ECKART PREU TAKES OVER THE CCO

ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

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The Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra has just hired a Music Director.

His name is Eckart Preu (pronounce that Proy and you’ll be pretty close to the right German pronunciation). He is a youthful 47, very personable, tall and ruggedly handsome, German born and trained.

But, what is more important than age and looks and personality and birthplace and training is that Maestro Preu is a very fine conductor. Check him out on his website: http://www.orchestraconductor.org

The rank and file of the orchestra loved him when he was here last summer to conduct the final concert of the CCO’s 2016 season. The audience loved him too. Musically speaking he scored with everyone, including me. Here’s what I wrote in this blog after his concert last September:

Eckart Preu is an immensely talented conductor, one capable of moving with ease from the cutting edge sounds of del Águila and Bjarnason to the Americana of Aaron Copland and then on to the Gallic Romanticism of Saint-Saëns and, finally, impress with an exquisite Mozart performance. This concert concludes the 2016 season by reminding us of how fortunate it is for us to have not one but two great orchestras in our town. But, beyond that, of the two, the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra has been reborn into a very fine ensemble, and that is more than cause for celebration. What lies ahead now is the choice of Music Director for this worthy member organization of the music scene in Cincinnati, one who will lead it into the next chapter of its musical life. After hearing tonight’s performance I know who my choice would be.

Preu will be leading the CCO into the next phase of its relatively short forty-three year old life, one that has been artistically and financially a musical roller coaster. Some of the previous  conductors came and went a little too quickly to really leave an imprint. Others slugged their way through years of financial instability. None of that bode well for a musical organization that deserves to be a jewel in the Cincinnati musical crown.

But with a now larger and stronger board of directors, a dedicated administrative staff, a terrific group of musicians,  generous support from Arts Wave Community Campaign, the Ohio Arts Council and season sponsors Robert and Debra Chavez the CCO has a winning formula. Add to that mix a very fine conductor with musical fire in his belly, inspired musicality and people skills and you got a winner.

Eckart Preu will be keeping the airlines in business. With this, now his third major steady gig (Spokane and Stamford are the other two) plus guest conducting stints all over the map, he will be all over the place geographically but very much musically here heart and soul when he returns next summer to helm the orchestra’s 2017 season. More about that soon.

In the meantime here’s wishing the CCO and Maestro Eckart Preu all our best wishes.

Published by ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

Rafael de Acha has enjoyed a distinguished career in the arts as a performer, stage director, producer, and educator. He was born and grew up in Cuba. At the age of 17 he moved to the United States to study Drama at the University of Minnesota, and later Languages at L.A. City College, Music at the Juilliard School of Music, at the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music, and at the New England Conservatory of Music, from which he received the Master's degree. He has taught courses on the History of Music at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music and at Florida International University, and contributed writings and reviews to Seen and Heard International (www.seenandheard-international.com ) and to this blog. He co-founded the award-winning New Theatre in Coral Gables, Florida, where he produced and staged twenty seasons of classical and contemporary theater, including fifty world premieres of plays that went on to have international and national productions on and off Broadway, including Ana in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz (Pulitzer Prize for Drama 2002 and Tony Nomination 2003.) In 2006 he was presented with a citation from The Dade County Cultural Affairs Council for “trailblazing contributions to the arts in South Florida.”