Cincinnati’s fabulous biennial light and art festival is behind us – but that doesn’t mean a bleak, post-BLINK wasteland is ahead of us. Here are some highlights from the coming week’s busy cultural calendar.
Wednesday, Oct. 23
Bach Ensemble at St. Thomas, “BEST in Concert” | 7 p.m. St. Thomas Episcopal Church, 100 Miami Ave., Terrace Park. 513-831-2052. DETAILS: BEST stands for Bach Ensemble at St. Thomas, and the esteemed group features Dwight Parry, principal oboist of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and Christian Pursell, a baritone who performs with Cincinnati Opera as well as the Metropolitan Opera, as soloists for its 2024-25 season-opening concert. The ensemble goes way beyond Johann Sebastian Bach for this program, which embraces music from Baroque masters Antonio Vivaldi and Isabella Leonarda to Romantic songs by both Clara Schumann and her husband, Robert Schumann, as well as by Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, whose songs were first published under the name of her bother, Felix Mendelssohn. As we saw with several concerts in last week’s Culture FIX, women composers are prominent on this program. And yes, we’ll hear from Fanny again later in these listings…
“Cartoon Clarity: Signs & Symbols in Editorial Cartoons” | 7 p.m. American Sign Museum, 1330 Monmouth Ave., Camp Washington. 513-541-6366. DETAILS: Editorial cartoonists are often the most distinctive – not to mention creative – voices in the newspaper business, and cartoonist-illustrator Kevin Necessary, who used to do the deed for the Cincinnati Enquirer, presents a program that shows how artists in his field use signs and symbols to convey their opinions.
Thursday, Oct. 24
Cirque Kalabanté, “Afrique en Cirque” | 7:30 p.m. Procter & Gamble Hall, Aronoff Center, 650 Walnut St., downtown. 513-621-2787. DETAILS: The Cincinnati Arts Association presents a show by Guinean multidisciplinary artist Yamoussa Bangoura that combines his circus background with brilliant music, dancing, scenery and staging to share a glimpse of African culture. His Cirque Kalabanté is noted for some pretty spectacular acrobatic feats.
INNOVAtheatre, “The Rocky Horror Show” | 8 p.m. Sorg Opera House, 55 S. Main St., Middletown. DETAILS: Most of us are familiar with the cult film favorite “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” but here’s the original 1973 B-movie-tribute stage musical by Richard O’Brien, a bizarre, R-rated tale about naive sweethearts Janet and Brad, Dr. Frank-N-Furter, Riff Raff, Rocky and the rest. Through Oct. 27. And if you’re looking for a public screening of the movie version, the Fitton Center in Hamilton presents the “Picture Show” at 10 p.m. Oct. 25, and Loveland Stage Company has it on its Spooky Movie Series at 5 p.m. Oct. 26. Among other events getting a jump on Halloween: Clifton Cultural Arts Center screens “The Addams Family” for its Carpool Cinema series at sundown Oct. 26; Queen City Cabaret performs “I Put a Spell On You: A Creepy Cabaret” at The Carnegie in Covington at 7 p.m., Oct. 26; the Dayton Philharmonic gravely presents a “PhilharMonster” concert at 2:30 p.m. Oct. 27.
Friday, Oct. 25
Art After Dark, “Nightmare on Eden Park Drive” | 5-9 p.m. Cincinnati Art Museum, 953 Eden Park Drive, Eden Park. 513-721-2787. DETAILS: Continuing with the march toward Halloween, CAM devotes this month’s free Art After Dark party to a “spooky evening of eerie delight,” with a DJ, tarot card readings, cash bars, food for purchase, self-guided ghost tours and a photo booth. Guests are encouraged to wear Halloween costumes or their “most haunting” black-and-white clothes to view the “Discovering Ansel Adams” photography exhibit free. Also, it’s opening day at the Art Museum for “American Life in Print,” an exhibit of work by noted American printmaker George Bellows (through Feb. 9).
Blue13 Dance Company, “100 Seconds to Midnight” | 7:30 p.m. Jarson-Kaplan Theater, Aronoff Center, 650 Walnut St., downtown. 513.621.ARTS. DETAILS: Mutual Dance Theatre presents the Los Angeles-based Blue13, whose artistic director, Achinta S. McDaniel, has created a new, three-part dance work that draws inspiration from the famous “Doomsday Clock,” established in 1947 by members of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists to estimate how close humanity is approaching global catastrophe. Also 7:30 p.m. Oct. 26.
OMNIMAX Theater, “T. Rex” | multiple showings starting 12:30 p.m. Cincinnati Museum Center, Union Terminal, 1301 Western Ave., Queensgate. 513-287-7000. DETAILS: Most scientists believe the dinosaurs’ “Doomsday Clock” hit midnight in the form of an asteroid 66 million years ago. Here’s a highly-praised new film by David Clark, who has done many noted science-based projects, that aims to bring that era’s apex predator, Tyrannosaurus Rex (“the G.O.A.T. – The Greatest of All Tyrants”), back to life, on screen at least – no DNA involved. Speaking of which, it’s narrated by actor Sam Neill of the “Jurassic Park” franchise, which of course was all about the DNA. “The film will cover a lot of new territory while delivering on the quintessential promises of a T. Rex cinematic experience,” director Clark says. Just as long as Mr. Rex doesn’t cover too much new territory . . .
