dawn: A Choral Journey” to exemplify the full breadth of the Festival’s
choral organization. The program includes not only the May Festival Chorus but also the May Festival Chamber Choir, May Festival Youth Chorus and the Cincinnati Boychoir, the latter recently officially allied with the Festival amid the Boychoir’s 60th anniversary. Including both adult and youth choruses honors history; as Swanson details, “There’s almost nothing more foundational to the Festival than involving young people. At the very first May Festival, a chorus of 700 adults was well publicized; also appearing at the Festival was a chorus of 600 schoolchildren. Proceeds from the first May Festival were used to found singing schools.” Indeed, 1897 even saw a Children’s May Festival with performances including more than 2,000 local students, according to reports.
Carefully curated throughlines hold together the concert’s remarkable variety. The program coalesces around light and a day’s progression, partly inspired by 2025 May Festival Director Renée Fleming’s May 22 program, “The Brightness of Light.” The unique atmospheres of each day’s hours transliterate into the program’s musical array and
CHRIS
alternation of ensembles. Swanson emphasizes, “It’s a great opportunity for the audience to consider a lot of different musical styles back-to-back. The program is multilingual and quite varied in terms of vocal and instrumental color. The great thing about a theme like light is that any number of pieces could have gone in one of these slots. Everything was chosen for a specific reason.”
The program’s sequencing registers its intention, as Swanson explains: “There’s a great moment where the Chorus has just been singing an expansively textured movement from the Schnittke Concerto for Choir, followed immediately by a very charming work in unison and two parts, sung by the Boychoir trebles. That will be quite a contrast, not only of language and style but also vocal color.” Such moments capture musical variety, reaching across generational lines to do so.
Within its overarching theme, audiences may discover that each selection conveys multiple meanings. Swanson says, “There can be very literal expressions about day and night, and Purcell’s ‘Evening Hymn’ is one of those, but the program also brings up this idea of what we do in those evening times.” What we do also emanates from the important Ghanaian composer Ephraim Amu’s “Asem Yi Di Ka.” This piece conveys the necessity of finishing work, forecasting similar aspirations in the final movement of Schnittke’s Concerto. Swanson encourages careful contemplation of the program’s words, as he says, “I hope people follow the narrative and consider the texts deeply, even after we’ve stopped singing them, because they are works of art in and of themselves. The marriage of the texts with fantastic and compelling music is art on an even higher plane.” Peters echoes this appeal of texted music: “There’s something about people singing together with text, with a message. To allow yourself to be in that story, it’s so powerful.”
Each entire piece holds potential for deep understanding, but in the Youth Chorus’ selection of “Where the Light Begins,” Holmes notes that even single words can provoke: “The young people get the word ‘perhaps’ more in this piece than any other and it offers a bit of tension in the program’s narrative. It’s not just ‘Day — great!’ It’s also, ‘But perhaps we don’t turn to the day. What happens? Where does it actually begin? Does it begin when the light shines or when we turn to it?’ I think it’s good to complicate these narratives.”
The program consciously demonstrates the technical versatility and stylistic range of today’s choral discipline at large. As Holmes puts it, “It’s important that our audience sees the ensembles for who they are.” He continues, “It’s a perfect concert for someone who is new to or curious about choral music or the May Festival organization.”
Foregrounding the program’s repertoire, Swanson says, “It isn’t any accident that this concert features a lot of living composers and pieces of contemporary music. This is a chance to see that the choral art is an evolving and present art, and that these composers are doing what composers have done for centuries, which is taking forms, singing, and song and casting them in new lights. Abbie Betinis’ ‘Lumen’ is a fantastic example. Her signature harmonic style brings a piquant quality to the classic form of a canon.”
Among the concert’s exceptional dimensions is its confidence in intergenerational relationships. Cultural activities rarely involve the age range that will appear on this stage, and continuities within and between the ensembles run deep. Many members of the May Festival Chorus sang in the Youth Chorus, and some sang in the Boychoir. For Holmes, maturity and artistic growth go hand in hand: “The teacher in me always gets excited when audiences see the progression from knowing things to knowing more things and then knowing a whole bunch of things.”
He highlights that pieces like “Lumen,” Sarah Quartel’s “Bird’s Lullaby,” and Shayla Blake and Patricia Mock’s “Bring Your Dreams Along” develop singers’ musicianship. The latter piece inspired important breakthroughs for the Boychoir in the past year, recalls Holmes: “This was one of the first pieces that the Boychoir treble singers put together in fall 2024. There’s something special when children master part-singing, even in just two parts — their eyes get really big and really excited because it’s this new thing.”
As Peters relates, the choice for the youth to sing on the same stage as adults is valuable: “There’s a whole piece of it for the younger singers who get to be there and have that high level professional experience. It helps the audience and the youth singers see that singing is a lifelong thing that brings you joy.” She suggests that children’s choral performance also offers a vivid affirmation: “Positivity and hopefulness;
you see them and you think, ‘You know what, it’s going to be okay down the road.’”
From the opening arrangement of “This Little Light of Mine,” the notion of human connection and community are never far from mind. As Swanson notes: “This is a welcoming gesture to get everybody in the room excited and feeling familiar with the Chorus and one another.”
For this program, the Festival commissioned composer David von Kampen to compose a new arrangement of the Appalachian folk song “Every Night When the Sun Goes In.” As Swanson describes it, the song symbolizes links between Cincinnati’s musical traditions and its regional neighbors: “Cincinnati is at a geographic crossroads between Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky, and a regional crossroads of the American Midwest, South and Appalachia. Appalachian folk traditions are very much alive in this area, and this is a great way to celebrate that.” The Boychoir’s presence in the program represents the city, as well; as Peters observes, many alumni still live locally and still sing in choruses.
Holmes’ choice of “Asem Yi Di Ka” was geared toward teaching the May Festival Youth Chorus about the value of community-minded initiative, its text asking, “If not me, then who will take charge?” Holmes reflects, “I’m sensitive to the fact that the young people in the Youth Chorus are at a really impressionable time where they’re figuring out at least the first version of who they want to be. I take seriously this message of individual responsibility for the greater good.”
Peters regularly reminds her singers about choral singing’s impacts: “We’re making this magical thing happen where people come together and it’s greater than each individual person. I’ll say, ‘What a great rehearsal we had today; we just moved the world forward. It’s in a better place because we did this thing together.’”
The program evinces community in more precise ways, as well. “Hymn to the Eternal Flame” from Stephen Paulus’ To Be Certain of the Dawn ruminates on inter-community reconciliation. The Minnesota Orchestra and the Minneapolis
For more information about this program, please text PROGRAM to 513.845.3024*.
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Basilica of Saint Mary commissioned the work, commemorating World War II’s end and the Vatican’s 1965 Nostra aetate, which apologized to the Jewish community for the Church’s role in antisemitism. Serious matters of humanity also resonate in “Every Night When the Sun Goes In,” a meditation on parental loss of a child that complements Morten Lauridsen’s “Prayer,” which sets to music Dana Gioia’s elegy for his son, lost at only four months old.
Ben Parry’s “Flame” culminates the program, mirroring imagery from “This Little Light of Mine.” “Flame” assembles the concert’s full forces for the first time, magnifying the program’s theatricality and chief themes. The piece’s score bears an epigraph from Siddhartha Gautama, Buddha: “Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.” Although “Flame” does not quote these words, the central notion inspired Garth Bardsley’s text. Parry’s music begins with elemental simplicity before building to a splendid, scintillating climax. For Swanson, “The hope is that we can provide the audience with a kind of overwhelming feeling of ‘Wow! I’ve never been to something like this before.’ Or ‘I didn’t know choirs could sound like that.’”
“Chasing the Dawn” concludes with Luther Vandross’ “Brand New Day” from The Wiz, inviting audience members to join the choruses in song. Swanson described the intent behind the selection, “We want everybody to sing — and not just the people on stage — to celebrate all the singing that happens in Cincinnati, one of America’s great singing cities … and celebrate the act of singing itself. That’s one thing that the May Festival is all about.”
Along with the program’s apparent thematic and visual focus on light, music throughout the concert brings together other senses: “Brand New Day” inspires movement, and Jānis Peters’ text for Pēteris Vasks’s Māte saule compares a sunrise to a fermenting bread loaf — evoking light through taste and warmth.
Along many lines, the program encourages audiences to imagine surprising and fresh connections through its various people and communities, and within its sounds, words, images and symbols.
—Jacques Dupuis
TEXTS & TRANSLATIONS
This Little Light of Mine
This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine. Ev’rywhere I go, I’m gonna let it shine, Oh, ev’rywhere I go, I’m gonna let it shine, Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.
This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine. All through Cincinnati, I’m gonna let it shine, Oh, down into Kentucky, I’m gonna let it shine, Over in Indiana, I’m gonna let it shine, Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.
All around the world, I’m gonna let it shine, Yeah, all around the world, I’m gonna let it shine, All around the world, I’m gonna let it shine, Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, yeah, This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine.
Ephraim Amu: Asεm Yi Di Ka
Asεm yi di ka, edi ka hena bεka?
Me ara o, me ara, εnnyε obiara o, me ara!
This talk has got to be spoken.* Who will speak it? I, myself
It is nobody else, I myself.
Adwuma yi di yε, edi yε, hena bεyε? Me ara... This work has got to be done. Who will do it? I myself…
bra yi di b , edi b , This life has got to be lived,** hena bεb ? Me ara... Who will live this life? I myself…
Asεm yi be si ne kwan mua me ara. Adwuma yi be si ne kwan mua me ara. bra yi be si ne kwan mua me ara. For this talk to be spoken rightly, I myself. For this work to be done the right way, I myself. For this life to be lived the right way, I myself.
Hena bεka? Hena bεyε? Hena bεb ? Me ara ...
This talk, this work, This life, I myself…
*As in truth.
**As in living an exemplary life.
RENÉE FLEMING Masterclass
WED MAY 21, 5 PM Memorial Hall
An exclusive public masterclass with Renée Fleming, presented in collaboration with the Cincinnati Song Initiative! Featuring young professional singers and pianists, experience the artistry and expertise of one of the world’s most celebrated singers as she shares with them her insights on vocal technique, performance and interpretation.
Sponsored by Christy and Terry Horan MayFestival.com
cincinnatipops.org/subscribe
Hemby, McKenna, Carlile: Crowded Table
Text: Natalie Hemby, Lori McKenna and Brandi Carlile
You can hold my hand when you need to let go. I can be your mountain when you re feeling valley-low. I can be your streetlight showing you the way home, if you can hold my hand when you need to let go,
Refrain:
I want a house with a crowded table, and a place by the fire for everyone. Let us take on the world while we’re young and able, and bring us back together when the day is done.
If we want a garden, we re gonna have to sow the seeds, plant a little happiness, let the roots run deep. If it’s love that we give, then it’s love that we reap. If we want a garden, we re gonna have to sow the seeds. Refrain.
The door is always open, your picture’s on my wall, Everyone s a little broken, and everyone belongs, Yeah, everyone belongs. Refrain.
Sarah Quartel: The Bird’s Lullaby
Text: Emily Pauline Johnson
Sing to us, cedars; the twilight is creeping With shadowy garments, the wilderness through; All day we have caroled, and now would be sleeping, So echo the anthems we warbled to you; While we swing, swing, And your branches sing, And we drowse to your dreamy whispering.
Sing to us, cedars; the night-wind is sighing, Is wooing, is pleading, to hear you reply; And here in your arms we are restfully lying, And longing to dream to your soft lullaby; While we swing, swing, And your branches sing. And we drowse to your dreamy whispering.
