This week it’s about singing, shopping and books. All of my favorite things. May Festival steps onto the risers (don’t forget the picnic in WP, first) while Simon and Garfunkel take the stage in Kentucky. Langston Hughes, Harriet Beecher Stowe and some acoustic blues each have their moment. Take your pick.
May Festival 2026: Our favorite spring tradition takes to the risers!
Photo by Allison Michael Orenstein
Cincinnati May Festival | Music Hall, 1241 Elm St., Over-the-Rhine. 513-381-3300. DETAILS: Grammy-winning soprano Julia Bullock, the 2026 May Festival director, wants us to know that “we will continue tradition while embracing the music of composers and performers who were, for years, excluded from contributing their voices to the world’s stages.” Our local arts scene will also be featured as Bullock aims to “foster dialogue across arts practices, and to create space for reflection, joy and embodied musical expression!” The festival director – collaborating with Matthew Swanson, May Festival director of choruses – orchestrates every aspect of May Festival’s two week run from repertoire selection to scheduling to guiding festival singers and guests.
Friday, May 15
Diner en Fleur | 5 p.m. Washington Park. DETAILS: Echoing May Festivals past, the festivities start off with an elegant romp right across the street from Music Hall. Order a meal provided by Findlay Market, from various food trucks or bring your own. Tables will be set up for your enjoyment. Bring your own table decorations, flatware and non-alcoholic beverages for a community picnic designed to fire you up for what’s to come.
An Eclectic Opening Night | 7:30 p.m. Music Hall. DETAILS: Large-scale works by German composers Anton Bruckner and Alexander Zemlinsky are juxtaposed with music by Margaret Bond, set to poetry by Langston Hughes and other Harlem Renaissance poets. The evening concludes with more juxtaposition – an “Eclectic Mass,” a curated collection of sacred pieces past and present – works by Palestrina, Bach, Handel and Carlos Simon. Soprano Julia Bullock takes the stage, as performer, along with baritones Sankara Harouna and Norman Garrett. CSO Music Director Christian Mâcelaru conducts.
Saturday, May 16
The Water’s Journey | 7:30 p.m. Music Hall. DETAILS: This concert explores the “elemental power of water” through the music of Duke Ellington and Ralph Vaughan Williams. Ellington’s “The River” is a jazz-infused journey of the river on its way to a raucous finish at the sea. Vaughan Williams’ “Sea Symphony” sets the poetry of Walt Whitman into a celebratory image of the mystery and majesty of the ocean. CCM’s own, soprano Tamara Wilson, returns, along with baritone Norman Garrett, led again by Christian Macelaru.
Sunday, May 17
Photo by Allison Michael Orenstein
“A Dream Deferred: Langston Hughes in Song“ | 3 p.m. Memorial Hall. DETAILS. Julia Bullock and friends share the intimate stage next door for a curated recital featuring the poetry of Langston Hughes in celebration of the Harlem Renaissance. The program includes a post-concert “Talk Back.”
Tuesday, May 19
Vocal Arts Ensemble: Rossini: Petite messe solennelle | 7:30 p.m. Christ Church Cathedral. DETAILS: Cincinnati’s world-class professional chamber choir returns to May Festival after a long hiatus, under new music director, Joe Miller. The splendor of Christ Church is a perfect setting for this last major piece by Gioachino Rossini, composed 30 years after his final opera.
Interesting Fact: Inscribed on the last page of his score – amusing, as only Rossini could be…
Dear Lord, here it is finished, this poor little mass. Have I just written sacred music, or rather, sacrilegious music? I was born for opera buffa, as you well know. Not much technique, a little bit of heart, that’s all. Blessings to you and grant me Paradise.
Wrong Gioachino! A lot of technique and heart bursting at its seams, yes?
More May Festival next week…
Wednesday, May 13
Mercantile Library, “Is Is Enough”: An Evening with Lauren Camp | 6 p.m. 414 Walnut St., downtown. 513-621-0717. DETAILS: “Is Is Enough,” by Lauren Camp, looks at the ambiguous effects of Alzheimer’s disease on a father and daughter. Through bonds, disintegrating memories and unexpected futures, Camp has created a collection of poems about awareness, astonishment, absence and revelation. The author of nine poetry collections, Camp was the second poet laureate of New Mexico and is the former astronomer-in-residence of Grand Canyon National Park.
