Over the course of three days, CSO employees volunteered at the Freestore Food Bank to clean and sort over 40,000 ducks for their annual Rubber Duck Regatta. The Rubber Duck Regatta is the Freestore Food Bank’s largest fundraiser and takes place on Sunday, September 5 at 3 p.m. on the Ohio River. Last year the Freestore Food Bank raised $550,000 which is equivalent to 2.2 million meals.

For more information about the Freestore Foodbank’s Rubber Duck Regatta, please click here.

To mark the one-year anniversary of Cincinnati Pops Founder and Conductor Emeritus Erich Kunzel’s passing, the American Classical Music Hall of Fame and Great Music in a Great Space are organizing an ecumenical service celebrating Maestro Kunzel’s life and legacy at the Cathedral of St. Peter in Chains on the corner of Eighth and Plum streets in Downtown Cincinnati on Wednesday, September 1.  This special service starts at 7 p.m., and will feature musical offerings from members of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Cathedral Organist Blake Callahan.  Members of the May Festival Chorus are also being encouraged to stand with attendees and sing Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus,” accompanied by Pops pianist Julie Spangler.

In addition, the President of Xavier University, Father Michael Graham, S.J. will offer remarks on the life of Erich, who died of cancer on September 1, 2009.

Maestro Kunzel was a musical icon – an innovator and champion of orchestral music who contributed so much to our institution and this community.

The service is free and open to the public, so please pass along this information to anyone who might like to attend.

Experience chamber music in an intimate setting performed by members of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra as the 2010-2011 CSO Chamber Players season opens Friday, November 12 at the new Mayerson Theater, located inside the Erich Kunzel Center for Arts and Education on Central Parkway. This exciting new center also houses Cincinnati’s School for the Creative and Performing Arts. For the opening program, musicians selected works that celebrate the CSO’s highly anticipated two week Mozart Festival. The concert highlights the chamber music masterpieces of Mozart, complimented by a Haydn string quartet.

This season all CSO Chamber Players concerts will be at the comfortable and intimate 309-seat Mayerson Theater, two south of Music Hall (108 W. Central Parkway, Cincinnati, OH 45202), and begin at 7:30 p.m. Remaining concerts in the CSO Chamber Players Series will take place on January 28, February 18 and April 8 (please see included repertoire).

The 2010-11 Chamber Players season features works spanning three centuries and highlights include the world première of local composer Ellen Ruth Harrison’s Invisible Topography on January 28.  Ms. Harrison teaches theory and composition at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music Preparatory Department. The work is dedicated to CSO bass player Matthew Zory, who will perform the work with fellow CSO musicians Gerald Itzkoff, Joanne Wojtowicz and Alan Rafferty. In addition, there will be a performance of Oliver Messiaen’s expansive and influential Quatuor pour la fin du temps (Quartet for the End of Time) on February 18. The work was written and performed while Messiaen was held captive as a prisoner of war during World War II and is often regarded as one of the most popular chamber works of the 20^th century. The season culminates with a performance of Béla Bartók’s youthful and exuberant String Quartet No. 1.

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The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, led by Assistant Conductor Vince Lee, presents two Lollipop Family Concerts at Music Hall specially designed for children ages three to ten and their families. On Saturday, November 6 at 10:30 a.m., the CSO will partner with Cincinnati Ballet for Prokofiev’s fun and fabled musical tale, Peter and the Wolf. Then in conjunction with the CSO’s Mozart Festival this season, the Orchestra is partnering with Know Theater of Cincinnati to present a concert that will open the world of Mozart’s childhood genius to kids and adults alike on Saturday, January 22 at 10:30 a.m. This performance will feature the marvelous music of Mozart coupled with a brand new play.

“The Lollipop Family Concert series is a fun, interactive, exciting and engaging way to introduce kids to the symphonic experience at an early age. Our hope is for young children to develop an appreciation for the symphony creating lifelong music lovers,” said Alex Mendelsohn, the CSO’s Manager of Community Learning.

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The Cincinnati Pops Orchestra announced today that Ohio-native and Music Director of the Windsor Symphony Orchestra John Morris Russell will return to Cincinnati to conduct the Pops’ season opening concerts at Music Hall, joining featured performer Idina Menzel on Friday, September 24 and Saturday, September 25 at 8 p.m., as well as Sunday, September 26 at 3 p.m.

“What a fabulous homecoming – I am thrilled to be opening the 2010-2011 Cincinnati Pops Season,” said Mr. Russell, who regularly led concerts at Music Hall and Riverbend Music Center when he served as Associate Conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra for eleven years from 1995 to 2006. “The decade I spent with the CSO and Pops has had such a huge influence in my professional career and our family; I’m excited about making great music and having fun with all our friends and colleagues in Cincinnati.”

Maestro Russell will return again to Cincinnati in December to lead “Happy Holidays with the Pops” with Debby Boone.

Recognized for his innovative programming and commitment to attracting new and diverse audiences to orchestral music in Cincinnati, Maestro Russell created the Classical Roots: Spiritual Heights series, which brought the music of African-American composers and performers to thousands of listeners in area churches, and was also the co-creator of the Christmas spectacular, Home for the Holidays. In September of 1999, Mr. Russell replaced Erich Kunzel with an hour’s notice to conduct the Pops’ opening weekend concerts. The following week he substituted for Maestro Kunzel in concerts on the stage of the famed Musikverein in Vienna, featuring the Harlem Boychoir, the Vienna Choir Boys and actor Gregory Peck. The performance continues to be televised throughout Europe, Japan and in the USA on PBS.

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