Monday, August 31, 2020

Suzanne Bona and Richard Goering

Suzanne Bona is heard nationwide ( and then some) on Sunday Baroque, a show she created several decades ago (WGUC 8 a.m.-12 p.m. Sundays)

Although many, many know her on the radio, not as many know her as a fine flutist. Suzanne has stepped up to contribute to our WGUC benefit CDs ( helping to generate several hundreds of thousands of dollars for WGUC and Cincinnati Public Radio. )

Years ago she crossed paths with guitarist Richard Goering here in Cincinnati and musical magic was made. Richard has also contributed on a couple occasions to our benefit CDs and tells us about their collaboration over the years.

"Suzanne and I have performed together for 15 years on concert series around the Midwest and in New York and New England. She is delightful to work with, as you know... One thing I love about performing with Suzanne is that we play multiple musical genres-Brazilian melodies, tangos, works by Bach, Paganini, Handel, and contemporary compositions. Ferdinando Carulli (1770-1841)(composer of the piece in the video) wrote over 400 compositions for solo guitar and chamber music with guitar."

Now, please sit back, relax, and enjoy flutist Suzanne Bona and guitarist Richard Goering in a live session we did in our Corbett Studio around 6 months ago.

Monday, August 24, 2020

Bread and Roses: Women in Classical Music



2020 is the 100th Anniversary of the passing of the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, earning women the right to vote. The anniversary occurs on Wednesday, August 26 and 90.9 WGUC will celebrate by bringing listeners the special Bread and Roses: Women in Classical Music.

The special airs at 7 p.m. eastern time and can be heard on-air, online at wguc.org, on the free WGUC app, or on your smart speaker by telling it to “Play WGUC.”

The 19th amendment is the starting point for this special broadcast which looks at the achievements of women in music, set against historic, social, and political obstacles which have worked against female composers, conductors, and performers. Andrea Blain takes an in-depth look at the ways in which women in music have had to fight for recognition, opportunities and rewards in the same way women fought for the vote.

With music illustrations from the world of film, opera, orchestral, choral and chamber music, Bread and Roses: Women in Classical Music celebrates women and music, striving for equality (Bread) and artistry (Roses).

Our Classics for Kids program, which introduces young listeners to classical music and composers, has also celebrated the accomplishments of women in classical music. As we commemorate the 19th amendment, we encourage you to share this information with your children:

Monday, August 17, 2020

"Making the Lemonade"


They were devastated to announce the cancellation of the in-person Summermusik 2020, but the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra has found a way to keep the music going during these tricky times.


Eckart Preu
Photo by Michael Wilson
The annual audience favorite continues this year as an “eFestival,” with a huge variety of online events. I caught up with CCO music director Eckart Preu, speaking from his home in Spokane, to hear all about it.

Click on the link to listen as Eckart Preu discusses what makes the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra’s Summermusik festival special.


Monday, August 10, 2020

Celebrating The Power Of Her

As the country continues to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which made women’s suffrage the law, Cincinnati’s ArtsWave pays tribute to women behind the city’s diverse and thriving arts community with the release of the book, Imagineers. Impresarios. Inventors: Cincinnati’s Arts and the POWER OF HER.

Kathy Merchant, former CEO of the Greater Cincinnati Foundation, is the book’s editor and she kindly answered a few questions we had.

How long did it take to generate the list of the 200 women profiled and do you wish you could have added more?

“Because the book was a major project of ArtsWave's POWER OF HER initiative, which was designed to shine the spotlight on women in the arts during the 19th amendment centennial celebration, we originally set a goal of 100 women. We invited the public to nominate women for the book, a process that took place over about 6 weeks in early spring 2019. We were overwhelmed (in the good sense) with the number of women who were nominated! But we were also concerned that the list of candidates was not as diverse as we knew that it could be. We did some additional research, and also asked Cincinnati Museum Center and Cincinnati Art Museum to help us identify particularly legacy women from the 19th and 20th centuries that our nominators may not know. We are grateful to them for their assistance. Then we applied a set of criteria to the massive list of well over 200 women before sending a curated list to a group of ArtsWave leaders for a final vetting. The criteria included importantly the significance of the woman's contributions to the arts over a sustained period of time; leadership in founding and/or serving as an executive leader of sustainable arts organizations; influence on the vibrancy of the arts sector as a visual or performance artist, philanthropist, educator, and other key leadership roles; and (last but not least) production of an important body of art works of all types. Still hoping to narrow the list down to 100, we found that to be an impossible task. Ultimately, we settled on 120 essays that incorporate lists of nearly 80 additional women who were collaborators in starting arts organizations in the 19th and 20th centuries. And that just scratches the surface! This book is comprehensive, but not exhaustive, of all the talent in our community then and now.”

How did you choose the local writers and then pair them with the profiles they'd write?

“Once we knew the scope of the women in the book, we recruited 31 people to join me in writing the 120 essays. I started in May 2019 by identifying a list of local journalists, editors, and published authors I knew well by reading their work across my more than two decades living in Cincinnati. I asked them two key questions: would you prefer to write about legacy or contemporary women, and how many essays could you write on deadline by September 30. My original list of contacts didn't quite meet the goal of 120, so I asked those writers to identify others who might be interested. In this way, by June 2019 we were able to increase and diversify the number of essay authors, adding yet another artistic dimension to the book project. All writers either donated their time or accepted a small honorarium for their work, and we appreciate their generosity. All writers will receive a complimentary copy of the book.”

What did you learn personally about these women and their impact on our community?

“The organization of the book reflects one of the biggest "aha moments" in the entire project: nearly all of our arts organizations were started by women, and all of those organizations--from 1868 to the present--are still going strong (despite the disruptive challenges of COVID-19). If there are exceptions to this assertion, we are not aware of them. The few organizations (such as Playhouse in the Park and WGUC) that were not started by women can point instead to significant leadership by women as executives, producers, actors, philanthropists, and more, all contributing to the organizations' long-term sustainability. A second important realization was just how many women there are who lead and nurture the arts, probably an entire second book! For example, there are the women in our local corporations such as Kay Geiger and Heidi Jark who are major arts supporters. The number of women artists in all disciplines is massive. Wouldn't it be fun to dig deeper to create a celebration of all art forms and the women in our community who are so very talented? The bottom line is that Greater Cincinnati is truly blessed to have such a vibrant and well supported arts community. (And I can say on behalf of ArtsWave that we are especially blessed to have an organization whose sole mission, thanks to Anna Sinton Taft and her husband, is to support the arts for the long view.)”

100% of the proceeds from sales of Imagineers. Impresarios. Inventors: Cincinnati’s Arts and the POWER OF HER will support programming for women’s artists and arts organizations. To order, visit: POWER OF HER

Monday, August 3, 2020

Cellist Inbal Segev Premieres Cello Concerto, "Dance"


By Elaine Diehl:

A native of Israel, Inbal Segev began playing the cello at the age of 5. At 8, she first played for the Israeli president and at 16 she was invited by Isaac Stern to the United States, where she continued her cello studies at Yale and Julliard.

Segev performed with our Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra last year and has just released a brand-new album with Marin Alsop & London Philharmonic Orchestra featuring Edward Elgar’s Cello Concerto along with a new composition by Anna Clyne, “DANCE.”

She was gracious enough to spend some time chatting with me; here is our conversation: