Saturday Oct. 3 8:00pm

This Land Was Made for You and Me:A Tribute to Woody Guthrie

Jake Speed and the Freddies with MUSE and more!

Saturday Nov. 14 8:00pm

Sunday Nov. 15 3:00pm

 Hope Sings Eternal:  The Women Gather

MUSE - Cincinnati's Women's Choir

Dr. Catherine Roma, Artistic Director

in Concert with
Kathy Y. Wilson Writer and Closet Poet
with Liz Wu, multi-instrumentalist

MUSE collaborates with local writer Kathy Y. Wilson in an exiting program where performers celebrate life with prose, poetry, and music. This concert celebrates the tenacity and healing strength of women. In a beautiful traditional setting of an Iraqi lullaby, MUSE sings in Arabic accompanied by dumbek and cello. "Lullabies lead us to the deepest and most fundamental way of communication between human beings. It is where all sharing of ideas and feelings starts, between mother and child..."

 

Saturday Feb. 27 10:30 am

Wild Carrot & the Roots Band.  "Our Roots are Showing" - an interactive "edutainment" concert for youth and families.

Pam Temple and Spencer Funk are Wild Carrot

Brenda Wolfersberger and Brandt Smith are Roots Band

Both from Cincinnati, Pamela and Spencer are rooted in traditional folk music but branch in diverse directions. With over 10 years of classical vocal training, Pamela has performed in many venues from coffeehouses to opera houses. Her experience as a Peace Corps volunteer in Costa Rica helped her develop an honest and intelligent song-writing style. Spencer has always been drawn to fingerstyle guitar but has studied and performed many styles including jazz, blues, and classical for over 30 years. He has been in demand as a side-man over the years and teaches guitar, mandolin, banjo and bass.

Pamela and Spencer met back in 1991 at the then 30+-year-old Leo Coffeehouse when he was managing the place and she was singing at an open mic. After a few years they decided to join forces and as their musical relationship took root so did their personal relationship and they're still growing. With any luck both will continue long after people stop asking, "Is the name wild carrot a reference to her hair?"

What's In a Name?

So, where did we get the name "Wild Carrot'?  Wild Carrot is the same as Queen Anne's lace.  Our music has been described as being rooted in the solid earth of tradition, while displaying a delicate musical intricacy, like the flower of Queen Anne's lace.  Strong but subtle; untainted by commercialism; honest and organic.

Sunday, March 7 3:00 pm

The Cincinnati Boy Choir

Christopher Eanes, Artistic Director

 Founded in 1965, the Cincinnati Boychoir celebrates its 44th year during the 2008-2009 school year, presenting its own six-concert subscription series and giving approximately thirty-five outreach performances for symphonies, television, community organizations, churches, nursing homes, weddings, clubs, and retirement homes.

Professional performances of the Cincinnati Boychoir have included appearances with the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra in Hawaii, the Vienna Boys Choir, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and May Festival Chorus, and the Field Studies International Honors Children’s Choir in New York’s Carnegie Hall. The choir has presented auditioned concerts for the American Choral Directors Association National Conventions in Chicago and Los Angeles and the opening ceremonies of the Music Educators National Conference national convention. The boychoir has sung several times in the Crystal Cathedral, aired internationally on the Hour of Power.

The choir has performed for many television productions and has been featured recently on many local radio stations, including WGUC, Cincinnati’s classical music station. Concert tours have been given in twenty states, Austria, Germany, the Czech Republic, Canada, and Washington, D.C.

Saturday April 17 8:00pm

Cincinnati Men's Chorus

Dr. Patrick Coyle, Artistic Director

The Cincinnati Men's Chorus (CMC) is a voluntary, not-for-profit community chorus organized to provide the opportunity for gay men and gay-supportive men to sing together. The primary purpose of CMC is musical excellence for education, enjoyment, and cultural enrichment of our audiences and ourselves. While striving to achieve this purpose, the chorus also seeks to provide social and fellowship experiences that reach beyond the realm of musical purpose to deepen and enrich our lives. In addition, we provide opportunities to present a positive image of the gay community to the general public by being identified as an organization of individuals who are making a contribution to the entire community.

The chorus, now in its 19th season, is under the direction of Dr. Patrick O. Coyle, who took up the artistic director’s baton in June 1995. The chorus has performed in festivals in Tampa, Fla., San Jose, Calif., Montreal, Quebec and Miami, Fla. CMC has appeared in concert with Gay and Lesbian Association of Choruses (GALA) member choruses and ensembles in Columbus, Cleveland, Lexington, Louisville, Indianapolis and Detroit, as well as with MUSE: Cincinnati’s Women’s Choir.

CMC has a long and proud history of community outreach. On one weekend this October, CMC singers appeared at the Greater Cincinnati GLBTQ Youth Summit at Northern Kentucky University (a repeat from a performance in 2007) and at a special commemoration of Coming Out Day during Sunday services at St. John Unitarian Universalist Church in Clifton.

The chorus has performed for more than a decade at the annual fundraising walk for Stop AIDS. It apparently is the only Ohio Arts Council-funded group with a regular event at a homeless shelter; CMC singers go each holiday season to the Drop Inn Center in Over-the-Rhine. In recent seasons, the chorus has held concerts benefiting Equality Cincinnati’s Safe Schools project, Stop AIDS and the local PFLAG chapter’s scholarship fund.

Over the years, the chorus has given away countless tickets to people with HIV as well to as the gay/straight alliances of local high schools. Finally, chorus members also have given away copies of each of the group’s CDs to the Public Library of Cincinnati & Hamilton County.

The chorus joined with MUSE to host GALA’s first Eastern Regional Festival in 2002. The July 4 weekend festival, which brought nearly 1,000 singers to the Aronoff Center for the Arts, included free public performances in Fountain Square and at Findlay Market.

In December 2002, CMC made its first appearance at Music Hall – joining the Cincinnati Pops for a second time (after a summer 2001 appearance at Riverbend). The holiday appearance with the Pops won praise from critics of both the Cincinnati Enquirer and the Cincinnati Post.

CMC was among the choruses that joined the Pops in May 2004 for another series of concerts, this time featuring the music of Academy Award-winning composer Miklos Rozsa.

In February 2007, the chorus appeared with two University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music choirs and performed Mahler’s Second Symphony with UC’s Philharmonia Orchestra.

The chorus receives funding from the Ohio Arts Council, the Fine Arts Fund and the Duke Energy Foundation. It receives support from the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, CMC’s concert home in downtown Cincinnati, and is affiliated with Enjoy The Arts/START. CMC rehearses at St. John’s Unitarian Universalist Church. More information about CMC is available at its Web site, www.cincinnatimenschorus.org or by calling (513) 542-2626.