The May Festival is the oldest continuing choral festival in the Western Hemisphere. Last year, the festival retooled with a new approach to programming and with two new leaders in performance and administrative roles.
Julianne Akins Smith took over as executive director in November, following Steven R. Sunderman’s retirement. Last June, Dr. Matthew Swanson was named director of choruses, following Robert Porco’s retirement.
Swanson is building on extensive innovations in repertoire, collaboration, choral and community engagement as he completes his first season in his new role. He prepares the 130-voice May Festival Chorus and is artistic leader for the May Festival Chamber Choir, the May Festival Youth Chorus and the Cincinnati Boychoir.
Two years ago, the May Festival announced a collaborative model of an annually appointed festival director working with the director of choruses on programming. This year, acclaimed American soprano Renée Fleming serves in that role, performing with the choruses, presenting a master class and convening a symposium on music and health.
It’s exciting, ambitious programming that reflects Fleming’s passion for working with young singers and the interplay between music and neuroscience.
“These are all my favorite things,” Fleming tells CityBeat. “I had the distinct pleasure of putting together a list of young singers I might like to hear in the Verdi Requiem. The festival administration put it together.”
Verdi’s Requiem, a classic choral works, opens the season on May 16 and Fleming’s choices are all A-listers. Soprano Angela Meade, mezzo J’Nai Bridges, tenor Jonathan Burton and bass David Leigh all make May Festival debuts. Bridges was a sensational Carmen in Cincinnati Opera’s 2021 production. Ramón Tebar, who has conducted for the CSO and Cincinnati Opera, will be on the podium.
“It’s a kind of Olympian feat of music,” Swanson says. “Everyone on stage has to sing the highest they sing or play the lowest, the loudest, the softest, the fastest, the slowest.”
The following Sunday, all the May Festival’s choral forces perform in Chasing the Dawn: A Choral Journey at Music Hall. Swanson and Jason Alexander Holmes, associate director of choruses, conduct what Swanson believes is the first Music Hall performance where the choruses are featured performers.
Fleming’s involvement inspired the program’s arc. “We could have done a showcase concert, but we thought it would be more compelling if there was some kind of unifying concept or theme,” Swanson says. “Renee’s performance of the song cycle, ‘The Brightness of Light’ started us off thinking of the different ways in which light is represented in choral music.”
“The program begins with the end of the workday,” Swanson continues, “and transitions into evening into the darkest parts of the night, with sunrise the next morning into a fuller appearance of day.”
The program features works by Alfred Schnittke, Luther Vandross, Lili Boulanger, Morten Lauridsen and arrangements by Swanson and Holmes.
On Tuesday, May 20, Fleming hosts a panel discussion on the intersection of music and science featuring local experts in the fields of science, music and mental health.
Shortly after she was appointed artistic advisor to the Kennedy Center in 2016, Fleming created a collaboration with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to form the Sound Health initiative. She helped to secure $20 million from NIH for continuing research and edited Music and Mind, a collection of essays published last year.
“I never would have guessed that scientists would be studying music at all,” she says. “After I participated in my own MRI study at the NIH, it became clear to me how this works. There’s so much they’re discovering, like the fact that an Alzheimer’s patient who may not be able to speak or recognize people can sing lyrics to songs perfectly.”
The following day, Fleming conducts a master class in collaboration with Cincinnati Song Initiative.
On Thursday, May 22, Fleming takes the stage as a soloist, joined by baritone Rod Gilfry in a performance of Pulitzer Prize winner Kevin Puts’ The Brightness of Light, based on letters exchanged between legendary artist Georgia O’Keefe and her husband, photographer Alfred Stieglitz. Images of their letters and art appear throughout. It premiered as a solo song cycle for Fleming who later suggested expanding the piece to include Stieglitz’s words.
“We’ve done this a number of times now and it’s really a joy,” says Fleming. “Kevin sets text in a really extraordinary way. The final song for Brightness of Light capture is so exquisite, the way that it pairs with the text is so perfect. He’s great at that.”
Swanson agrees, adding, “It unfolds as one piece, and there’s a sense of losing track of time because he’s woven this story together so beautifully.”
Also on the program are Stravinsky’s massive Symphony of Psalms and Vaughan Williams’ “Serenade to Music,” conducted by former May Festival Artistic Director Juanjo Mena.
The season finale on Saturday, May 24 presents Fleming’s “incredible stylistic diversity” in a program featuring selections from her Grammy-winning album Voice of Nature: The Anthropocene, along with stunning visuals. The CSO and the May Festival Chorus join her for classics from folk, opera, pop and Broadway.
Fleming says she’s looking forward to having that choral powerhouse backing her up under the baton of Robert Moody.
“I really enjoy working with Robert since he has a great choral background, this is going to be a special pleasure.”
For Swanson, this first season at the helm of the May Festival’s choruses is already beyond what he says is an honor and pleasure to work with Fleming.
Swanson joined the chorus’ tenor section for the 2011-12 season and held administrative and artistic positions as he completed his Doctoral of Musical Arts from the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music.
The chorus rehearses weekly from 7-10 p.m. Swanson values the time and energy invested by the volunteer singers.
He understands the choristers’ commitment from his own experience and pays it forward with his singers.
“My past May Festival experiences hugely inform how I approach rehearsing and preparing it with the chorus, especially Verdi’s Requiem. So, I’m grateful for all those experiences and having fun with the chorus.”
The May Festival runs from May 16-24. More info: mayfestival.com.
This story is featured in CityBeat’s April 30 print edition.
This article appears in Apr 30 – May 13, 2025.