Sing to us, cedars; your voice is so lowly, Your breathing so fragrant, your branches so strong; Our little nest-cradles are swaying so slowly, While zephyrs are breathing their slumberous song. And we swing, swing, While your branches sing, And we drowse to your dreamy whispering.
Henry Purcell: Evening Hymn
Text: Bishop William Fuller
Now that the sun hath veil’d his light, And bid the world goodnight; To the soft bed my body I dispose, But where shall my soul repose?
Dear God, even in thy arms, And can there be any so sweet security! Then to thy rest, O my soul! And singing, praise the mercy That prolongs thy days. Hallelujah!
Every Night When the Sun Goes In
Text: Traditional
Every night when the sun goes in I hang down my head and mournful cry.
True love, don’t weep, true love, don’t mourn, True love, don’t weep, or mourn for me, I’m going away to Marble town.
‘Twas once my apron but it hung down low, ‘Twas once my apron it hung down low, You followed me through both rain and snow. But now my apron, it’s to my chin, It’s now my apron, it’s to my chin, You pass my door but you don’t come in. I wish to the Lord that my babe was born, And sitting on his daddy’s knee, And me, poor girl, was dead and gone, And the green grass is growing all over me. Every night when the sun goes in I hang down my head and mournful cry.
Morten Lauridsen: Prayer
Text: Dana Gioia
Echo of the clocktower, footstep in the alleyway, sweep of the wind sifting the leaves.
Jeweller of the spiderweb, connoisseur of autumn’s opulence, blade of lightning harvesting the sky.
Keeper of the small gate, choreographer of entrances and exits, midnight whisper traveling the wires.
Seducer, healer, deity or thief, I will see you soon enough — in the shadow of the rainfall, in the brief violet darkening a sunset — but until then I pray watch over him as a mountain guards its covert ore and the harsh falcon its flightless young.
In memory of Michael Jasper Gioia, d. 1987, age four months
Morten Lauridsen: Sure On This Shining Night
Text: James Agee
Sure on this shining night Of starmade shadows round, Kindness must watch for me
This side the ground. The late year lies down the north. All is healed, all is health. High summer holds the earth. Hearts all whole.
Sure on this shining night I weep for wonder Wand’ring far alone Of shadows on the stars.
Please turn page quietly
Alfred Schnittke: Complete this Work
Text: Gregory of Narek
Сей труд, что начинал я с упованьем
И с именем Твоим, Ты заверши,
Чтоб песнопенье стало врачеваньем, Целящим раны тела и души.
Complete this work which I began in hope and with Your name, so that my singing may become healing, curing the wounds of body and soul.
И если труд мой скромный завершится
С Твоим благословением святым, — Пусть дух господень в нем соединится
Со скудным вдохновением моим.
If my humble work is finished with Your holy blessing –May the divine spirit in it join with my meager inspiration.
Тобой дарованное озаренье Не погаси.
Мои разум не покинь,
Но вновь и вновь приемли восхваленья От Твоего служителя. Аминь.
Do not extinguish the revelation You have granted, do not abandon my reason, but, again and again, receive praise from Your servant. Amen.
From the “Book of Lamentations” written before 990 by the Armenian mystic Gregory of Narek (951–1003). Translation from the Russian version by Grigory Gerenstein.
Blake & Mock: Bring Your Dreams Along
I can hear life knocking steady at my door.
All the world is waiting, I’m ready to explore!
I can feel my heartbeat racing as I climb!
Come, and bring your dreams along.
I’m rising with the sun and preparing for the day!
I welcome the adventure; I am not afraid.
There’s no turning back, won’t you join with me?
Come and bring your dreams along.
Music’s in my heart, I’m ready now to start, Sing and dance with me!
So much I want to do.
With loving friends like you, Who knows how far, Who knows how high, Who knows what we will be?
I can hear life knocking steady at my door. All the world is waiting, I’m ready to explore!
I can feel my heartbeat racing as I climb.
Come and go with me.
Come and grow with me.
Come, and bring your dreams along.
Bring your dreams along, come and bring your dreams along.
Abbie Betinis: Lumen
Text: Latin Aphorisms
Lumen accipe et imperti. Do ut des.
Receive the light and pass it on. I give that you may give.
Pēteris Vasks: Māte saule
Text: Jānis Peters | Translation: Laima Berziņa
Rūgst rīts kā mīkla maizes abrā. Pret klonu mātes soļi klaudz. Un klaipi, kļavu lapām klāti, Uz lizes krāsnij mutē brauc.
Morning is rising like kneaded bread dough. Mother’s footsteps clatter on the clay floor. And loaves, covered with maple leaves, travel on the peel into the mouth of the oven.
Vēl jēri guļ ar zvaigznēm acīs, vēl dēlu sapņos arkli guļ, bet Māte Saule baltu sviestu, kā mūžību uz sliekšņa kuļ.
Lambs still sleep with stars in their eyes, ploughs still lie idle in men’s dreams, but Mother Sun churns white butter — like eternity — on the threshold.
Laiks ritēja pa saltu rasu; trīs gadsimtus vai stundas trīs.
Time rolled by through cold dew — three centuries or hours three.
Kad modāmies, jau saule gāja pa ošu gatvi debesīs.
When we awoke the sun was already stepping up through the ash trees into the sky.
Lili Boulanger: Hymne au Soleil
Text: Casimir Delavigne
Du soleil qui renaît bénissons la puissance. Avec tout l’univers célébrons son retour. Couronné de splendeur, il se lève, il s’élance. Le réveil de la terre est un hymne d’amour.
Sept coursiers qu’en partant le Dieu contient a peine, Enflamment l’horizon de leur brûlante haleine.
Let us bless the power of the reborn sun.
With all the universe let us celebrate its return.
Crowned with splendor, it rises, it soars.
The waking of the earth is a hymn of love.
Seven rushing steeds that the God scarcely holds back Ignite the horizon with their scorching breath.
O Soleil fécond, tu parais!
Avec ses champs en fleurs, ses monts, ses bois épais, La vaste mer de tes feux embrasée, L’univers plus jeune et plus frais, Des vapeurs de matin sont brillants de rosée. Oh, vivid sun, you appear! With its fields in bloom, its mountains, its thick forests, The vast sea set ablaze by your fires, The universe, younger and fresher, With morning vapors are glistening with dew.
Du soleil qui renaît bénissons la la puissance. Avec tout l’univers célébrons son retour. Couronné de splendeur, il se lève, il s’élance! Le réveil de la terre, est un hymne d’amour.
Let us bless the power of the reborn sun. With all the universe let us celebrate its return. Crowned with splendor, it rises, it soars. The waking of the earth is a hymn of love.
Susan LaBarr: Where the Light Begins
Text: Jan Richardson
Perhaps it does not begin. Perhaps it is always.
Perhaps it takes a lifetime to open our eyes, to learn to see — the luminous line of the map in the dark
the vigil flame in the house of the heart
the love so searing we cannot keep from singing, from crying out.
Perhaps this day the light begins in us. We are where the light begins. Perhaps it does not begin. Perhaps it is always.
Stephen Paulus: Hymn to the Eternal Flame
Text: Michael Dennis Browne
Every face is in you, every voice, every sorrow in you, every pity, every love, every memory, woven into fire. Every breath is in you, every cry, every longing in you, every singing, every hope, every healing, woven into fire.
Every heart is in you, every tongue, every trembling in you, every blessing, every soul, every shining, woven into fire.
Ben Parry: Flame
Text: Garth Bardsley
A flame
Dispels the dark
Its delicate light repels the shadows
A flame alone
Brings within its flicker
A welcoming warmth
A single flame
That shares its light
Is but strengthened by this splitting in two
And as each flame
Begets another
Its life and light is multiplied
To become unending
Forever burning
A beacon that both beckons and guides
So to light the world
Luther Ronzoni Vandross: Brand New Day
Every body look around ‘cause there’s a reason to rejoice you see
Every body come out and let’s commence to singing joyfully
Every body look up and feel the hope that we’ve been waiting for
Every body’s glad
because our silent fear and dread is gone
Freedom, you see, has got our hearts singing so joyfully
Just look about
You owe it to yourself to check it out
Can’t you feel a brand new day?
Every body be glad
Because the sun is shining just for us
Every body wake up into the morning into happiness
Hello world
It’s like a different way of living now
And thank you world
We always knew that we’d be free somehow
In harmony
And show the world that we’ve got liberty
It’s such a change for us to live so independently
Freedom, you see, has got our hearts singing so joyfully
Just look about
You owe it to yourself to check it out
Can’t you feel a brand new day?
THE BRIGHTNESS OF LIGHT
THU MAY 22, 7:30 pm | Music Hall
JUANJO MENA, conductor
RENÉE FLEMING, soprano
ROD GILFRY, baritone
MAY FESTIVAL CHORUS, Matthew Swanson, director
The May Festival Chorus is endowed by the Betsy & Alex C. Young Chair
CINCINNATI SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, Cristian Măcelaru, Music Director Designate
Ralph Serenade to Music
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS (1872–1958)
Igor STRAVINSKY
Symphony of Psalms (1882–1971)
Psalm 38:13–14 (King James Ps. 39:12–13)
Psalm 39:2–4 (King James Ps. 40:1–3)
Psalm 150 (King James Ps. 150)
INTERMISSION
Kevin PUTS The Brightness of Light (b. 1972) Introduction
Georgia O’Keeffe, author First Correspondence
Alfred Stieglitz, author A Soul Like Yours
Ache
Georgia and Alfred (orchestral interlude)
Violin
Faraway
Taos
The Thing You Call Holy
The High Priestess of the Desert (orchestral interlude)
Friends Sunset
Tonight’s concert is sponsored by Drs. Manisha Patel and Michael Curran
The appearance of Renée Fleming in this evening’s performance is generously sponsored by Barbara Ann Feldmann
The 2025 May Festival is presented by Fort Washington Investment Advisors. The 2025 May Festival is sponsored by Chavez Properties
The appearance of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra is generously supported by the Louise Dieterle Nippert Musical Arts Fund of the Greenacres Foundation.
Tonight’s concert will last approximately 125 minutes.
The appearance of Juanjo Mena in tonight’s performance is sponsored by Drs. Manisha Patel and Michael Curran
The appearance of Rod Gilfry in tonight’s performance is sponsored by Ronald C. Lamping
This evening’s pre-concert talk is sponsored by Drs. William Hurford and Lesley Gilbertson
This evening’s lobby entertainment is made possible in part by a generous endowment gift from Mr. and Mrs. S. Charles Straus. Steinway Pianos, courtesy of Willis Music, is the official piano of the May Festival.
RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS
Serenade to Music
Born: October 12, 1872, Gloucestershire, England
Died: August 26, 1958, London, England
Work Composed: 1938
Premiere: October 5, 1938 at Royal Albert Hall, London, conducted by the composer Instrumentation: SATB chorus, 2 flutes (incl. piccolo), oboe, English horn, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, triangle, harp, strings
Duration: approx. 14 minutes
Ralph Vaughan Williams came from a prominent family whose ancestors included biologist Charles Darwin and the famous potter Josiah Wedgwood. Born in 1872 in the Gloucestershire village of Down Ampney, Vaughan Williams was supported in his love for music by his family, including his aunt, who was the first to give him piano and music theory lessons. Although he always wanted to be a composer, he struggled with his technique in school. His cousin recalled overhearing classmates talk about “that foolish young man, Ralph Vaughan Williams, who would go on working at music when he was so hopelessly bad at it.”
