Special Programs & Events

Music in the Museum Concert Series

Cincinnati Museum Center presents the seventh season of Music in the Museum concerts. These concerts feature the outstanding 1929 E.M. Skinner Symphonic Concert Organ in the lush, reverberant acoustics of Cincinnati Museum Center's Rotunda. All concerts will start at 7:30 p.m. Parking is free.

Monday, October 26, 2009

Herndon SPILLMAN with The Xavier University Concert Choir, Tom Merrill, Director

A protégé of Maurice Duruflé, Herndon Spillman is highly regarded as an interpreter of Duruflé's music. He studied with Duruflé for two years and his publication, The Organ Works of Maurice Duruflé, is regarded as an important reference source regarding the interpretation of this literature. He was the first to record the complete organ works of Duruflé on an album that later received the "Grand Prix du Disque" in France. Spillman has earned an international reputation for his interpretations of the works of the French composers. He is in demand as a recitalist here and abroad, frequently touring in France where appearances include major festivals and recordings for radio broadcast.

“A master organist, he approached every page with a penetrating sense of phrasing. No detail of registration was too tiny to be overlooked, yet his readings were somehow free of the fussiness many performers adopt when playing in full view of their audience." (The Evening Star, Washington) "An organist who is as virtuosic as he is sensitive, as brilliant as he is inspired, who excels in interpreting the elegance of these works which are so full of poetry and spiritual exaltation...his was the touch of the master." (Le Bien Public, Dijon, France)

February 22, 2010

John Scott with Randolph Bowman, Principal Flutist of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra

In 1990 John Scott became Organist and Director of Music of St Paul’s Cathedral, London, where he served for fourteen years. In the summer of 2004 he moved to New York to assume the post as Organist and Director of Music at Saint Thomas Church, Fifth Avenue, New York, where he directs the renowned choir of men and boys. John Scott’s many recordings include the organ sonatas of Elgar, organ music by William Mathias, the complete organ works of Duruflé and Mendelssohn, as well as two discs of music by Dupré.

"As we have come to expect from Scott, the playing is superb--that perfect combination of technical virtuosity and intense musicianship which is so rare among organists." (Gramophone) “One of the world's leading organists...technical brilliance and solid musicianship." (The American Organist)

May 3, 2010

Frederic Champion with the College Conservatory of Music Men’s Chorus

Frederic Champion was winner of the 2008 Canadian International Organ Competition (CIOC) held in Montreal and has performed as a solo organist and with orchestras and choirs around the world. Recent performance venues include Chartres Cathedral (France), the Frauenkirche in Dresden (Germany), St. Thomas Church in Leipzig (Germany), Kawasaki Symphony Hall, Suntory Hall and Musashino bunka kaikan in Tokyo (Japan), and Symphony Hall in Osaka, Japan. Born in Lyon, France, Mr. Champion studied at the Conservatoire de Région in Lyon, at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris, and at the Centre d’Études Musicales Supérieures (CEMS) in Toulouse. Mr. Champion has been heard on Radio-France, Austrian radio stations and Japanese TV/Radio broadcasts. Several compositions have been dedicated to him.

About the E.M. Skinner Concert Organ

The grand E. M. Skinner Concert Pipe Organ is located in the Rotunda of Cincinnati Museum Center near the OMNIMAX Theater. The Rotunda has a reverberation time of approximately five seconds and has been described by Cincinnati Enquirer classical music critic Janelle Gelfand as "an ideal environment for organ."

The main organ was located through the Organ Historical Society and rescued from a church in Philadelphia. Members of the Crosley family and the Franciscan Health Care System provided the E.M. Skinner organ from the former Powel Crosley Jr. residence. Both E. M. Skinner organs were built in 1929, the year the Cincinnati Union Terminal began construction.

The organ is separated into "Divisions," with certain sets of pipes located in each and played mainly from one of the four keyboards or the pedal board. The divisions are hidden behind facades resembling ticket counters toward the back of the Rotunda. Solo, Great and Pedal divisions are located immediately to the left of the concourse, and Choir and Swell divisions immediately to the right. The yet-to-be-completed Antiphonal division will be located near the entrance to the Cincinnati History Museum. With the Antiphonal division, the organ will have over 4,000 pipes.

Cincinnati Museum Center plans to use the organ for periodic concerts and, eventually, for daily use as part of educational programs.