Thursday, May 14
Caffè Vivace, Organized Gentlemen | 7 p.m. 975 E. McMillan St., Walnut Hills. 513-601-9897. DETAILS: This Cincinnati-based group features organist Brian Batchelor-Glader, guitarist George Simon and Jeff Mellott on drums. The trio plays in the classic jazz organ tradition, yet with original material that “balances groove-driven joy with audience connection.”
Friday, May 15
Kentucky Symphony Orchestra, “Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme” | 7:30 p.m. Greaves Hall, Northern Kentucky University, Highland Heights. 859-431-6216. DETAILS: A full evening of Simon and Garfunkel! It doesn’t get much better than that. The KSO concludes its season with a night of folk and pop, poetics and melodies many of us know and love. All arrangements and orchestrations are by the KSO. “The Sound of Silence,” “Cecilia,” “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover” and“Scarborough Fair” are just a few of the classics on tap. Vocalists include Josh Steele, Zach Steele, Adam Wheeler and Paul Phelps. It may be worth breaking away from whatever else you’ve got going and heading to the bridge over troubled waters.
Saturday, May 16
Washington Park, City Flea | 11 a.m.-4 p.m. 1230 Elm St., Over-the-Rhine. DETAILS: Always a great day shopping, noshing and people watching. Get to know some of the region’s best artisans and purveyors – a vast array of uncommon works of art and other wares.
Sunday, May 17
Harriet Beecher Stowe House, “The Next Chapter: Brunswick” | 4 p.m. 2950 Gilbert Ave., Walnut Hills. 513-751-0651. DETAILS: Where did she go, exactly? Harriet Beecher Stowe did not spend much of her life in Cincinnati. She and her husband Calvin Stowe eventually moved to Brunswick, Maine, where she would write her famous “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” Cathi Belcher from the other Harriet Beecher Stowe House at Bowdoin College will talk about that time and the writing of that famous tome.
Queen City Opera, “Holding Hope”: Mendelssohn’s Psalm 42 | 3:30 p.m. Cincinnati Museum Center, Queensgate. 513-503-8323. DETAILS: Cincinnati’s other opera company, Queen City Opera, in collaboration with the Nancy and David Wolf Holocaust and Humanity Center, presents this concert to enhance the Center’s current portrait exhibition honoring Holocaust survivors with ties to Cincinnati. The program begins in the HHC gallery where small ensembles of QCO singers and musicians will perform short works in response to the lives and memories of those survivors. At 4:30 p.m., the musicians move to Reakirt Auditorium for selections from Felix Mendelssohn’s “Elijah” and a complete performance of his Psalm 42, a deeply personal piece in response to longing, faith and renewal. Queen City Opera Artistic Director Isaac Selya conducts.
Monday, May 18
Cincinnnati Song Initiative, In Conversation with Julia Bullock | 2 p.m. Room 3250 Mary Emery Hall, College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati. DETAILS: 2026 More Julia Bullock, as she stops in for a conversation on artistic curation, engaging with communities through the arts and her own career in the vocal arts. Samuel Martin, CSI founding artistic director, moderates. No singing, just some good conversation.
Cincinnnati Song Initiative, “Come to Ukraine, Look for America” | 7:30 p.m. Memorial Hall, 1225 Elm St., Over-the-Rhine. 513-977-8838. DETAILS: This multi-lingual event includes music in Ukrainian, Russian, German, Hebrew and English. The first concert in CSI’s week-long program about all-things song explores the shared stories and unexpected connections and commonalities between countries, continents and cultures. Husband and wife CCM grads, baritone Simon Barrad and pianist Kseniia Polstiankina, perform.
Tuesday, May 19
Christ Church Cathedral, Music Live at Lunch | 12:10 p.m. 318 Fourth St., downtown. 513-621-1817. DETAILS: Local favorite Pork City Slim provides lunchtime entertainment this week. Settle in for some traditional acoustic blues while you munch on the lunch you bring or purchase at the church. Take a break. You deserve it.
Cincinnati Song Initiative, The Fellowship of the Song: Fellows’ Opening Concert | 7:30 p.m. Werner Recital Hall, College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati. DETAILS: This annual festival of song opens with performances by those selected as 2026 Fellowship of the Song fellows. Sopranos Alexandra Henderson, Michaela Kelly and Margaret Tigue; mezzo-soprano Isabel Randell; and baritone Jonathan Eyers are joined by pianists Jeongmin Oak, Amanda Raymond, William Shi, Daniel Peter Silcock and Jarod Yap.
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