Rosie Herrera Dance Theatre
Rosie Herrera, choreographer
Clyde Scott, video and production designer
Luke Kritzeck, lighting and production designer

Choreographer Rosie Herrera wants you to imagine that, after a night of gleefully overindulging in absinthe cocktails, filmmaker Federico Fellini stumbles down an alley in old Havana. A door cracks open and music washes over him like a sticky sunrise in September. He steps inside into a primordial soup of neon and sound and tropical heat. A wild undercurrent pulses through the room, whispering that anything (and everything) might happen.

These CSO Proof performances are supported by The Haile Foundation, Irwin & Melinda Simon, and the American Orchestras’ Futures Fund, a program of the League of American Orchestras made possible by funding from the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation.

Louis Langrée, conductor

Stephen Hough, piano

If there is any symphony that operates like a “double agent,” it is Shostakovich's Fifth. Having found himself targeted by Stalin, Shostakovich composed himself out of a dangerous situation−with immensely gripping results. Stephen Hough returns for Rachmaninoff and Louis Langrée begins the program with another work by Rachmaninoff — his brief yet beautiful, Vocalise.

John Morris Russell, conductor
Donald Lawrence, featured guest artist

Classical Roots Community Choir

Love and community ring throughout Music Hall when the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and the Classical Roots Community Choir celebrate a much-beloved Queen City tradition. JMR leads a program that’s guaranteed to inspire—an evening of powerful performances that will fill your heart with joy and bring you to your feet!

Ramón Tebar, conductor

Steven Banks, saxophone

Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition is an epic musical stroll through an eclectic gallery of paintings, from a drawing of unhatched dancing chickens to an image of towering city gates. Originally for piano, Ravel’s version for orchestra adds a bursting palette of instrumental color. Saxophonist Steven Banks, who “has the potential to be one of the transformational musicians of the 21st century,” plays a new concerto by GRAMMY-winning pianist and composer Billy Childs.

Schumann and Schubert, titans and virtuosos of chamber music, are at the pinnacle of their writing in this program. Schumann called his string quartet a “beautiful and even abstrusely woven conversation among four people” while Schubert’s Octet explores a deeply rich and melodic tale that ends in a rhythmic dance of joviality.

Matthias Pintscher, conductor

If Mahler’s symphonies are like worlds, the Seventh is like the universe in a single night. Patterned in gigantic symmetry, the opening and closing movements are packed with enormous sounds, each like symphonies in themselves. The interior music is lighter by contrast, pivoting at the center with a ghostly dance. CSO Creative Partner Matthias Pintscher returns to conduct the huge orchestral forces needed for Mahler’s dusk-to-dawn universe, from clanging cowbells to titanic brass.

Sponsored by Peter Landgren and Judith Schonbach Landgren.

Louis Langrée, conductor

Víkingur Ólafsson, piano

Louis Langrée and the CSO explore works that have sounds all their own. Berlioz's music from an unfinished opera adds voices in extreme ranges. Through darkest doubt and brightest love, the music expresses Saint-Saëns' entire being and his skill as an organist with moments that pull out all the stops. Pianist Víkingur Ólafsson, “an arresting artist who…creates unique aural landscapes” (LA Times), debuts with Ravel's Concerto in G Major for Piano and Orchestra.

Inspired by the Book of Revelations, Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time was written while the composer was in a prisoner-of-war camp during the early days of World War II. Composed based on the instruments available to him at the time, each movement of the piece relates to the apocalyptic literature and the quartet’s fury unfolds alongside hauntingly beautiful patches of ethereal wonder. Opening the program is Bozza's complex and virtuosic duet for bassoons and Brahms' Horn Trio, his only dedicated chamber work for the horn.

Louis Langrée, conductor

Courtney Bryan, piano and composer

Louis Langrée and the CSO end the 22/23 season with jazz-infused musical visions. New Orleans native Courtney Bryan, “a pianist and composer of panoramic interests” (The New York Times), premieres her new concerto. Milhaud's opening music evokes African folk mythology while Duke Ellington, who was both a prolific composer and famed jazz pianist, summons musical images of night creatures. Gershwin closes the program by dropping you into the sights and sounds of Parisian streets.

The CSO is grateful to Kari and Jonathan Ullman for their support of the Courtney Bryan Co-Commission.