He continued to work diligently for many years, traveling to Berlin and Paris to study with Max Bruch and Maurice Ravel, honing his craft and searching for his voice. Upon returning home, Vaughan Williams took an intense interest in the musical traditions of his own country. During the early 19th century, England’s musical landscape was dominated by German composers such as Wagner and Brahms, who were revered for their works’ complexity and dense orchestral writing. Vaughan Williams sought to counterbalance these influences by exploring the rich traditions of For more information about this program, please text PROGRAM to 513.845.3024*. *By texting to this number, you
Elizabethan-era church music and the folk songs of rural England. This research guided his own development as a composer and contributed to his creation of a distinct national style that infused contemporary classical music with elements of England’s musical past.
In 1935, the 63-year-old Vaughan Williams completed his Fourth Symphony, a bleak and haunting work that shocked audiences with its uncharacteristic darkness. The composer was perhaps responding to his time serving in the First World War, where he transported wounded soldiers from the front lines, as well as reacting to the worsening situation in Europe. Vaughan Williams’ social activism continued throughout World War II, when his work on behalf of German refugees eventually led to his music being banned by the Nazis.
Following the Fourth Symphony, Vaughan Williams returned to his more familiar pastoral style to compose his Serenade to Music in 1938. The work was commissioned by the influential English conductor Sir Henry Wood and was premiered on October 5, 1938 at the Royal Albert Hall in London, at a concert celebrating Wood’s 50 years on the podium. Over the course of Wood’s career, he introduced British audiences to new works by composers such as Mahler, Sibelius and Bartók, and did much to promote the music of his fellow countrymen, Elgar, Britten and Vaughan Williams. His most lasting legacy remains the founding of the Promenade Concerts in 1895, now known as the BBC Proms. This summer concert series remains a vital part of London’s cultural life to this day.
The Serenade to Music is dedicated to Wood, “in grateful recognition of his services to music,” and is written for 16 solo voices and orchestra [in tonight’s performance, sections of the Chorus and Chorus soloists will sing the solo passages]. The vocal parts were composed for specific singers, each one a star in the music scene at the time and each with connections to Wood. The score includes their names in the preface and their initials are spread across the music next to each entrance. Due to the logistics of recreating the original score as intended, Vaughan Williams made alternate versions for future performances, including one for four soloists, another for full chorus and one for orchestra alone.
Ralph Vaughan Williams (Credit: E.O. Hoppé)
The text for the Serenade comes from Act Five, Scene One of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice Vaughan Williams stitched together words spoken by four characters — the lovers Jessica and Lorenzo, and Portia and her maid — as they all speak of the power of music and the beauty of the night. The scene takes place in a moonlit garden while musicians play nearby.
The whole of the Serenade is a study in lush beauty and lyricism that evokes a summer evening. The tender opening sets a warm tone with harp arpeggios and a flowing solo violin melody. Murmuring woodwinds add to the texture with a second theme before the voices enter with soft chords that emerge seamlessly from the instrumental sound. The orchestra retreats as the first vocal solo climbs upward to join the lone violin for an intimate moment on the words “sweet harmony.” More solos follow, building to the first of two sweeping climaxes with all voices singing together.
A brisk fanfare changes the mood to introduce the text, “Come, ho! And wake Diana with a hymn!” This is soon followed by the second climactic
moment, an outpouring of sound that perfectly depicts the words “And draw her home with music.” The brass fanfare repeats briefly before a delicate transition and the return of the solo violin melody from the opening. The work ends in quiet stillness with the violin and soprano solo again meeting in “sweet harmony.” This time, the words are echoed in serene chords sung by the chorus as the music recedes into silence.
—Catherine Case
TEXT
How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank! Here will we sit, and let the sounds of music Creep in our ears: soft stillness and the night Become the touches of sweet harmony.
Look, how the floor of heaven
Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold: There’s not the smallest orb that thou behold’st But in his motion like an angel sings Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins; Such harmony is in immortal souls; But, whilst this muddy vesture of decay Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it. Come, ho! and wake Diana with a hymn: With sweetest touches pierce your mistress’ ear, And draw her home with music.
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I am never merry when I hear sweet music. The reason is, your spirits are attentive: The man that hath no music in himself, Nor is not mov’d with concord of sweet sounds, Is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils; The motions of his spirit are dull as night, And his affections dark as Erebus:
Let no such man be trusted. Music! hark! It is your music of the house. Methinks it sounds much sweeter than by day. Silence bestows that virtue on it.
How many things by season season’d are To their right praise and true perfection! Peace, ho! the moon sleeps with Endymion, And would not be awak’d.
(Soft stillness and the night Become the touches of sweet harmony.)
IGOR STRAVINSKY
Symphony of Psalms
Born: June 18, 1882, Oranienbaum, Russia
Died: April 6, 1971, New York City
Work Composed: 1930
Premiere: December 13, 1930 in Brussels by the Société Philharmonique de Bruxelles, Ernest Ansermet conducting
Igor Stravinsky was surrounded by music as a child. His father was a famous opera singer and his mother loved to play the piano. Important composers of the day, such as Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Modest Mussorgsky, were frequent guests in the family’s Saint Petersburg apartment, and Igor
Igor Stravinsky
and his three brothers regularly attended the opera and ballet at the nearby Mariinsky Theatre. Stravinsky began college as a law student but spent much of his time studying music theory, piano and composition. He eventually became a student of Rimsky-Korsakov’s and devoted himself entirely to music. In his late 20s, Stravinsky found immediate fame when Sergei Diaghilev, founder of the Ballets Russes, chose him to write music for the company’s new production, The Firebird. The ballet was an overnight hit, and the fruitful partnership led Stravinsky to compose two more of his most famous works, Petrushka and Rite of Spring.
After World War I, he moved with his wife and children to France to be closer to the musical happenings in Europe. Stravinsky had been raised in the Russian Orthodox Church but became disillusioned as a young man. In France, he reconnected with his faith, finding comfort and inspiration in the spiritual texts. When his friend, the famed conductor Serge Koussevitsky, approached him with a commission for the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s 50th-anniversary season, Stravinsky turned to his long-held idea of setting psalms. He believed these poems “had been written for singing” and welcomed the chance to create a large-scale work devoted to these texts.
Koussevitsky’s request had no stipulations on form or style and Stravinsky took this to heart, with an unusual approach to instrumentation and the notion of what constitutes a symphony. He omitted the smooth sonorities of violins, violas and clarinets from the orchestra and added two pianos and extra flutes, giving the texture a strikingly austere and bright quality. The chorus is treated not as a separate entity but as an integral part of the ensemble. As Stravinsky explained, the voices and instruments “are on equal footing, neither outweighing the other.”
The work, in three movements played without pause, begins with a pronounced E minor chord. Stravinsky manipulates this common chord of E, G and B notes by emphasizing the middle G note and spacing it within very high and low registers, leaving a wide gap in the midrange. According to musicologist Michael Steinberg, the surprising effect of this chord’s spacing makes it sound “as though it were the first triad in the history of the world.” Rushing oboes and bassoons follow this
chord with an anxious melody before the ensemble settles into an ostinato groove and the chorus enters with the ritualistic tone of a Gregorian chant on the words “Hear my prayer, O Lord.”
The opening chord repeats, punctuating the texture between statements, and the music gathers strength at the words “Be not silent.” The movement reflects the meandering solitude of the text and builds continuously, both through dynamics and lengthening phrases, to a resounding climax. The final G major chord stands in powerful contrast to the first E minor chord, with the full force of the brass commanding attention.
Stravinsky called the second movement “an upside-down pyramid of fugues,” in that it begins small, with one oboe, and gradually expands to the full force of the ensemble. The solo oboe is soon joined by the flutes, further depicting the tip of the pyramid with their high registers. The second fugue is given to voices alone, which build onto the structure with the addition of the low bass notes. The final section combines the two fugues, weaving them into a dense fabric of sound. A stunning setting of the text occurs when the orchestra drops out and the voices sing alone, “He set my feet upon a rock.” The lack of foundation from the orchestra instills the words with a delicate vulnerability. It is then all the more powerful when voices and instruments join forces at the words “He put a new song in my mouth.”
The prayer for a new song is answered with the “Alleluia” that opens the final movement. The reserved but joyful music resembles the deep tolling of church bells. After a moment of murky ambiguity, a quick rhythmic pattern is introduced, beginning a dance-like section full of exultations. Stravinsky later wrote that this section was inspired by “a vision of Elijah’s chariot climbing the heavens.” The conclusion sees the return of the slower music that opened the movement, with steady intonations of C minor. Stravinsky described the section, saying, “this final hymn of praise must be thought of as issuing from the skies; agitation is followed by the calm of praise.” A final “Alleluia” is uttered like a sigh before the work gently comes to an end, turning at the last moment from the minor mode into a bright C major chord.
—Catherine Case
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Movement 1
Exaudi orationem meam, Domine, et deprecationem meam. Auribus percipe lacrimas meas. Ne sileas.
Quoniam advena ego sum apud te et peregrinus, sicut omnes patres mei.
Remitte mihi, ut refrigerer prius quam abeam et amplius non ero.
Hear my prayer, O Lord, and my supplication. Hear my tears with Your ears. Be not silent.
For I am a stranger to You, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were. Forgive me that I may be refreshed before I go and be no more.
Movement 2
Expectans expectavi Dominum, et intendit mihi. Et exaudivit preces meas: et eduxit me de lacu miseriae, et de luto faecis. Et statuit super petram pedes meos: et direxit gressus meos. Et immisit in os meum canticum novum, carmen Deo nostro.
Videbunt multi, et timebunt: et sperabunt in Domino.
I waited patiently for the Lord, and He inclined unto me, and heard my calling.
And He heard my prayers: and He brought me up out of the pit of misery, and out of the mire and clay. And He set my feet upon a rock, and He ordered my goings.
And He put a new song in my mouth, even a thanksgiving to our God.
Many shall see and fear: and they will hope in the Lord.
Movement 3
Alleluia. Laudate Dominum in sanctis ejus; laudate eum in firmamento virtutis ejus. Laudate eum in virtutibus ejus; laudate eum secundum multitudinem magnitudinis ejus. Laudate eum in sono tubae... Laudate eum in timpano et choro; laudate eum in chordis et organo. Laudate eum in cymbalis benesonantibus; laudate eum in cymbalis jubilationis. Omnis spiritus laudet Dominum. Alleluia. Alleluia. Praise ye the Lord. Praise God in His sanctuary:
Praise Him in the firmament of His power.
Praise Him for his mighty acts:
Praise Him according to the multitude of His greatness.
Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet…
Praise Him with the timbrel and choir, praise Him with strings and organs.
Praise Him upon the well-tuned cymbals, praise Him with cymbals of joy.
Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord. Alleluia.
KEVIN PUTS
The Brightness of Light
Born: 1972, St. Louis, Missouri
Work Composed: 2015
Premiere: July 20, 2019, Koussevitzky Music Shed at Tanglewood Music Center, Renée Fleming, soprano; Rodney Gilfry, baritone; Boston Symphony Orchestra, Andris Nelsons conducting
In 2015, I received the honor of a commission from my alma mater, the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. The school’s orchestra was planning a trip to perform at Lincoln Center and wanted to include a new work written by an alumni composer to feature an alumni performer. The performer they had in mind was Renée Fleming and — to my great excitement — she accepted the offer, thereby initiating one of the most treasured collaborations of my career.
We wanted to focus on an iconic American woman as the subject, and I happened on a quote by Georgia O’Keeffe:
My first memory is of the brightness of light, light all around.
