Some of us haven’t even finished slicing the last tasty bits off the Thanksgiving turkey, and already we’re full steam ahead with big Christmas-season events all around. It’s a busy, busy week for arts and culture. Take a look:
Wednesday, Dec. 3
Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati, “Fritz: The Musical” | 7 p.m. Ensemble Theatre, 1127 Vine St., Over-the-Rhine. 513-421-3555. DETAILS: Evidently the hippos haven’t jumped the shark yet. Public demand for stories about the Cincinnati Zoo’s beloved Fiona and friends continues, so ETC has obliged with a new, family-friendly musical about Fiona’s little brother, Fritz, and his adventures with the zoo’s other residents. “This is a story about family, finding your place, and the courage it takes to create your own splash,” notes ETC. Through Dec. 31.
CCM on Tap, pianist Zach Karp | 5 p.m. Fountain Square, downtown. 513-621-4400. DETAILS: The weather may have turned colder, but Fountain Square’s musical offerings continue within the cozy confines of the square’s Winterhaus. On Wednesdays, it’s the free CCM on Tap series, this week featuring pianist/arranger/composer Zach Karp, who has a master’s in jazz piano from the College-Conservatory of Music.
Miami University, Laptop Ensemble | 7:30 p.m. McVey Data Science Building, Miami University, Oxford. 513-529-3200. DETAILS: And now for something completely different: Since 2021, the Miami University Laptop Ensemble (acronym MULE, because why not?) has given students the opportunity to make music with laptops, tablets, synthesizers and other electronic instruments. Rumor has it the ensemble’s program will include newly discovered works by CPU Bach and Jean-Philippe RAMeau.
Thursday, Dec. 4
Indian Film Festival Cincinnati, First Look Premiere | 6:45 p.m. The Children’s Theatre of Cincinnati, 4015 Red Bank Road, Madisonville. DETAILS: Celebrating its 10th year presenting top films from and about India, the festival has more than a dozen full-length films and shorts on its schedule, screened at three locations: Children’s Theatre, Mariemont Theatre and Cincinnati Art Museum. The Festival opens with the movie “Aapish” (“The Office”) by director Sudeshna Roy, which tells the stories of two women with differing backgrounds but similar struggles. The festival, which continues through Dec. 7, also offers pre-screening events, discussions and after-parties.
Solway Gallery, exhibitions by Yoko Ono and Gregory Tharp | Reception 5-8 p.m. Solway Building, 424 Findlay St., West End. DETAILS: It’s a busy evening at the Solway Building. First off, the exhibitions “Colours of the Globe” by multimedia artist Yoko Ono and “Recent Photographs” by Gregory Tharp, known for his work documenting the Ohio River, Union Terminal, animals and more. Continues through Jan. 15. At the same time, the building full of galleries will host “Surface Tension,” a three-hour exhibit and sale of works by artists Jolie Harris, Suzanne Fisher and Sarah Jane Bellamy.
Cincinnati Landmark Productions, “Holiday Inn” | 7:30 p.m. Covedale Center for the Performing Arts, 4990 Glenway Ave., Price Hill. 513-241-6550. DETAILS: This Irving Berlin musical actually was based on the 1942 film of the same name, which starred Fred Astaire and Bing Crosby. The plot follows the owners of a rural Connecticut inn that’s open only for holiday celebrations, and so we get songs such as “Be Careful, It’s My Heart,” “Easter Parade,” “Song of Freedom,” “Heat Wave” and “White Christmas,” which became so popular that Hollywood just had to turn the song into the famous 1954 movie also starring Der Bingle with Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen.
Friday, Dec. 5
Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, “Handel’s Messiah” | 7:30 p.m., Music Hall, 1241 Elm St., Cincinnati, OH 45202. 513-381-3300. DETAILS: CSO Music Director Cristian Măcelaru evidently has a long history of performing “Messiah,” both as a violinist and a conductor. As the CSO’s program notes tell us, his violin teacher at Rice University, the great Sergiu Luca, also was a leader in the “historically informed performance” movement, and he’ll draw on those lessons in this interpretation of George Frederick Handel’s famous oratorio. Joining the CSO and May Festival Chorus: Lauren Snouffer, soprano; Sasha Cooke, mezzo-soprano; Nicholas Phan, tenor; and Jonathan Lemalu, bass. As of Dec. 2, seats for this performance and the Dec. 6 reprise are pretty scarce, except up in the gallery of Music Hall, so get to if you’d like to hear this rare CSO production of the Handel classic.
Friends of Music Hall, Happy Holidays with the Mighty Wurlitzer Organ | 7 p.m. Music Hall Ballroom, 1241 Elm St., Over-the-Rhine. 513-621-2787. DETAILS: Here’s a good test of soundproofing: An oratorio and an organ concert at the same time in the same building. Friends of Music Hall host the annual family-friendly concert featuring Tedde Gibson at the ballroom’s Mighty Wurlitzer. The event also features the Viva Voices youth chorus, excerpts from “The Nutcracker” by a Cincinnati Ballet troupe, host Kyle Inskeep of Local 12 WKRC-TV and a visit from Santa.
Saturday, Dec. 6
College-Conservatory of Music, Feast of Carols | 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. Corbett Auditorium, University of Cincinnati. 513-556-4183. DETAILS: CCM’s grand Feast of Carols has been an annual holiday tradition for well over a century, as this printed program from 1919 attests. This year’s version features not only the CCM Chamber Choir and Chorale, UC Choruses and Cincinnati Youth Choir, but guest choirs from the School for Creative and Performing Arts, Elder High School, Walnut Hills High School and Anderson High School, plus the Seven Hills Brass and six, count ’em, six conductors. Also 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. Dec. 7.
