Peter Landgren

ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

Like Professor Shaw, I too am clearly biased since I am proud to serve CCM as Dean. I attended the concert performance of Strauss’ masterwork, “Salome”, and couldn’t have been more proud to hear stellar faculty and students partner with top alumni and guests in a musically and emotionally satisfying evening. Stunning actually…

And what made “Salome” even more stunning, was that two weeks and a day later, the same Philharmonia Orchestra under the direction of Mark Gibson led a remarkable rendition of Honegger’s “Joan of Arc at the Stake”…two weeks of preparation!!

And then there was “Il Signor Bruschino” with great direction, voices, set, costumes and an expert orchestra of ten musicians performing one on a part. Nothing could have been more aesthetically satisfying. But then CCM continues to produce Transmigration – CCM Drama students original work, Musical Theatre Senior Showcase, Ariel Quartet, Dance Choreographer’s Showcase…and it just doesn’t end.

Thanks to Rafael de Acha for this blog and his astute reflections on the magic that is created at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, or CCM as we know it.

Peter Landgren, CCM Dean
Thomas James Kelly Professor of Music

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.”