I could imagine this line sung right at the start. I learned that O’Keeffe had written thousands of letters over the course of her lifetime, many of them to Alfred Stieglitz, the renowned photographer and art curator who became her husband. Sarah Greenough’s indispensable twovolume My Faraway One (Vol. 2 forthcoming) includes the complete correspondence between O’Keeffe and Stieglitz from their first contact in 1915 until Stieglitz’s death in 1946. With intense emotion — and often humor — these letters chronicle O’Keeffe’s journey from a young artist enthralled by and indebted to the older Stieglitz to her complete immersion in the North American Southwest, where she lived alone for many years, finding inspiration for her best-known works.
The letters themselves are the property of the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale University, and I am deeply grateful for the right they granted me to craft a “libretto” made of excerpts from the letters. Letters from Georgia was premiered by Ms. Fleming and the Eastman Philharmonia at Alice Tully Hall on November 14, 2016, with Neil Varon conducting.
Having wholeheartedly embraced the role of O’Keeffe, Renée proposed expanding the work to include an equal part for Stieglitz. I welcomed this challenge of creating a larger work which would encompass their years both together and apart, from the first cautious exchanges between the two artists, through their impassioned and complicated relationship, to the years long after Stieglitz’s death, when I imagine O’Keeffe writing to him even still.
By design, all the music from Letters found its way into The Brightness of Light. Ironically perhaps, it was the vivid, poetic language of these two artists best known for their visual art which I found most inspiring in the creation of these works.
It has been a great privilege to work with the baritone Rodney Gilfry, who brings his tremendous gifts to the role of Stieglitz. I am grateful to Wendall Harrington for creating the projections which accompany the work, to Bette and Joseph Hirsch for their generous support of the work’s first incarnation, and to all the co-commissioners who have made its creation possible.
—Kevin Puts
Pulitzer Prize- and Grammy-winning composer Kevin Puts has established himself as one of America’s leading composers, gaining international acclaim for his “plush, propulsive” music (The New York Times), and described by Opera News as “a master polystylist.” He has been commissioned and performed by leading organizations around the world, including the Metropolitan Opera, Philadelphia Orchestra, Carnegie Hall, Opera Philadelphia, Minnesota Opera and many more, and he has collaborated with world-class artists such as Renée Fleming, Yo-Yo Ma, Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Marin Alsop, among others.
In March 2022, Puts’ fourth opera, The Hours, had its world premiere on the concert stage by The Philadelphia Orchestra under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Séguin and was hailed as a “historic event...with a lush orchestration that hits you in the solar plexus” (The Philadelphia Inquirer). The Hours premiered to sold-out houses as a fully staged production at the Metropolitan Opera in November 2022, starring sopranos Renée Fleming and Kelli O’Hara and mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, and was called “a stunning triumph” by Variety magazine. The opera’s revival in May 2024 played to packed houses and marked the first instance in the Metropolitan Opera’s history of a work returning the season after its premiere. Other highlights of 2022 included the West Coast premiere of The Brightness of Light featuring Renée Fleming and Rod Gilfry with the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra. Written for Time for Three, his triple concerto Contact had its world premiere in March 2022 with the Florida Orchestra and continues to receive performances around the world. A recording of the piece by The Philadelphia Orchestra and conductor Xian Zhang was released on the Deutsche Grammophon album Letters for the Future and was awarded “Best Contemporary Classical Composition” at the 2023 Grammy Awards. Puts was named Musical America’s Composer of the Year in 2024.
Puts’ breakthrough opera Silent Night — for which he was awarded the 2012 Pulitzer Prize following its 2011 premiere by Minnesota Opera — has been heralded as “remarkable” (The New York Times) and “stunning” (Twin Cities Examiner). In addition to the Pulitzer Prize, Puts has received numerous honors and awards for composition. Since 2006, he has been a member of the composition faculty at the Peabody Institute and serves as Distinguished Visiting Composer at the Juilliard School in the 2024–25 academic year. He also returns to his role as Director of the Minnesota Orchestra Composer’s Institute in 2025.
kevinputs.com
Kevin Matthew Puts
TEXT
The Brightness of Light
Music by Kevin Puts
Libretto by Kevin Puts, with all text drawn from the letters of Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz
(GO=Georgia O’Keeffe; AS=Alfred Stieglitz)
Introduction
(GO) My first memory is of the brightness of light — light all around.
First Correspondence
(GO) Dear Mister Stieglitz — I am the young woman whose charcoals you saw. If you remember what they said to you — I would like to know — if you want to tell me.
(AS) Dear Miss O’Keeffe — What am I to say?
It is impossible to put into words what I saw and felt. I do want to tell you they gave me much joy. I do not know what you had in your mind.
But they have brought you closer to me.
With greetings, Alfred Stieglitz
(GO) Mister Stieglitz — I like what you write me — maybe — I make them — just to express myself. Things I feel and want to say. Words and I — are not good friends at all. On the train — New York to Virginia. I got a telegram saying my mother is dead. I wish you would write me. If you want to.
Not if you don’t want to.
(AS) Dear Miss O’Keeffe — For two days I carried a letter in my pocket — addressed to you.
(GO) I am writing because I am afraid to sleep —
Why did I finally tear it up?
Last night — a very bad dream about Mama. Words are so terrible — A living, aching silence, My hands were on her face. I know the shape so well. Isn’t it absurd that I am afraid now?
How you must suffer now...
Thank you for letting me feel I can talk to you.
A living, aching silence, I seem to want to tell you everything I know.
A living, aching silence...
Maybe I can sleep now. Goodnight.
A Soul Like Yours
(AS) A greeting from Boston — taking my daughter to camp in New Hampshire.
The drawings you sent are as fine as anything I know. I want the world to see them. In one, I feel the powers of the night. To look into a soul like yours — a great privilege. I feel it roaming through space and night.
Twenty-three years ago today I got married.
You yearn for someone to understand every heartbeat of yours.
The yearn goes out — whether you wish it or not. I can never see enough into human souls.
How I understand every pulse beat of yours.
The story of those drawings — Your children — I their guardian.
A Woman’s Soul laid bare in all its beauty, crying out into the starlight night.
Goodnight, Georgia O’Keeffe. It’s like a beautiful folk melody — the sound. Georgia O’Keeffe. Georgia O’Keeffe...
Ache
(GO) I’ve been lying here listening for you in the dark — aching for you way to my fingers’ ends —
As I came up the street into the sunset — I wondered — can I stand it — the terrible fineness and beauty of the intensity of you.
(AS) Rarest flower on earth — that has no withering.
(GO) The hot setting sun so brilliant — shining white I could hardly walk toward it — wanting you with such an all over ache — loving — feeling — all the parts of my body touched and kissed.
(AS) Light and Air — Height and Depth — the Spirit of Life, Life itself.
You dearest thing that ever Breathed on earth. Everything that’s wondrous In the world.
(GO) Maybe you don’t know how mad I seem to be growing — you will have to think for me when I can’t think for myself — all of me waiting for you to touch the center of me with the center of you — the reaching of something in the whole body for the center of heaven —
(AS) I hear a song no mortal has ever heard. I hear her voice — her spirit bathes me in light.
Georgia and Alfred (Orchestral Interlude #1)
Violin
(GO) Dearest —
It is a wonderful night. I’ve been hanging out the window waiting to tell someone about it —
I’ve labored on the violin till all my fingers are sore —
You never in your wildest dreams imagined anything worse than the noises I get out of it
Faraway (AS) My Sweetestheart In her element — Faraway still right here. It’s great to know you so terrifically alive. You the wild child of the soil, I city-bred of the city.
Three letters from you — My hands all atremble. When I read “Dearest — “ I toppled and burst out crying. Still my Georgia — everything right.
Taos was in the stars. And you are free.
Haven’t I worked all these years to set you free from me?
But our parting as we did — your steeling yourself, your letters not those of former years.
I cried into the night.
I robbed you of your faith when you were strengthening mine.
Georgia — Georgia — I’ll win back your faith. Georgia — Georgia — You must believe.
Taos was in the stars. And you are free.
Taos (GO) In this sun one just feels suspended in heat — expecting to disappear at any moment.
It was a really beautiful afternoon — The simple Pueblo village — all of mud — and the dancing — everyone in colors of such rich saturated pigment — the brilliant sun and blue sky. It went on and on — the brilliancy of color — the live eyes — it is terribly exciting — and at the same time quieting like the ocean.
I want to wear a sheet and ride like the Indian men that came tearing through the Pueblo gate in a body — all riding like mad.
I just feel so like expanding here — way out to the horizon — and up into the sunshine — and out into the night.
The Thing You Call Holy (AS) The house is still. And the morning gray and winterlike.
It was eleven years ago Sunday That you hopped off the train in Pennsylvania Station ran up to me and kissed me! Like a happy child. Eleven years.
I see all its phases — All the days and hours and moments of ecstasy and pain The poison of resentments
The poison of jealousy — The worst poison in the world. The growth of something very beautiful between us.
(GO) I must write you tonight, to tell you what living here means to me.
(AS) I see the studio [on] 59th Street — all the wonder and beauty and life —
(GO) As yet, no particular friends — and I don’t want any.
(AS) All the terrible ordeal — the whole evolution of us.
(GO) Think of me with hands like dark brown gloves — dirty fingernails, my nose sore on top from sunburn.
(AS) But I live in the land of ghosts and can’t go on. You do not need me anymore. I’d like to die in your arms — A black cross against a blue sky —
(GO) And now you cry for the center of me That has been pushed away For so long.
Giuseppe Verdi Rigoletto
June 12 & 14
Studio Sessions
June 17, July 10 & 17
Giacomo Puccini Tosca
June 26 & 28
NEW
Bock/Harnick/Stein Fiddler on the Roof
July 23, 25, 26 & 27
(AS) You are to paint — and live — The thing you call holy.
(GO) I just want to get out where there is space and breath —
(AS+GO) That thing you call holy.
(GO) My love to you, Little Boy.
(AS) A black cross against a blue sky —
GO) My love to you, Little Boy.
(AS) Georgia.
That will be my final Thought and word.
(GO) What is here is very right.
(AS) Goodnight, Georgia O’Keeffe.
(GO) It is really terribly right.
The High Priestess of the Desert (Orchestral Interlude #2)
(GO) Darling: it is so long and I do not write you.
Now you must realize I am old enough so that people I have called friends have died — but my dogs are here.
Friends — maybe the best — and very beautiful too. Maybe the man who gave me the dogs is my friend. Is the man who brings me a load of wood my friend — I give him a loaf of bread I’ve made because I know the bread is good. Is my framer my friend? He has been a great help to me for many years.
The people I visited when New York broke me down were certainly friends.
I have a new woman here to take care of me. She may not stay. The term “friend” is an odd word. Goodnight, my dearest. I am sleepy and a little cold.
Sunset
(GO) Tonight I walked into the sunset. The whole sky — was just blazing — and grey blue clouds were riding all through the holiness of it — and the whole thing lit up with flashes of lightning.
I walked out past the last house — past the locust tree — and sat on a fence for a long time — looking — you see there was nothing but sky and flat prairie land — land that seems more like ocean than anything else I know.
It is absurd the way I love this country. And the SKY — my dearest — you have never seen SKY —
It is wonderful.
Text Credits:
Alfred Stieglitz/Georgia O’Keeffe Archive, Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Text excerpts from the letter by Georgia O’Keeffe to Alfred Stieglitz, dated June 13, 1929 (c) 2011 Yale University. Used and reprinted by permission of the Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library. All rights reserved.
Alfred Stieglitz/Georgia O’Keeffe Archive, Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Text excerpts from the letter by Georgia O’Keeffe to Alfred Stieglitz, dated June 14, 1918 (c) 2011 Yale University. Used and reprinted by permission of the Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library. All rights reserved.