Saturday, Oct. 26
Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, “Sibelius & Saint-Saëns” | 7:30 p.m., Music Hall, 1241 Elm St., Cincinnati, OH 45202. 513-381-3300. DETAILS: Benjamin Beilman – a rising young violinist who already won an Avery Fisher Career Grant and became a professor at his alma mater, the Curtis Institute of Music, at age 22 – is soloist for Camille Saint-Saëns’ Violin Concerto No. 3. Ramón Tebar is guest conductor for the program, which also includes the Symphony No. 1 by Finnish composer Jean Sibelius and opens with “Surge” by acclaimed Chinese-born composer and Brown University professor Wang Lu, which she says was inspired by “the exhilaration of hearing the New York Philharmonic for the very first time in the fall of 2005 as a newly arrived foreign student.” Also 2 p.m. Oct. 27.
Cincinnati Coffee Festival | 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Music Hall Ballroom, 1241 Elm St., Over-the-Rhine. 513-460-3365. DETAILS: Fellow caffeine addicts, rejoice! Cincinnati’s annual two-day festival of all things coffee (and yes, tea too) returns. The event features a variety of local and regional coffee roasters, bakeries and chocolatiers, latte art demonstrations, presentations on coffee-making techniques, live music and, naturally, lots of coffee to drink (and yes, tea too). Considered the largest such event in the Midwest, it’s a big fundraiser for the Ohio River Foundation, which reminds us that as 98% of coffee (and yes, tea too) is water, that water should be clean and pure. Also 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Oct. 27.
Sunday, Oct. 27
Musica Sacra, Fall Concert | 3 p.m. Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption, 1140 Madison Ave., Covington. 859-431-2060. DETAILS: In a Cathedral Concert Series concert celebrating L. Brett Scott’s 10th anniversary as Musica Sacra’s music director (he succeeded its esteemed founder, Helmut J. Roehrig), the 60-member chorus performs the Mass No. 1 by Franz Schubert and the 1830 “Lobgesang” (“Song of Praise”) by Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel – here she is again! – not to be confused with her younger brother Felix’ “Lobgesang” Symphony No. 2, composed 10 years later. Scott is a conducting professor at the UC College-Conservatory of Music, where he directs the CCM Chorale. The concert is free, but donations are accepted.
Cincinnati Civic Orchestra, Fall Concert | 3 p.m. Glendale Lyceum, 865 Congress Ave., Glendale. 513-861-9978. DETAILS: No, the above image from the Cincinnati Civic Orchestra’s website (which is meant to illustrate Gaston Leroux’ novel “Phantom of the Opera,” actually) doesn’t depict what might happen at the ensemble’s Fall Concert – at least we hope not. It’s just a way of illuminating the legend behind the concert’s featured work, Franz Joseph Haydn’s “Miracle” Symphony No. 96, one of his famed London Symphonies. According to the story, the symphony’s March 11, 1791 premiere was so successful that the audience rushed toward the stage to congratulate the composer and orchestra, whereupon the hall’s chandelier crashed to the floor, miraculously missing everybody – hence the name. Musicologists being incorrigible spoil-sports, however, it’s now believed the chandelier mishap took place four years later, during the premiere of Haydn’s Symphony No. 102, which by some miracle is burdened by no nickname whatsoever.
Monday, Oct. 28
FotoFocus Biennial, “All the Flowers” | 7:30 p.m. Woodward Theater, 1404 Main St., Over-the-Rhine. 513-345-7981. DETAILS: “Todas Las Flores” (“All the Flowers”), the third of three films in the “Caribbean Eye” series, is part of the month-long 2024 FotoFocus Biennial. It’s a raw, gritty documentary about the Tabaco y Ron (Tobacco and Rum) brothel in a red-light district in Bogotá, Colombia, focusing on portraits of members of the trans community there, including sex workers. Director Carmen Oquendo-Villar will take part in the screening via videoconference, and producer Alejandro Angel Torres will be at the Woodward in person.
Jazz at the Park, Tough Friend | 6-9 p.m. Washington Park, 1230 Elm St., Over-the-Rhine. DETAILS: The 2024 Jazz at the Park series closes with an appearance by Cincinnati jazz octet Tough Friend, led by drummer-composer Matt McAllister, a CCM grad, that aims to “bridge the gap between classical chamber music and avant garde jazz, mixed with a rock band aesthetic.”
Tuesday, Oct. 29
Music Live@Lunch, jazz pianist Ricky Nye | 12:10 p.m. Christ Church Cathedral, 318 E. Fourth St., downtown. 513-621-1817. DETAILS: Local jazz pianist Ricky Nye brings his “rollicking, foot-stomping” boogie-woogie style to Christ Church’s free midday concert series. Take a break, bring your own lunch or buy one there, and enjoy Nye’s virtuosity.
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