Summermusik Festival’s second half features Puerto Rican music, a fan-favorite guitarist and “Sin”cinnati
Music director Eckart Preu welcomes cuatro virtuoso Fabiola Méndez, Victoria Okafor, and chamber rock guitarist Roger Klug to Cincinnati stages.
Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra’s Summermusik Festival is already a few weeks deep into its run, and if the opening weekend’s world premiere and string of Chamber Crawls are anything to go by, it’s easy to feel like you missed the party. However, there’s more music and events through August 29, including some of its biggest, most talked-about programs starting this weekend.
That’s good news for anyone still weighing whether to grab a ticket. Late summer in Cincinnati already means patio nights and one last round of outdoor concerts, but Summermusik makes the case for spending an evening indoors instead. The next two weeks pack a Puerto Rico-themed orchestral showcase, a genre-bending sung ballet, and a guitarist with a devoted local following into venues across the city.
Summermusik built its reputation on giving Cincinnati three very different ways into chamber music: full-orchestra Mainstage concerts at the School for Creative and Performing Arts, casual Chamber Crawl evenings at venues around town, and intimate Sunday matinees. It offers something unique for everyone’s musical tastes, and the festival’s final two weeks prove the point, moving from a full-orchestra trip to Puerto Rico, to a sung ballet about sin, to the return of a Chamber Crawl favorite.
Music from the “Isla del Encanto: Puerto Rico”
On Saturday, August 15, the Mainstage program lands at 7:30 p.m. at SCPA’s Corbett Theatre, the festival’s largest and most dramatic venue, and the one worth clearing your calendar for. The Island of Enchantment is built entirely around music from Puerto Rico, or “Isla del Encanto.” Cuatro virtuoso Fabiola Méndez, who counts Bad Bunny among her fans, joins the orchestra for Ernesto Cordero’s “Concierto Criollo for Cuatro,” receiving its Cincinnati premiere. Grammy-nominated composer Roberto Sierra’s Sinfonia No. 3, “La Salsa,” traces the island’s musical history across four movements, and the program also features two emerging composers, Luis Quintana and Angélica Negrón. A pre-concert talk with Music Director Eckart Preu and Méndez starts at 6:45 pm, and single tickets run $12 to $45.
Readers who want to keep the island theme going have a second option the very next afternoon: ¡Jangueo boricua! (Puerto Rican Hangout), a more casual gathering at the Delhi Event Center on August 16.
It’s worth underscoring how rare a program like this is for a regional orchestra: an entire Mainstage concert built around one culture’s composers, past and present, rather than a single piece slotted alongside the usual European staples. For anyone who’s been curious about Summermusik but hasn’t tried it yet, this is as strong an entry point as the festival offers.
“Sin”cinnati features Beethoven, Gesualdo, Strauss and Rossini
A week later, on Saturday, August 22, at 4 p.m., Summermusik returns to SCPA for “Sin”cinnati, a Mainstage program built around pride, envy, lust, and gluttony in music by Beethoven, Gesualdo, Strauss and Rossini. The centerpiece is Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s “The Seven Deadly Sins“, a genre-bending “sung ballet” featuring award-winning soprano Victoria Okafor and Cincinnati Ballet’s Simone Muhammad, choreographed by Joshua Stayton.
Soapbox readers may remember Okafor from an earlier profile of the festival’s local artists. She’s one of the key performers anchoring this program and hearing her take on Weill’s iconic vocal line live, opposite Muhammad’s choreography, is reason enough to buy a ticket. Tickets are $12 to $45, with a pre-concert talk at 3:15 p.m..
American Beauties at The Redmoor
On Tuesday and Wednesday, August 25 and 26, at 7:30 p.m., the festival shifts gears entirely for “American Beauties” at The Redmoor. Guitarist Roger Klug, a Summermusik regular whose “chamber rock” arrangements have made him one of the festival’s most requested returning artists, leads a celebration of American songwriters including Paul Simon, Randy Newman, Brian Wilson, and Bob Dylan. Both nights run about 75 minutes with no intermission, general admission seating, and one drink included with every ticket. Additional food and drink are available from the Redmoor’s kitchen and bar, making it as much a night out as a concert. It is the kind of program that appeals equally to classical loyalists and rock fans who have never set foot at a chamber concert, and with two performances on back-to-back nights, there’s no excuse to miss it.
However, a listener likes chamber music, whether that’s full orchestra under theater lights, a genre-bending sung ballet, or a guitar-driven night out with a cocktail in hand, the back half of Summermusik has something worth building a weekend around. Single tickets range from $12 for students to $45 for Mainstage seats, and subscriptions and flex passes remain the best value for anyone planning to catch more than one program. Groups of ten or more heading to any Mainstage or matinee performance also receive 20% off single-ticket rates by calling the box office directly.
All of it is on sale now at summermusik.org. The festival wraps August 29 with
Musical Renegades: Mozart and Zappa,” a fittingly unconventional finale for a festival that’s built its whole identity on not doing chamber music the expected way.
With two weeks of programming, there’s no better time to grab a seat, whether it’s your first Summermusik concert or the fifteenth.
Summermusik Festival tickets and event links:
Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra is an underwriter of Soapbox Cincinnati.
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