In its 13th season, concert:nova’s Festival of Words dives into the synergy of words and music with three events.
“From our first season, several programs incorporated words and music,” says Ted Nelson, cellist and concert:nova producing artistic director. “But Festival of Words is devoted to music prompting responses with narrative and vice-versa.”
The series begins on Saturday Oct. 26 as part of another fest — Books by the Banks — with a free family-friendly performance at 12:45 p.m. of Ferdinand the Bull, co-sponsored by classical radio station WGUC.
Written for solo violin and speaker by Alan Ridout, this delightful 10-minute piece features Munro Leaf’s beloved tale of a bull who would rather “sit quietly and smell the flowers” than fight the Madrid matador squad. Naomi Lewin, producer and host for WGUC’s popular series Classics for Kids, narrates the story while Yan Isquierdo, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra diversity fellow, lends the soundtrack as violin soloist.
Audiences can provide their own words via a storytelling session with Bespoken — an organization devoted to storytelling as a way to foster community and communication — the following afternoon, Oct. 27 at 3 p.m. Founded in 2015 as a nonprofit branch of media company Rebel Pilgrim, Bespoken has since expanded its offerings to include weekly gatherings and workshops on college campuses and community centers.
Their collaboration with concert:nova marks the first time that music has been on an equal footing with stories, says Bespoken co-founder Brad Wise.
“We’ve never done anything like this before and I’m really excited,” he says. “When we hear these amazing professionals play this music, what will happen?”
The venue is Rebel Pilgrim’s space on Walnut Street. Though the playlist was still being curated when we spoke, Wise says it will cover a range of styles, including Pop.
“Any one piece can trigger so many memories and spark feelings,” he says. “Then we’ll split up into smaller groups to tell our stories.”
Wrapping up the Festival of Words weekend, Cincinnati-native poet Jon Sands returns to perform selections from his most recent collection, It’s Not Magic, a winner in the 2018 National Poetry Series competition.
Sands’s most recent poems explore the experiences of approaching middle age — he’s 36 — and taking on adulthood as a husband and a father, as well as looking back to his adolescence.
“They’re artifacts of an actual lived journey, so just like life, they’re funny, serious and come with their own contradictions,” he said by email. “I found that I couldn’t address loneliness without also addressing privilege and its consequences. I couldn’t address either without traveling back to high school, and considering the stories that made me who I am.”
Sands’s last appearance with concert:nova was in 2013, and he’ll have the same musical forces as six years ago: cellist Ted Nelson, pianist Julie Spangler and percussionist Patrick Schleker.
“Jon’s poetry covers a lot of ground and, when curating the music, we’re trying to reflect that range,” says Ixi Chen. concert:nova’s managing artistic director.
Sands is equally inspired by concert:nova’s commitment to collaboration with artists across the spectrum.
“I love that their mission brings classically trained musicians to people who might not otherwise seek them out,” he says. “I feel the same way about poetry, this word that conjures such different images in each person’s head. One person is thinking T.S. Eliot, another Tupac, and no one’s wrong.”
But he also knows, too, that general audiences aren’t picturing what he does, which he says “means it’s on curators to find exciting ways to bring the work to the people. concert:nova does that.”
Sands and the concert:nova trio perform at First Lutheran Church on Race Street, an intimate venue with perfect acoustics.
“There are people (in Cincinnati) who have known me since I was a baby,” he says. “That history, I think, is palpable in the room. Growth is probably the thing in my life that’s most important to me, and right behind it is being recognizable to the people who have known me the longest.”
concert:nova’s Festival of Words unfolds Oct. 26-27. More info: concertnova.com.