Production Credits: Projection Design, Wendall K. Harrington • Projections Programming by Paul Vershbow • Text Animation by David Biedny • Research by Susan Hormuth and Mary Recine • Typography by Bo G. Eriksson
This program would not have been possible without the extraordinary archival resources and generous cooperation of the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum and the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
Text excerpts from the letters by Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz used and reprinted by permission of the Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library. All rights reserved.
The May Festival Chorus is endowed by the Betsy & Alex C. Young Chair
MAY FESTIVAL YOUTH CHORUS, Jason Alexander Holmes, director CINCINNATI SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, Cristian Măcelaru, Music Director Designate
The following is accompanied by a film provided by National Geographic. The audience is kindly asked to hold applause until the end of this first half set.
Hazel Dickens Pretty Bird (1925–2011) arr. Kittel
George Frideric “Care Selve” from Atalanta HANDEL (1685–1759)
Nico MUHLY Endless Space (b. 1981)
Marie-Joseph “Baïlèro” from Chants d’auvergne Canteloube de MALARET (1879–1957)
Maria SCHNEIDER “Our Finch Feeder” from Winter Morning Walks (b. 1960)
Ted Kooser, poet
Tonight’s concert is sponsored by Christy and Terry Horan
The appearance of Renée Fleming in this evening’s performance is generously sponsored by Barbara Ann Feldmann.
The 2025 May Festival is presented by Fort Washington Investment Advisors.
The 2025 May Festival is sponsored by Chavez Properties.
The appearance of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra is generously supported by the Louise Dieterle Nippert Musical Arts Fund of the Greenacres Foundation.
Tonight’s concert will last approximately 110 minutes.
The appearance of Robert Moody in this evening’s performance is sponsored by Poul D. and JoAnne Pedersen.
This evening’s pre-concert talk is sponsored by Drs. William Hurford and Lesley Gilbertson
This evening’s lobby entertainment is made possible in part by a generous endowment gift from Mary and Joe Stern. Steinway Pianos, courtesy of Willis Music, is the official piano of the May Festival.
BJÖRK All is Full of Love (b. 1965) arr. Ek
Heitor VILLA-LOBOS “Epílogo” from Floresta do Amazonas (1887–1959) orch. Rocha
Howard SHORE “Twilight and Shadow” from The Lord of the Rings (b. 1946)
Kevin PUTS Evening (b. 1972)
Curtis GREEN Red Mountains Sometimes Cry
Burt BACHARACH What the World Needs Now (b. 1928) arr. David
INTERMISSION
Entr’acte: Jackson Browne “Before the Deluge” (recording) Arrangement: Caroline Shaw, with Rhiannon Giddens, Alison Krauss, Renée Fleming & Yannick Nézet-Séguin, piano
Wolfgang Amadeus “Laudate Dominum” from Vesperae solennes de confessore, K. 339 MOZART (1756–1791)
Giuseppe VERDI “Brindisi, Libiamo” from Act I of La traviata (Drinking Song) (1813–1901)
Giacomo PUCCINI “O mio babbino caro” from Gianni Schicchi (1858–1924)
Sir Hubert PARRY Blest Pair of Sirens (1848–1918)
Richard RODGERS “You’ll Never Walk Alone” from Carousel (1902–1979)
Oscar Hammerstein, lyricist arr. Mathes
Encore:
George Frideric HANDEL “Hallelujah” from Messiah (1685–1759)
Voice of Nature: The Anthropocene
When I was 14, the film Soylent Green was released, a sci-fi thriller about a dystopian future of worldwide pollution, dying oceans, depleted resources and rampant starvation. The story was set in the year 2022.
The movie has faded from memory, but one scene left a profound impression. An aged researcher, unable to go on, has chosen assisted suicide at a government clinic. To ease his last moments of life, he is shown videos of a world that no longer exists: flowers and savannahs, flocks and herds, unpolluted skies and waters, all set to a soundtrack of classical music by Tchaikovsky, Beethoven and Grieg.
This scene captured my imagination in a terrifying way. The impact increased when I later learned that the actor playing the researcher, Edward G. Robinson, was terminally ill at the time it was filmed.
Fast forward to the pandemic. After more than two decades of constant touring, usually to urban cultural centers, performances abruptly ceased, and I suddenly found myself at home. I sought comfort in long walks outside near my house. I needed this time outdoors to maintain my emotional equilibrium, and I was reminded that nature would always be my touchstone. At the same time, the news about climate change grew more alarming: the extinction of animals we took for granted when we were children, the knowledge that white rhinos had disappeared from the wild, and daily reports of heat,
fires and flooding. I realized that the crisis we had been warned of for so long had arrived.
I thought of the great legacy of song literature that I love, when Romantic-era poets and composers reveled in imagery of nature, finding reflections of human experience in the environment. I decided to record some of this music, and to juxtapose these classics with the voices of living composers, addressing our current, troubled relationship with the natural world.
The result, in collaboration with my friend Yannick Nézet-Séguin, was the album Voice of Nature: the Anthropocene. When it received the 2023 Grammy Award for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album, I was thrilled, and I had the idea to tour music addressing this theme of nature as both our inspiration and our victim.
I was incredibly fortunate to connect with the imaginative, dedicated leadership at the National Geographic Society, the global nonprofit committed to exploring, illuminating and protecting the wonder of our world. It has been so exciting to work with this universally respected, landmark institution. I am deeply grateful for the help of President and Chief Operating Officer Michael Ulica, Chief Executive Officer Jill Tiefenthaler and Producer/Editor Sam Deleon, whose expertise and vision have been instrumental in creating the video you will see in the first half of tonight’s program.
Thankfully, the stunning natural world depicted in this film still exists, unlike that movie scene so upsetting to my younger self. In blending these beautiful images with music, my hope is, in some small way, to rekindle your appreciation of nature, and encourage any efforts you can make to protect the planet we share.
George Frideric Handel: “Care Selve” from Atalanta
Care selve, ombre beate, vengo in traccia del mio cor!
Beloved forests, joyous shadows: I come in search of my heart.
Nico Muhly, text by Thomas Traherne, Robinson Meyer: “Endless Space”
One of the great things about Earth as an image is that… it’s too much.
It helps me to think about how we share the planet, and the fact that it’s always half day and it’s always half night.
Your midnight is someone else’s moon.
Prompted to seek my Bliss above the Skies, How often did I lift mine Eyes beyond the Spheres! Dame Nature told me there was endless Space
Within my Soul; I spy’d its very face: Sure it not for nought appears. What is there which a Man may see Beyond the Spheres? Felicity.
Whether the emergencies of the coming century Arrive in the form of fires, or floods, or plagues that rise invisibly from the ground, They’re likely to become more and more extreme and less and less familiar. Even in its quietest places, the world will become newly hostile. No empty Space: it is all full of Sight. All Soul and Life, an Eye most bright, All Light and Love, Which doth at once all things possess and give, Heaven and Earth, and All that therein live; It rests as quiet, and doth move; Eternal is, yet Time includes; A scene above all Interludes.
Marie-Joseph Canteloube de Malaret: “Baïlèro” from Chants d’auvergne
Pastré, dè dèlaï l’aïo a gaïré dè boun ten, dio lou baïlèro lèrô. È n’aï pas gaïré, è dio, tu baïlèro lèrô.
Shepherd across the river, you don’t seem afraid, Sing baïlèro lèrô. Indeed, I’m not, And you, too, can sing baïlèro.
Pastré, couçi foraï, èn obal io lou bèl rîou dio lou baïlèro lèrô. Espèromè, tè, baô çirca, baïlèro lèrô.
Shepherd, the water divides us, and I can’t cross it, Sing baïlèro lèrô, Then I’ll come down and find you, Sing baïlèro lèrô.
Maria Schneider, poem by Ted Kooser: “Our Finch Feeder” from Winter Morning Walks
Our finch feeder, full of thistle seed, oily and black as ammunition, swings wildly in the wind and the finches in olive drab like little commandos cling to the perches, cling to the perches, six birds at a time, ignoring the difficult ride.
Björk: “All is Full of Love”
You’ll be given love, you’ll be taken care of You’ll be given love, you have to trust it
Maybe not from the sources You have poured yours, Maybe not from the directions You are staring at Twist your head around, It’s all around you
All is full of love
All around you
All is full of love, You just ain’t receiving… your phone is off the hook… your doors are all shut…
Believe in nature… All is full of love
Heitor Villa-Lobos: “Epílogo” from Floresta do Amazonas
Ah!
Please turn page quietly
Howard Shore: “Twilight and Shadow” from The Lord of the Rings
Ngil nin el nel
Naun el kree ú a mae
ú el me Síli mae
nin fi li na lo me le ne Menel aduial
dúr i fuin i vah mae
I saw a star rise high in the evening sky, it hung like a jewel, softly shining.
An i lu na cu
An i naun lui
A na naun annen
annen ne perónen A
For what might have been, for what never was.
For a life long lived, for a love half given.
Kevin Puts, poem by Dorianne Laux: “Evening”
Moonlight pours down without mercy, no matter how many have perished beneath the trees. The river rolls on. There will always be silence, no matter how long someone has wept against the side of a house, bare forearms pressed to the shingles. Everything ends. Even pain, even sorrow. The swans drift on. Reeds bear the weight of their feathery heads. Pebbles grow smaller, smoother beneath night’s rough currents. We walk long distances, carting our bags, our packages. Burdens or gifts. We know the land is disappearing beneath the sea, islands swallowed like prehistoric fish. We know we are doomed, done for, damned, and still the light reaches us, falls on our shoulders even now, even here where the moon is hidden from us, even though the stars are so far away.
Curtis Green, poem by Pearce Green: “Red Mountains Sometimes Cry”
Roaring hills, a broken sight
Frozen deserts dream between time
And could the floods not sleep with fire
And our tears, put out the light?
Red mountains sometimes cry
Birds, like rain, the freckled sky Forests churn, our cities going dry
Seasons now confuse the world
And the flames’ wild curls confuse the night
Red mountains sometimes cry
Burt Bacharach, lyrics by Hal David: “What the World Needs Now”
What the world needs now is love, sweet love, It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of. What the world needs now is love, sweet love, No, not just for some, but for ev’ry one.
Lord, we don’t need another mountain, There are mountains and hillsides enough to climb, There are oceans and rivers enough to cross, Enough to last ‘til the end of time
What the world needs now is love, sweet love, It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of. What the world needs now is love, sweet love, No, not just for some, but for ev’ry one.
Lord, we don’t need another meadow, There are cornfields and wheatfields enough to grow,
There are sunbeams and moonbeams enough to shine,
Oh listen, Lord, if you want to know
What the world needs now is love, sweet love, It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of. What the world needs now is love, sweet love, No, not just for some, but for ev’ry one.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: “Laudate Dominum” from Vesperae solennes de confessore, K. 339
Laudate Dominum omnes gentes; laudate eum, omnes populi.
Praise the Lord, all nations; Praise Him, all people.
Quoniam confirmata est super nos misericordia ejus, et veritas Domini manet in aeternum.
For His loving kindness has been bestowed upon us, and the truth of the Lord endures for eternity.
Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto. Sicut erat in principio, et nunc et semper, et in saecula saeculorum. Amen.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, Forever and ever. Amen.
—Psalm 117
Giuseppe Verdi: “Brindisi, Libiam,” from Act I of La traviata
Libiamo, libiamo ne’ lieti calici, che la bellezza infiora; e la fuggevol, fuggevol ora s’inebriì a voluttà. Libiam ne’ dolci fremiti che suscita l’amore, poichè quell’occhio al core onnipotente va. Libiamo, amore, amore fra i calici più caldi baci avrà.
Let us drink from the goblets of joy, adorned with beauty, and the fleeting hour shall be adorned with pleasure.