Clay Alliance, Holiday Pottery Fair | 10 a.m.-3 p.m., Clifton Recreation Center, 320 McAlpin Ave., Clifton. DETAILS: If your holidays haven’t already gone to pot, here’s your chance to pick up some hand-crafted plates, mugs, platters, bowls, ornaments and more. The annual Clay Alliance holiday sale features the work of more than 30 of the area’s top clay artists. It’s an opportunity to find unique items for gifts or for your own home.
Cincinnati World Cinema, “The Librarians” | 4 p.m., Garfield Theatre, 719 Race St., downtown. 859-957-3456. DETAILS: With Cincinnati native Sarah Jessica Parker as an executive producer, this documentary by director Kim A. Snyder follows librarians in Texas, Florida and other states as they grapple with book bans and shifting cultural sentiments. Also 4 p.m. Dec. 7.
Sunday, Dec. 7
Paul Strickland and Erika MacDonald, “Ain’t True & Uncle False for the Holidays” | 7:30 p.m. Know Theatre, 1120 Jackson St., Cincinnati, OH 45202. 513-300-5669. DETAILS: Master storyteller Paul Strickland and his partner, performance artist and kazoo virtuoso Erika MacDonald, present a wacky seasonal program with twisted, retold holiday classics, tunes, tall tales and more. Also Dec. 9, 13 and 14.
Collegium Cincinnati, Handel’s “Messiah” | 3 p.m., Christ Church Cathedral, 314 E. Fourth St., downtown. DETAILS: If you miss out on the CSO’s performances of “Messiah,” here’s a great alternative: Collegium Cincinnati does its traditional full, three-hour performance of “Messiah,” conducted by Matthew Phelps, with smaller forces and a performance style that’s probably closer to what George Frederick Handel intended, before other hands revised and expanded the work after his death.
Linton Chamber Music, “Schubert’s Divine Quintet” | 4 p.m. First Unitarian Church, 536 Linton St., Avondale. 513-381-6868. DETAILS: Violinist Jaime Laredo and cellist Sharon Robinson, artistic directors of the Linton series, are joined by violinist Susie Park, violist Hsin-Yun Huang and cellist Eric Kim for a concert anchored by Franz Schubert’s String Quintet in C Major. Also on the program: Luigi Boccherini’s String Quintet in E Major, Op. 13, No. 5 and a Duo for violin and viola by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Also 7:30 p.m. Dec. 8 at Congregation Beth Adam in Loveland.
Sympho-palooza Sunday: Cincinnati must have more orchestral musicians per capita than any other metropolitan area in the country. Here we have six orchestras performing concerts on the same day, some at overlapping times, throughout the area: The Blue Ash Montgomery Symphony Orchestra performs its holiday concert, “Bassoon it will be Christmas!” (Oh, boe! Such violins to the English language!) at 7 p.m. in Montgomery’s Summit City Church; the Cincinnati Civic Orchestra plays its Winter Concert at 4 p.m. in the Springfield Township Grove Event Center; the Cincinnati Symphony Youth Concert Orchestra plays music by Florence Price, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and Zhou Tian at 2 p.m. in Music Hall, followed by the Cincinnati Symphony Youth Philharmonic tackling Dmitri Shostakovich’s gargantuan Symphony No. 11 (“The Year 1905”) at 7 p.m.; the Mason Symphony Orchestra presents its Christmas in Mason Festival Concert at 5 p.m. at the Manor House in Mason; the Cincinnati Metropolitan Orchestra has its 3 p.m. Christmas Concert at Seton High School. And that’s not even counting the Cincinnati Community Orchestra’s literature-themed “Curl Up with a Good Book” concert at 7:30 p.m. the previous evening, Dec. 6, at Church of the Savior United Methodist in Montgomery. Whew.
Monday, Dec. 8
Jazz at the Memo, Phil DeGreg Trio “A Charlie Brown Christmas” | 7 p.m. Memorial Hall | 1225 Elm St., Over-the-Rhine. 513-977-8838. DETAILS: Well, it just wouldn’t be Christmas without a live performance or 12 of Vince Guaraldi’s now-classic jazz soundtrack (which he wrote in three hours!) for the 1965 animated Peanuts special, and the Phil DeGreg Trio obliges. Also Dec. 9.
Tuesday, Dec. 9
College-Conservatory of Music, “It’s A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play” | 7:30 p.m. The Carnegie, 1028 Scott Blvd., Covington. 859-491-2030. DETAILS: The now-beloved 1946 Christmas fantasy movie starring Jimmy Stewart is based on the short story “The Greatest Gift” by Philip Van Doren Stern, and it’s presented here as a live radio drama with CCM students on stage, scripts in hand, voicing the characters and creating sound effects. It’s a charming way to revisit the story from a different perspective. Also Dec. 10.
Music Live at Lunch, Heri et Hodie | 12:10 p.m. Christ Church Cathedral, 318 E. Fourth St., downtown. 513-621-1817. DETAILS: Cincinnati women’s vocal ensemble Heri et Hodie, which specializes in medieval and contemporary music, performs its annual Medieval Christmas concert for the cathedral’s free lunchtime series. Since it’s in the smaller Christ Church Chapel, the ensemble advises concertgoers to come early, as the venue usually fills up for the annual event.
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