Cincinnati Song Initiative Announces 2023-2024 Season
Cincinnati OH - Cincinnati Song Initiative (CSI) has revealed its eighth season and artist roster. Titled Life / Song, the season’s repertoire shines a spotlight on real-world topics and issues at hand.
“This season’s concert experiences are meant to hold a mirror up to each of us and show just how real the messages of every song are in relation to our daily lives,” says CSI Founding Artistic Director Samuel Martin. “From global issues of climate change and inequity in our societies, to very personal emotions we grapple with by ourselves, and everything in between, this season demonstrates the power of song to help us relate to one another and collectively take action as a community.”
Just as in every past season, 2023-2024 features creative partnerships with other organizations that help bring each concert’s particular theme into more visceral focus. These partnerships also help reach new audiences and increase the impact of CSI’s mission to promote and innovate the song genre.
The first event of the season sees a return of the popular CSI Mobile traveling series, with soprano Katherine Jolly, mezzo Kathryn Leemhuis, and pianist Samuel Martin in residency working with students and performing at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. The residency culminates with Songs of Life, Love, and Power, a varied and meaningful concert of American songs.
To kick off the Mainstage season in September, CSI joins forces with the Cincinnati Music & Wellness Coalition for Under Your Wing, an afternoon that explores the human condition through song. World-class artists share musical stories of life, love, struggle, and triumph, all through the lens of physical, mental, and emotional well-being, while representatives of the Music & Wellness Coalition provide contextualization on the physical, mental, and emotional benefits of music through both a pre-concert lecture and an optional post-concert HealthRHYTHMS drum empowerment session. “Cincinnati Music & Wellness Coalition is thrilled to be partnering with Cincinnati Song Initiative to add another dimension about wellness through evidence-based music making,” says Arlene de Silva, Board Chair and CEO of the Coalition. Artists include soprano Katherine Jolly, baritone Joel Balzun, cellist Phillip Goist, pianist Kevin Garnica, and pianist Samuel Martin.
November sees a return to CSI’s German song series The Belletrists with a concert of settings from the Romantic literary giant Josef von Eichendorff. Themes of wandering, the passing of time, and nostalgia permeate this program that explores German culture, poetry, and music. Artists include mezzo Kayleigh Decker, baritone Jesse Blumberg, pianist David Breitman, and pianist Marie-France Lefebvre.
In January, the multi-talented baritone, composer, and producer Will Liverman, who knows no creative boundaries, joins the inimitable pianist Myra Huang for a one-time-only experience for Cincinnati audiences. Their program reinforces the season’s theme of sharing real and visceral human stories through song.
From April 2-5, CSI joins forces with The Hartt School at the University of Hartford to create a multi-day festival of American song, with a spotlight concert featuring the songs of Lori Laitman. Guest artists will work with voice and piano students in preparation for their own public concerts, in addition to performances by CSI guest artists and Hartt School faculty members.
In late April, the 2023-2024 Mainstage season comes to a thrilling finale with To the Woods, an Earth Day-themed program that shares incredible songs with poetry by the likes of Edna St. Vincent Millay, Henry David Thoreau, and UC poetry professor Felicia Zamora. Artists include mezzo Quinn Patrick Ankrum, baritone Brandon Bell, pianist Elizabeth Avery, and pianist Kelly Kuo.
From May 19-26, Cincinnati Song Initiative continues providing world-class song experiences for audiences through its brand new festival and training program, The Fellowship of the Song. Unveiled in July, this groundbreaking initiative places Cincinnati on the map for exceptional artistic training in song, marshaling an internationally-renowned faculty to guide ten exceptional Fellows chosen through a competitive audition process. Their work during the week will result in two concerts free and open to the public, and anyone may register to audit the daily classes and song workshops, either in person on the campus of UC’s College-Conservatory of Music or streamed online from the comfort of home anywhere in the world.
The 2023-2024 season concludes in late June with the fourth annual digital concert Let It Be New, a joint venture with the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) and its Composer Mentorship Program. As a culminating project for composer mentees chosen from a competitive pool of applicants each year, CSI commissions a single song from each of the participants and produces the world premiere performances in a completely free digital concert. Not only does this propel CSI’s mission to champion brand new song in America, it also provides composers the experience of workshopping their songs with the premiere singers and pianists, and provides them with invaluable portfolio materials in the form of a professional video recording that they have to promote their work for years to come.
For details, tickets, and program information on all events of the 2023-2024 season, visit www.cincinnatisonginitiative.org/events.
To view the 2023-2024 artist roster, visit www.cincinnatisonginitiative.org/artists.
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.