Let us drink to the secret raptures which love excited, for this eye reigns supreme in my heart…
Let us drink, for with wine Love will enjoy yet more passionate kisses.
Ah! libiam, amor fra’ calici più caldi baci avrà.
Let us drink, for with wine Love will enjoy yet more passionate kisses.
Tra voi, tra voi saprò dividere il tempo mio giocondo; tutto è follia, follia nel mondo ciò che non è piacer.
Godiam, fugace e rapido è il gaudio dell’amore, è un fior, che nasce e muore, nè più si può goder.
Godiam!
c’invita, c’invita un fervido accento lusinghier. With you I can spend the time with delight. In life everything is folly which does not bring pleasure.
Let us be happy, fleeting and rapid is the delight of love; it is a flower which blooms and dies, which can no longer be enjoyed.
Let us be happy!
Fervent and enticing words summon us.
Ah! godiamo! La tazza, la tazza e il cantico, la notte abbella e il riso, in questo, in questo paradiso ne scopra il nuovo dì.
Be happy…wine and song and laughter beautify the night; let the new day find us in this paradise.
La vita è nel tripudio quando non s’ami ancora.
Life is nothing but pleasure, as long as one is not in love.
Nol dite a chi l’ignora.
Don’t say that to one who does not know it.
È il mio destin così…
That is my fate…
Ah! godiamo! La tazza, la tazza e il cantico, la notte abbella e il riso, in questo, in questo paradiso ne scopra il nuovo dì.
Be happy…wine and song and laughter beautify the night; let the new day find us in this paradise.
Giacomo Puccini: “O mio babbino caro” from Gianni Schicchi
O mio babbino caro, mi piace, è bello, bello; vo’ andare in Porta Rossa a comperar l’anello!
Oh, my dear papa, I like him, he’s handsome; I want to go to Porta Rossa to buy the ring!
Sì, sì, ci voglio andare!
E se l’amassi indarno, andrei sul Ponte Vecchio, ma per buttarmi in Arno!
Yes, yes, I want to go! And if it’s useless to love him, I’ll go to the Ponte Vecchio and throw myself into the Arno!
Mi struggo e mi tormento! O Dio, vorrei morir! Babbo, pietà, pietà!
I am pining, I am tortured! O God, I could die! Papa, have pity, have pity!
Sir Hubert Parry, text from “At a Solemn Music” by John Milton: Blest Pair of Sirens
Blest pair of Sirens, pledges of Heav’n’s joy, Sphere-born harmonious sisters, Voice and Verse, Wed your divine sounds, and mixed pow’r employ, Dead things with inbreathed sense able to pierce; And to our high-raised phantasy present
That undisturbed song of pure content, Aye sung before the sapphire-coloured throne
To Him that sits thereon, With saintly shout, and solemn jubilee; Where the bright Seraphim in burning row, Their loud, uplifted angel-trumpets blow, And the Cherubic host in thousand quires, Touch their immortal harps of golden wires, With those just Spirits that wear victorious palms, Hymns devout and holy psalms
Singing everlastingly:
That we on earth with undiscording voice
May rightly answer that melodious noise; As once we did, till disproportioned sin
Jarred against nature’s chime, and with harsh din
Broke the fair music that all creatures made
To their great Lord, whose love their motion swayed In perfect diapason, whilst they stood In first obedience, and their state of good.
O may we soon again renew that song, And keep in tune with Heav’n, till God ere long
To His celestial concert us unite, To live with Him, and sing in endless morn of light.
Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II: “You’ll Never Walk Alone” from Carousel
When you walk through a storm hold your head up high, and don’t be afraid of the dark.
At the end of the storm is a golden sky and the sweet silver song of a lark.
Walk on through the wind, walk on through the rain, though your dreams be tossed and blown.
Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart and you’ll never walk alone, You’ll never walk alone.
ENCORE
George Frideric Handel: “Hallelujah” from Messiah
Hallelujah, for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth.
—Revelation 19:6
The Kingdom of this world is become the Kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever.
King of Kings, and Lord of Lords.
—Revelation 11:15
—Revelation 19:16
CINCINNATI MUSICAL FESTIVAL ASSOCIATION
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Officers
Michael Curran, Chair
Eric Combs, Vice-Chair
René McPhedran, Treasurer
Teresa Ernst, Secretary
Christy Horan, Immediate Past Chair
Directors
Drew Abbott
Patricia Borger
David Boyles
William Henry Caldwell
Chris Canarie
Kelly Craver
Barbara Feldmann
Lesley Gilbertson
Bryan Hafertepe
J. Mark Holcomb
William Hurford
Isaiah Hyman, Jr.*
Anthony Lazzeri
Robert K. Lomax
Andrew Nordquist
Manisha Patel
Kathleen Rambo
Katy Sheehan
Eileen Stanisic
*deceased
Directors Emeriti
Susan S. Laffoon
Geraldine B. Warner
Honorary Directors
Steven Monder
Robert Porco
Advisory Committee (Past Chairs)
Rhoda A. Brooks
Melanie M. Chavez
Eric K. Combs
Nancy Heffner Donovan
Kelley J. Downing
Gregory L. Ebel
Jerold A. Fink
J. Mark Holcomb
Christy Horan
Susan S. Laffoon
Sherie Lynch Marek
Charles S. Mechem
Thomas L. Neyer, Jr.
Charles Powers
Carole Tyler Rigaud
J. Shane Starkey
Robert E. Stautberg
Timothy E. Stautberg
Gust Totlis
Ronald H. Yocum
Cincinnati Musical Festival Association Mission, Vision and Values
MISSION We exist to engage, energize and connect our community with the highest quality performances of great choral music.
VISION We are the most exciting force in the choral world. We are a leader and catalyst in the production, presentation and promotion of choral activities in our region and around the globe.
VALUES We believe in fostering choral music of the highest artistic standards; preserving the history, enhancing the present and embracing the future of choral music; cultivating diverse audiences, choirs and singers who are passionate about choral music; operating in a financially sound manner.
2025 ARTSWAVE PARTNERS
The May Festival acknowledges the following Partner Companies, Foundations and their employees who generously participate in the Annual ArtsWave Community Campaign at the $100,000+ level. Your support helps make our community vibrant and connects people all across our region through the arts. Thank you! (includes in-kind support)
$1 million to $1,999,999
Fifth Third Bank and Fifth Third Foundation
$500,000 to $999,999
GE Aerospace
$250,000 to 499,999
altafiber
Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center
The Cincinnati Insurance Companies
Great American Insurance Group
The H.B., E.W. and F.R. Luther Charitable Foundation, Fifth Third Bank, N.A., Trustee
Western & Southern Financial Group
$100,000–$299,999
Cincinnati Open
Cincinnati Reds
Dinsmore & Shohl LLP
Duke Energy
The E.W. Scripps Company and Scripps Howard Foundation
The Enquirer | Cincinnati.com
Greater Cincinnati Foundation
The Kroger Co.
Messer Construction Co.
National Endowment for the Arts
OUR SINCERE APPRECIATION TO THE FOLLOWING FOUNDATIONS FOR THEIR GENEROUS SUPPORT
The Eleanora C. U. Alms Trust T Tr . lea U aC El
Cincinnati International Wine Festival e F al Festiva te Win es n a In ncinnati cinna a rnatio atiInternationa
The Corbett Foundation dation o unda C t bett F hCbFd
The Thomas J. Emery Memorial J. E mas Eme
TheheTThom ery Mem T ria .
The Caro Ha Jr tio
ThClAd ndat Fo n A n and
The Carol Ann and Ralph V. Haile, Jr. Foundation d Ra phV
Beatrice Aldrink Idema Foundation nkIde k Foundat a Found F dt o de kIdemaFoundation o on n t
ce Ald ricatr B A d i
The Andrew Jergens Foundation Foundat ge at ns da w Je w The An
T F. R. Lu . R dF . W. and E W H e B
The H. B., E. W. and F. R. Luther Charitable Foundation Luthe uth u e F rit C taabble datioon ion
Matinée Musicale e Mu M in usicale sicale a icale
Ma M
The Motch Family Foundation Mot Motch Fa n y amily Foun Fo i t The M
Louise Dieterle Nippert Musical Arts Fund of the Lo N Dieterl e Dieterle se e und o rppe nd ArtsFundo ippertMusi Arts Fund ippert Mus o he of t ise ete sical A
Greenacres Foundation e Greee enacr on nacres es Foun Gre undati
Ladislas & Vilma Segoe Foundation da lma Fo n slas sla ion Fo goe ma S Vilm
Louise Taft Semple Foundation undation
L Founda
LouiseT Lo se ouise n aft Fou pl
The Wohlgemuth Herschede Foundation undation he Wo e W emuth Herschede Fo F uth Hersc th n T
ANNUAL FUND
THANK YOU to the following donors for sharing their love of choral music, and the power of the May Festival, with our community, and for making our region a better, more vibrant, exciting and inspiring place to live.
This list represents donations of $50 or more received between January 1, 2023, and December 31, 2024. Gifts received after this date will be recognized in future May Festival listings. To request a change to your listing, please reach out to Cat Dixon, Director of Advancement & Engagement at cdixon@mayfestival.com or 513.744.3321.
