2022-2023 Season Announcement
CINCINNATI, OH – Cincinnati Song Initiative returns in September 2022 with a robust season of show-stopping artistry and novel projects to fulfill its mission of connecting communities through music and storytelling. Its seventh season, The Journey Ahead, invites audiences to discover new repertoire, incredible collaborations, and the evolving song canon.
“Cincinnati Song Initiative’s seventh season creates experiences for us all to continue moving forward together in our collective humanity. As we focus on evolving through the pandemic, CSI continues pushing forward and growing a community that can boldly step into the future in a fresh and pioneering way,” said Founding Artistic Director Samuel Martin. “Our community-centric concerts, brought to life by the world-class artists audiences have come to expect, will help us spend the 2022-2023 season reflecting on what we have learned from the past, while looking ahead to a bright future filled with newness and innovation.”
CSI’s seventh season opening embarks on a journey with To the Distant Beloved. Songs in Italian, German, and English guide the way through the emotional highs and lows, ultimately leading to peace and contentment with an experience understood by so many in this world.
The second program of the series, The Belletrists: Friedrich Rückert, explores an array of settings from the monumental German poet. From well-known songs by Gustav Mahler to hidden gems from Richard Strauss, Clara Schumann, and Robert Schumann, the depth and poignancy of Rückert’s words shine through this glimmering program.
January sees the return of the Winter Song Festival, featuring the beloved Cincinnati songSLAM in which up to twelve teams will present a new song for voice and piano to win over the audience’s favor. Narrative of a Slave Woman: Songs of Suffering, Hope, and Freedom rounds out the weekend of events, providing arguably the most comprehensive journey in contextualizing the words of Spirituals with the very real-world stories they tell from the darkest chapter of this nation. Join distinguished artists LaToya Lain and Casey Robards for this profound journey that places the Spiritual - and everything it stands for - in the spotlight.
CSI and Queen City Cabaret team up in March to present Unforgettable, a delectable program of Golden-Age tunes from the Great American Songbook. Featuring selections from the 1930s through 1960s, take a trip with some of Cincinnati’s greatest cabaret personalities and explore all this era has to offer!
The penultimate concert highlights three artist-storytellers who bring a program of varied American song to life in Americana: What Shall We Remember?. Nostalgic calls from the past, fused with jovial, reflective, and empowering stories of today help provide a path forward for the journey ahead.
Closing the season, in its third consecutive year, CSI proudly introduces world premieres of the songs commissioned for the composers taking part in the 2022-2023 National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) composer mentorship program. The digital-only concert, Let It Be New, streams free on CSI’s website beginning June 25.
Season subscriptions will be available in the near future, with individual tickets going on sale a month before each concert. Learn more at www.cincinnatisonginitiative.org.
About Cincinnati Song Initiative
Since its founding in 2016, Cincinnati Song Initiative has connected thousands of people through the unique and intimate power of classical song, and is a recipient of Ovation TV’s Stand for the Arts award based on how well an organization empowers the community, builds strategic partnerships, drives engagement through volunteerism, and delivers creative programming.
Smaller in scale than opera, choral music, or other theatrical genres, the performance of song most commonly features one singer and one pianist in a visceral musical experience. Cincinnati Song Initiative creates these experiences with a pioneering spirit to engage communities in thoughtful and innovative ways. Deriving its texts from a variety of sources such as poetry, prose, speeches, or plays, song portrays the immediate and deep personal experiences we encounter throughout everyday life.
Each concert features singers and pianists of national renown, providing an unparalleled level of artistry within an intimate and accessible atmosphere. Audiences enjoy close interaction with the artists, hearing them discuss the relevance of the music in relation to today’s cultural and societal context, and enjoy engaging with them - and each other - during post-performance receptions. Concerts take place at different venues throughout the Queen City in order to connect with its many vibrant communities and explore all it has to offer.
Cincinnati Song Initiative remains devoted to the innovation of twenty-first century song by commissioning and premiering new works. CSI aims to connect with today's audiences and lead the way in original digital content among arts organizations, continually adding to its rich suite of resources with educational webinars, live interviews with artists and composers, and innovative performance projects imagined for the virtual realm.
For more information regarding upcoming concerts, artists, and CSI’s thematic projects, please visit www.cincinnatisonginitiative.org.