ABOUT DR. EARL RIVERS

ABOUT DR. EARL RIVERS

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Dr. Earl Rivers has guided the CCM Choral Program to greatness over his nearly fifty-year’s as a member of the CCM family. Rivers began as a professor with CCM in 1973, and has grown the program to one of great acclaim as he rose to Director of Choral Activities. His graduate conducting program was recognized by U.S. News and World Report as one of the U.S.A.’s leading programs and his Choral Program was the recipient of the Dale Warland Singers Score Library and Archives. The program has also hosted the winter Central Division convention of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) and the national conference of the National Collegiate Choral Organization (NCCO).

He conducted CCM’s forces in acclaimed university and regional premieres of John Adams’ On the Transmigration of Souls and El Niño, J.S. Bach’s Mass in B Minor with Bastian Clevé’s film The Sound of Eternity, Tan Dun’s Water Passion after St. Matthew, Augusta Read Thomas's Ring Out, Wild Bells, To The Wild Sky, Alfred Schnittke's Concerto for Choir, Philip Glass’s Symphony No. 5 -Requiem, and Bardo and Nirmanakaya, and Krzysztof Penderecki’s Credo. He has led the CCM Chamber Choir and Philharmonia Orchestra in the cycle of J.S. Bach's choral and orchestral masterworks, featuring Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, St. John Passion, and St. Matthew Passion on a concert tour of Portugal, as well as presenting these works before the National and Central Division Conventions of ACDA.

Throughout his time at CCM, he championed Early Music with successful productions of Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610, Music of Love and War, and the recent CCM Monteverdi Festival, all integrating CCM students with professional Early Music guest artists and coaches. In 2014-16, he produced The Shakespeare Quadricentennial, CCM’s two-year commemoration of the playwright's legacy through choral music, featuring CCM Chamber Choir premieres of three newly commissioned works on Shakespeare texts by composers Judith Bingham, Dominick DiOrio, and Jake Runestad. In the 2019-20 season, Rivers conducted CCM’s Chamber Choir in Dallapiccola’s Canti di Prigionia and was scheduled to conduct Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 (April 2020, cancelled due to COVID-19).  

 Since 1974, Rivers has served as director of music for Hyde Park’s Knox Presbyterian Church, where his Knox Choir has commissioned and premiered 12 new works, offered Cincinnati premieres of J.S. Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, Berlioz’s L’enfance du Christ, and Vaughan Williams’ Hodie, and has been acclaimed by Cincinnati Magazine as "Best Church Music in Cincinnati." Rivers has led the Knox Choir and orchestra in J.S. Bach’s Christmas Oratorio (December 2019) and James MacMillan’s Seven Last Words from the Cross (April 2010), to much praise from the Cincinnati community. 

 A coveted guest conductor, Earl Rivers has lead South Korea’s top professional choirs — Inchon City Chorale, Changwon City Chorale, Suwon City Chorale, and Gangneung Civic Choir in the Korean premiere of Arvo Part's Berliner Mass and has lead Festival Choirs and Orchestras in Syros, Greece, Vienna, Florence, Paris, and at New Yorl City’s beloved Carnegie Hall. He has taught conducting, coached choirs, and presented lectures and masterclasses in China, South Korea, and has appeared as a guest at the Taipei International Choral Festival in Taiwan. Rivers served as Artistic Director USA for the World Choir Games in Shaoxing, China. More recently he has served as Music Panelist for the National Endowment of the Arts, and has led more than 40 years of programs for conventions of the American Choral Directors Association. He has also produced and conducted premieres of staged productions of J.S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion and St. John Passion, and Honegger’s Joan of Arc at the Stake for acclaimed American University. 

 Rivers has received Choral America’s Michael Korn Founders Award for Development of the Choral Art, honoring a lifetime of significant contributions to the professional choral art, and Chorus America’s Director Laureate Award, an honorary title recognizing an individual who has demonstrated extraordinary leadership and has had a significant impact on the choral field. Rivers is also a long-time member of the Board of Directors of Chorus America, the national service organization to develop and promote professional, volunteer, and youth choruses.  

ABOUT THE COLLEGE-CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC

ABOUT THE COLLEGE-CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC

Nationally ranked and internationally renowned, the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) is a preeminent institution for the performing and media arts.  The school's educational roots date back to 1867, and a solid, visionary instruction has been at its core since that time.

CCM offers nine degree types (BA, BM, BFA, MFA, MM, MA, AD, DMA, PhD) in nearly 120 possible majors.  The synergy created by housing CCM within a comprehensive public university gives the college its unique character and defines its objective: to educate and inspire the whole artist and scholar for positions on the world stage.

CCM works to bring out the best in its students, faculty and staff by valuing their unique backgrounds, experiences and perspectives.  CCM's student population hails from 43 different US states and 32 different countries.  The school's roster of eminent faculty members regularly receives distinguished honors for creative and scholarly work, and its alumni have achieved notable success.

For more information about CCM, please visit us online at ccm.uc.edu.

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ABOUT

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Friends and Alumni Fueling the Future of the Arts

CCMpower is a group of friends and alumni working behind the scenes, setting the stage for our students to be and to create what comes next in the performing and media arts.  We use our time, talent and resources to make students' educational journeys the most fulfilling experience possible.  I am proud to be the President of this exceptional organization.

CCMpower generates essential support to fund student scholarships, projects and travel opportunities.  These educational experiences are essential to the CCM education.  They provide students with creative opportunities that are vital to their growth as creators and collaborators, but may not be covered under traditional instruction.  CCMpower also provides funding to faculty for guest artist and master class experiences that open our students' minds to the world of possibilities – and even open doors to the start of their careers.

Your support of CCMpower is an acknowledgement that you believe in supporting young artists who will grace the world's stages in just a few short years, who will push the boundaries and who will define the future of their art forms.  It is a definitive step that says you believe in the transformative power of the arts.

Join me in supporting CCM's students and faculty through a donation to CCMpower.  Your gift demonstrates to these incredible students that their gift of talent is valuable and necessary to our community and our world.

Patti Myers
President, CCMpower

ABOUT

ccm_power_logo
ccm_patti_myers_480

Friends and Alumni Fueling the Future of the Arts

CCMpower is a group of friends and alumni working behind the scenes, setting the stage for our students to be and to create what comes next in the performing and media arts.  We use our time, talent and resources to make students' educational journeys the most fulfilling experience possible.  I am proud to be the President of this exceptional organization.

CCMpower generates essential support to fund student scholarships, projects and travel opportunities.  These educational experiences are essential to the CCM education.  They provide students with creative opportunities that are vital to their growth as creators and collaborators, but may not be covered under traditional instruction.  CCMpower also provides funding to faculty for guest artist and master class experiences that open our students' minds to the world of possibilities – and even open doors to the start of their careers.

Your support of CCMpower is an acknowledgement that you believe in supporting young artists who will grace the world's stages in just a few short years, who will push the boundaries and who will define the future of their art forms.  It is a definitive step that says you believe in the transformative power of the arts.

Join me in supporting CCM's students and faculty through a donation to CCMpower.  Your gift demonstrates to these incredible students that their gift of talent is valuable and necessary to our community and our world.

Patti Myers
President, CCMpower