CHORUS LEVEL
Gifts of $10,000 and above
Eleanora C. U. Alms Trust, Fifth Third Bank, Trustee ArtsWave
BAI Foundation
Ms. Henrietta Barlag
Trish and Rick Bryan
The Thomas W. Busse Charitable Trust
The Carol Ann and Ralph V. Haile, Jr. Foundation
Chavez Properties
The Corbett May Festival Fund
The Thomas J. Emery Memorial*
Barbara Ann Feldmann
Babs and Tom Ferrell
Fort Washington Investment Advisors
Christy and Terry Horan
Scott and Carol Kosarko
Louise Dieterle Nippert Musical Arts Fund of the Greenacres Foundation
The H.B., E.W. and F. R. Luther Charitable Foundation
Ohio Arts Council
Drs. Manisha Patel and Michael Curran
Louise Taft Semple Foundation
Irwin and Melinda Simon
Ginger Warner
The Wohlgemuth Herschede Foundation
ENSEMBLE LEVEL
Gifts of $7,500–$9,999
Patrons
Robert A. Atterton
John G. Avril Family Fund
Gifts of $5,000–$7,499
Anonymous
The Andrew Jergens Foundation
David and Elaine Billmire
Chris and Beth Canarie
Melanie Chavez
Rozy Park and Chris Dendy
Sherry and Mark Holcomb
The Ladislas & Vilma Segoe Family Foundation
Sherie Lynch Marek
Lois and Mel Nizny, MD
Mr. Michael E. Phillips
Kathy and Craig Rambo
CHORALE LEVEL
Gifts of $4,000–$4,999
Patrons
Cincinnati International Wine Festival
Mary and Jack Gimpel
Gifts of $2,500–$3,999
Dr. Rob and Ashley Altenau Family
Associated Premium Corporation
The Board of Directors of the Cincinnati Boychoir
Eric and Jane Combs
Diana T. Dwight
Ann Ellison
Mr. and Mrs. Robert Ernst
Drs. William Hurford and Lesley Gilbertson
Linda Busken and Andrew MacAoidh Jergens
Mrs. Karolyn L. Johnsen
Susan Laffoon
Ronald C. Lamping
Laskey Charitable Fund
Poul D. and JoAnne Pedersen
Tom and Theresa Merrill
David and Vicky Motch
Motch Family Foundation
Mr. and Mrs. Slobodan Stanisic
Margaret and Michael Valentine
Jeannine and John C. Winkelmann, MD
SOLOIST LEVEL
Gifts of $2,000–$2,499
Patrons
Corbett Foundation
Karen and David Huelsman
Susan J. Lauf
Whitney and Phillip Long Matinée Musicale Club
Dr. and Mrs. G. James Sammarco
Katherine and Tim Stautberg
Nydia C. Tranter
Gifts of $1,000–$1,999
Anonymous
Jeff and Keiko Alexander
Milt and Berdie Blersch
Mark and Marie Boyle
Prof. William Henry Caldwell
Helen H. Chatfield
Ashley and Barbara Ford
Drew Gores and George Warrington
Ms. Kathleen M. Grote
Isaiah Hyman
Tom and Sue Kirkpatrick
Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Klinedinst III
Mr. Anthony & Dr. Kimberly Lazzeri
Ms. René McPhedran
Mrs. Thomas L. Neyer
Ellen Rieveschl
Beth Roberts
Dianne and J. David Rosenberg*
The Schieve Family
The Schlachter Family Fund*
Bill and Lee Steenken
Brett Stover
Steven R. Sunderman and Mark C. Adams
Jane A. Walker
Rosanne Wetzel
Joe White
Shelby O. Wood
Barry Zaslow
DUO LEVEL
Gifts of $750–$999
Patrons
Pete and Melanie Boylan
Carol C. Cole
Nancy and Steve Donovan
Charles and Barbara Glueck
Hixson Architecture
Engineering Interiors
David L. Martin
Mr. and Mrs. George Thomas
Rev. Anne Warrington Wilson
Gifts of $500–$749
Anonymous (1)
Gerard Baillely
Neil K. Bortz
Mr. David R. Boyles and Mr. David Castillo
Rhoda and John Brooks
William L. Budde, PhD
Dr. Mark Carney and Mrs. Janet Greer-Carney
Michael L. Cioffi and Rachael Rowe
Mark Dauner
Steven and Donna Dauterman
Cat and Stan Dixon
Edy and David Dreith
Reed and Greg Ebel
First Baptist Church of Dayton
Dr. & Mrs. Michael J. Gelfand
Margaret E. Hagar
Jim and Sally Harper
Mike & MaryBeth Hockenberry
Kevin Lehay and Joyce Steiner
Calvin and Pat Linnemann
Thomas J. and Adele G. Lippert*
Carmie Maloney
Fred Moore
Christian and Rose Naberhaus
John T. Osterman
Judge Mark and Sue Ann Painter
Irene and Daniel P. Randolph Family
James P. and Kathleen A. Schubert
Shackson Charitable Fund
Dr. Matthew Swanson
Michael and Evelyn Wagner
Katherine Wen & Ben Li
Robin and Larry Wiley
TRIO LEVEL
Gifts of $400–$499
Patrons
David Brashear
Anita Marie Greer and William Gatian
Charles and Melissa Haas
Mr. and Mrs. Robert Heidenrich
Spence Ingerson
David Mill and Kate York
Dr. Cora Ogle
Ms. Barbara Seiver
Weiler Family Foundation
Gifts of $300–$399
Nate and Greta Bachhuber
Helene Sullivan Bentley
Bryan Corbett
Mary Beth Hamburger
Emily Hodges
Mr. Henry Huber
Randy and Jan Johnson
Ian and Nicholle Kasman
Mr. and Mrs. John Klahm
Kathleen B. and Michael C. Krug*
Mr. and Mrs. Robert Lomax
Dr. Janet P. McDaniel
Francis Lee Meyer
Robert and Cynthia Muhlhauser
Alice Perlman
Year after year, ever since its founding, the May Festival presents the greatest choral music ever written. You may play a part in this unique tradition and help to ensure our mission — for the next 150 years — by including the May Festival in your estate plans. Supporters and friends who have made a gift to the May Festival through their estate plans are eligible to join The Festival Society. If you are already a member, we thank you; if not, we hope you’ll consider taking this step. You will assure that the May Festival continues to maintain its reputation for excellence as the “Best Classical Music Festival in the U.S. and Canada” (BBC Music Magazine, May 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024).
For more information about including the May Festival in your estate plans, please contact Cat Dixon, Director of Advancement & Engagement, at 513.744.3321. If you have already remembered the May Festival with a planned gift, please let us know so we can recognize you as you wish.
SOMEONE
is sitting in the shade today because SOMEONE planted a tree a long time ago.
—Warren Buffett
Christine Roediger
Carol J. Schroeder
John M. Shepherd
Alice Skirtz
Marian Stapleton
Mr. and Mrs. Rodney Stucky
Karen Wiltsie
QUARTET LEVEL
Gifts of $200–$299
Patrons
Anonymous (1)
Avi and Karen Schulman-Bear
Rev. and Mrs. Milton T. Berner
Thomas and Sondra Copanas
Stephen and Cynthia DeHoff
Robert DiMartino and Drew Abbott
Dale & Kathy Elifrits
Barbara Erskine
Barbara Esposito-Ilacqua
Sterling Finkbine
Turney Berry and Kendra Foster
Karl and Connie Graham
Jeff and Carolyn Hill
Mr. Shaoming Huang and Ms. Xiaolan Cui
Paul and Mary Jenks
Dr. and Mrs. Scott Jolson
Robert and Anne Judd
Mary Judge
Diana & Tim Kilfoil
Mel and John Kuempel
Robert and Judith C. LaChance
Mitchel and Carol Livingston
Catherine McGraw
David and Martha Millett
Mr. and Mrs. H. Scott Nesbitt
Mr. Terry Parsons
Stephen Phillips
Drs. Michael Privitera and Marcia Kaplan
Brian T. Reilly
Steven and Emily Riedell
Carole and Edwin Rigaud
Mr. and Mrs. Michael T. Schueler
David and Judy Skiff
Mrs. Cynthia M. Starr
Mr. and Mrs. Richard F. Stradling
Mary Ann and Bill Taylor
David and Christine Thornbury
Dean and Mary Watkins
Mark and Jennifer Weaver
Mr. Steven Wilkinson
Ronna and James Willis
Jeff and Kelly Woodward
John M. Yacher
Gifts of $100–$199
Anonymous (6)
Drs. Frank and Mary Albers
Jane and Francis Acquaviva
Leon and Jeni Barton
Fred Berger
Dr. Allen W. Bernard
Ms. Laurie Boisclair
Rev. James A. Bramlage
Mr. Scott Brody
Mrs. Barb Brown
Dr. Ralph P. Brown
Donald and Kathleen Field Burns
Phillip Crabtree
Ronda Deel
Mr. and Mrs. William O. DeWitt, Jr.
Ms. Jennifer Drydyk
Darin Dugan
Shelly and Steven Goldstein
Dan and Sally Gray
Kristina Groth
J. Andrew & Martha Hadley
Carl and Barbara Harcourt
Dr. and Mrs. Morton Harshman
Alice and John Hehman
The May Festival is grateful to the following donors whose endowed gifts gifts provide important sponsorship support every year.
Robert A. Atterton
Joan P. and Oliver L. Baily Fund
Mr. and Mrs. LeRoy R. Brooks
Dr. and Mrs. Morton Harshman
Dr. Thomas Lesher
Mr. and Mrs. S. Charles Straus
Mary and Joe Stern
The Heidrich Family
Bill and Cathy Herring
Lauren and Richard Hess
HORAN Capital Advisors
Dr. and Mrs. Nelson Horseman
Kim P. Icsman
Ms. Maite Iraolagoita
Jeanine Jason
Robert Jenkins
Mr. and Mrs. Christopher Kanney
Michael and Rian Keller
Jerry N. Kirby, M.D.
The Koressel Family
The Kroger Company
Mr. & Mrs. Lawrence H. Kyte, Jr.
Russell Lascelles and Janet Schultz
Ms. Megan Lawson
Jennifer Leone
Elaine and Lowell Lustig
John E. Mahn
Ms. Audrey Markovich
Matt Matson
Mr. Randolph McAusland
William McConnell
Jim and Hope Metzger
Lynn Miller
Marilyn and Gary Mitchner
Mt. Auburn Literary Club
James Muhlenkamp
Dr. and Mrs. Charles M. Myer III
Mrs. Norita D. Aplin and Mr. Stanley H. Ragle
Laurie Roche
Holly Scheper
Saira Shahani
Mr. Eli Shupe and Toby Ruben
Linda L. Siekmann
Elizabeth A. Snyder
Sue and Andrew Speno
Mr. Roger O. Stafford
Ellen and Laurence Stillpass
Sam and Dottie Stover
Mr. Dale Swisher
Janet G. Todd
Mr. and Mrs. Frederick D. Warren
Jim and George Ann Wesner
Paul and Tommy Wessendarp
Stephen and Amy Whitlatch
SHAREHOLDER LEVEL
Gifts of $75–$99
Patrons
Robert and Janet Banks
Lynn and Jim Denton
William and Joan Hill
Joseph and Elanor Hingtgen
Mrs. Amy Perry
Terry and Burr Robinson
Total Quality Logistics
Dr. Steve and Rev. Kristie Stricker
Ms. Beth Troendly
Gifts of $50–$74
Anonymous (3)
Wendy Hart Beckman
Sarah Buller
Robert Burnett and Stacey Masneri
Elizabeth Coley
Michael D. and Carolyn Camillo Eagen
Mrs. Caryl S. C. Fullman
Georgia Gellenbeck
Max and Anna Gise
Robert and Christine Graeter
Dr. Jack and Barbara Hahn
Ms. Margaret A. Hilvert
Emily and Barry Hindin
Daniel J. Hoffheimer
James N. Kaya and Ms. Debra Grauel
Florence Koetters
Mr. Joel Konzen
M. Drue Lehmann
Kay M. Luccasen
Dr. and Mrs. John Maier
David Mason
Mr. Christopher Mystkowski
James Norton
Darice Palmier
Anne M. Pohl
Bav and Nedi Rivera
Laura Sadler-Haperink
Edward V. Schoelwer
Mr. and Mrs. Richard R. Sprigg
Shirley and Phil Stikeleather
Mark Wert
Debbie and Dick Westheimer
* Denotes contributions received via the Greater Cincinnati Foundation
The May Festival is grateful to the following donors whose contributions to the Music Makers of Tomorrow Fund ensure that students will be able to attend the May Festival at no charge—every concert, every year.
Anonymous (1)
Elisabeth Anger
Nate and Greta Bachhuber
Mrs. Maxine Berkman
David and Elaine Billmire
Milt and Berdie Blersch
Dr. Ralph P. Brown
Chris and Beth Canarie Carol C. Cole
Ms. Lisa Collins Mark Dauner
Michael D. and Carolyn Camillo Eagen
Ann Ellison
Mr. Frank Espohl
Shelley and Steven Goldstein
Karl and Connie Graham
Ms. Kathleen M. Grote
Kristina Groth
Charles and Melissa Haas
Dr. Jack and Barbara Hahn
Mary Beth Hamburger
Ms. Jane F. Hansley
Carl and Barbara Harcourt
Mr. and Mrs. Robert R. Heidenreich
Ms. Margaret A. Hilvert
Emily and Barry Hindin
MaryBeth Hockenberry
Emily Hodges
Christy and Terry Horan
HORAN Capital Advisors
Dr. and Mrs. Nelson Horseman
Mr. Henry Huber
Isaiah Hyman
Ms. Maite Iraolagoitia
Robert Jenkins
Paul and Mary Jenks
Mr. and Mrs. Andrew M. Jergens
Mrs. Karolyn L. Johnsen
Dr. and Mrs. Scott Jolson
Mary Judge
Ms. Linda Kamperman
Mr. and Mrs. Christopher Kanney
Ian and Nicholette Kasman
Mr. and Mrs. John Klahm
Scott and Carol Kosarko
Kathleen B. and Michael C. Krug
Susan Laffoon
Janet & Gary Langhorst
Michelle Lewandowski
Ms. Linda Lin
Nancy and Jonathan Lippincott
Elaine and Lowell Lustig
Dr. and Mrs. John Maier
Kathy and Brad Mank
Sherie Lynch Marek
David L. Martin
The Family of Marie F. Martin
The Estate of Mary Ann Meanwell
Leslie & Russ Metheney
Mrs. Frances Lee Meyer
David Mill and Kate York
Lynn Miller
Patty Misrach
Linda Mueller
James Muhlenkamp
Lois and Mel Nizny, MD
James Norton
Alan and Tamar Oestreich
Mr. and Mrs. John T. Osterman
Mr. Terry Parsons
Dr. Manisha Patel and Dr. Michael Curran
Poul D. and JoAnne Pedersen
Mrs. Amy Perry Anne M. Pohl
PNC Bank Foundation
Drs. Michael Privitera and Marcia Kaplan
Kathy and Craig Rambo
Brian T. Reilly
Steven and Emily Riedell
Ellen Rieveschl
Carole and Edwin Rigaud
Mrs. Barbara W. Robb
Ellen & Eugene Saenger, Jr.
The Schieve Family
Mr. James P. Schubert
Mrs. Elizabeth B. Schulenberg
Ms. Barbara Seiver
John M. Shepherd
Kenneth and Alice Skirtz
Smith-Dobbins Family
Mr. and Mrs. Richard F. Stradling
Steven R. Sunderman and Mark C. Adams
Dr. Matthew Swanson
Janet G. Todd Nydia C. Tranter
Ernest and Helen Waits
Jane A. Walker
Robin and Larry Wiley
Charles A. Wilkinson
John M. Yacher
Barry Zaslow
Want to see YOUR name here? Become a part of the May Festival’s future with a gift today! Make your contribution now by visiting mayfestival.com/give or scan the QR code.
To learn about all the ways you can support Cincinnati’s Chorus, visit mayfestival.com/options or contact Cat Dixon, Director of Advancement & Engagement, at 513.744.3321 or cdixon@mayfestival.com.
TRIBUTE GIFTS
The May Festival is honored to recognize the following individuals whose choral music work and legacy have inspired others to contribute to our community of singers between January 1, 2023 and April 1, 2025.
In honor of the Cincinnati Boychoir’s 60th Anniversary Connico, Bryan Hafertepe & Graham Hunter
In memory of R. Robert von Brüning
Karen and David Huelsman
In honor of Mary G. Budde
William L. Budde, Ph. D.
In memory of Ms. Janet Burnett
Robert Burnett and Stacey Masneri
In memory of Thelma Castrodale
Babs and Tom Ferrell
In memory of Leland M. Cole
Carol C. Cole
In honor of Cat Dixon
The May Festival Chorus
In honor of Edy Dreith
The May Festival Chorus
In honor of Sarah Farwell
The May Festival Chorus
In memory of Mary & Price Ferrell
Babs and Tom Ferrell
In memory of Mary Monahan Gimpel
Mr. Mark Kallick and Mr. David Moore
Susan Laffoon
Steven Sunderman and Mark Adams
Bill and Mary Ann Taylor
Shelby Wood
Sherie Lynch Marek
In honor of HBCU Choral Legends
Dr. William Henry Caldwell
In honor of Mark Hockenberry
Mike & Mary Beth Hockenberry
In memory of Robert Howes
Ms. Kathleen M. Grote
In memory of Mary ‘Molly’ H. Jansen
Mary Beth Hamburger
The Heidrich Family
In honor of Madi Kasman
Ian and Nicholette Kasman
In memory of Richard I. Lauf
Susan J. Lauf
In honor of Richard Lin
Anonymous
In memory of Elise Rose Metzger
Jim and Hope Metzger
In honor of Robert Porco
Emily Hodges
Robert Jenkins
Shackson Charitable Fund
Katherine and Tim Stautberg
Dr. Matthew Swanson
In memory of Cynthia Pearl Scanio
Emily Hodges
In memory of David R. Schieve
The Schieve Family
In memory of John Sullivan
Sarah Buller
Florence Koetters
In honor of Steven Sunderman
Melanie Chavez
Nancy & Steve Donovan
Reed and Greg Ebel Family Fund*
Mary and Jack Gimpel
Margaret E. Hagar
Sherry and Mark Holcomb
Christy and Terry Horan
Susan Laffoon
Sherie Lynch Marek
David Mill and Kate York
Dr. Cora Ogle
Mr. and Mrs. John T. Osterman
Katherine and Tim Stautberg
Brett Stover
Rosanne Wetzel
Wieler Family Foundation
Shelby Wood
In honor of Dr. Matthew Swanson
Mark and Marie Boyle
Dawn and Doug Bruestle
The May Festival Chorus
In honor of Rosanne Wetzel
Dawn and Doug Bruestle
Rozy Park and Christopher Dendy
WELCOME GROUPS!
Verdi Requiem, Friday, May 16 Mike and Melissa Huber Friends and Family
Chasing the Dawn, Sunday. May 18 Richard Gruber Friends and Family Voice of Nature, Saturday, May 24
Welcome and thank you to every audience member for supporting great music and the unique Cincinnati tradition that is the May Festival. Thank you especially to our subscribers. Whether it’s your first or your 50th Festival, your ongoing support makes these performances possible and enables us to engage and uplift the people of Greater Cincinnati through song.
List as of April 1, 2025 for subscribers of 10 years or more
If your name is inadvertently missing or listed incorrectly, please call us at 513.381.3300 or email contact@mayfestival.com.
50+ YEARS
Donald and Kathleen Burns
Debbie Bogenschutz
Steven and Shelley Goldstein
Ronald Lamping
Susan Laffoon
James and Sally Harper
Stan Ragle and Norita Aplin
Michael Battersby
Richard Wayman
Sally Lund
David and M. Elaine Billmire
Adele Lippert
25–49 YEARS
Louis Dauner and Geraldine Wu
Nancy McNeal
Poul D and JoAnne Pedersen
Walter Langsam
Christine Neyer
Carol Schroeder
Emily Hodges and Charles Spencer
Avi Bear and Karen Schulman-Bear
Carol Kruse
Alice Skirtz
Cincinnati Financial Corporation
Samuel and Dottie Stover
Stephen and Nancy Donovan
Mel Cohen
Jean Snyder
Frederick and Trish Bryan
Christopher and Beth Canarie
Frederick and Jo Anne Warren
Michael Cioffi and Rachael Rowe
Judith Martin
Michael Hirsch
Christine Adams
Geraldine and David Warner
W. Burton and Roselyn Lloyd
Karl and Constance Graham
William Klykylo and Dorothyann Feldis
Douglas and Susan Bierer
Anita Marie Greer and William Gatian
Henrietta Barlag
Gary and Marilyn Mitchner
Robert and Julia Jolson
Cora Ogle
Jason and Carol Ramler
Harold Eberenz
G. James and Ruthann Sammarco
James Thompson
John and Rhoda Brooks
Thomas and Dorothy Burdin
George Colombel
David and Virginia Motch
Kathleen Krug
The Castellini Foundation
Edward Givens
Khosrow and Julie Alamin
Tamar Oestreich
Brett Stover
Lon Mendelsohn
Jonathan and Nancy Lippincott
Thomas Ferrell
Irwin and Melinda Simon
Timothy and Katherine Stautberg
Daniel Epstein
Richard and Gail Stradling
Jack and Barbara Hahn
Donald and Judy Mills
Shelby Wood
William and Lee Steenken
Brad and Kathy Mank
Linda Ziegler
William and Joan Hill
Steven and Donna Dauterman
10–24 YEARS
Randy and Jan Johnson
Elizabeth Osterburg
David Martin
Norma Miller
Neil Bortz
Priscilla Prouty
Susan Lauf
Don and Judy Brown
John and Joanne Earls
Joseph Farrell
Robert and Marcia Togneri
John Ellmore
Thomas and Carolyn Griffin
Carol Kosarko
Barbara Feldmann
Jerome and Robin Galvin
Lynne & Elizabeth Curtiss
John Yacher
Harry and April Davidow
John and Mary Lund
James and Barbara Lambert
John and Jeannine Winkelmann
Alfonso and Mary Lopez
H. Drewry Gores and George Warrington
Milt and Berdie Blersch
Joseph Schwering and Diana Fleming
Melissa Cox
Rodney and Mary Stucky
Ivan Ivanov and Elena Ivanova
Randolph McAusland
Mark and Jennifer Weaver
C. and Kathy Elifrits
Thomas Klinedinst III and Lori Klinedinst
David and Karen Huelsman
Manisha Patel and Michael Curran
Dale and Roxanne Johnson
Gale Roberts
Justin and Lauren Peter
John and Alice Hehman
Melanie Chavez
Paule Asch
Jack and Svetlana Klette
Phillip and Barbara Hester
Charles Wilkinson
Stephen and Cynthia DeHoff
Marcia Hartsock
William and Dorothy Dean
Eric and Jane Combs
Diana Stoppiello
The May Festival, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Vocal Arts Ensemble operate under an administrative shared services agreement. By the consolidation of resources and expertise, this cooperative management effort benefits all organizations.
MAY FESTIVAL
Julianne Akins Smith Executive Director
Kathryn Zajac Albertson Supporting Chorus Manager
Cat Dixon Director of Advancement & Engagement
Elliot Draznin Development Manager
Edy Dreith Education Manager
Kelly Haney Interim Chorus Manager
Jason Alexander Holmes
Associate Director of Choruses & Youth Chorus Director
Kathleen Moran Chorus Librarian
Matthew Swanson Director of Choruses
SENIOR MANAGEMENT
TEAM
Robert McGrath President & CEO
John Clapp
Vice President of Orchestra & Production
Rich Freshwater
Vice President & Chief Financial Officer
Felecia Tchen Kanney Vice President of Marketing, Communications & Digital Media
Anthony Paggett Vice President of Artistic Planning
Kyle Wynk-Sivashankar Vice President of Human Resources
EXECUTIVE OFFICE
Shannon Faith Executive Assistant to the President & CEO
ARTISTIC PLANNING
Maddie Choi
Artistic Planning Intern
Theresa Lansberry Artist Liaison
Shuta Maeno
Manager of Artistic Planning & Assistant to the Music Director
Sam Strater Senior Advisor for Cincinnati Pops Planning
FINANCE, IT & DATA SERVICES
Deborah Benjamin Accounting Clerk
Julian Cann Accounting Clerk
Kathleen Curry Data Entry Clerk
Elizabeth Engwall Accounting Manager
Matt Grady Accounting Manager
Sharon Grayton Data Services Manager
Marijane Klug Staff Accountant
Shannon May Accounting Clerk
Kristina Pfeiffer Director of Finance
Judy Simpson Director of Finance
Tara Williams Data Services Manager
HUMAN RESOURCES & PAYROLL
Megan Inderbitzin-Tsai Director of Payroll Services
Natalia Lerzundi Human Resources & Payroll Coordinator
Jenny Ryan Human Resources Manager
MARKETING,
COMMUNICATIONS & DIGITAL MEDIA
JoVahn Allen
Marketing Intern
Charlie Balcom
Social Media Manager
Leon Barton Website Manager
KC Commander Director of Digital Content & Innovation
Tina Marshall Director of Ticketing & Audience Services
Wendy Marshall Group Sales Manager
Madelyn McArthur Audience Engagement Manager
ARTISTS & REPERTOIRE HISTORY
You can browse a comprehensive list of May Festival repertoire and featured artists who have graced the Music Hall stage at mayfestival.com/about/history.
