RENT, CABARET, LA BOHÈME, and More Set For The University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music

The University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) has announced its initial schedule of major performances for 2026-27. These 15 events include beloved titles for the stage like La bohème, RENT and Cabaret, along with concerts showcasing the works of Gustav Mahler, Duke Ellington and John Williams ... just to name a few highlights!

This schedule of major performances runs Sept. 15, 2026, through April 23, 2027. Tickets for all 15 concerts and shows listed below are on sale now. See individual performance listings for additional information.

PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE

Russian Giants

September 15

The CCM Philharmonia kicks off the season with guest conductor Timothy Muffitt in a program of Russian masterworks, including the rarely heard Symphony No. 3 by Sergei Rachmaninoff.

PROKOFIEV: Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Major, Op. 26 (1921)

RACHMANINOFF: Symphony No. 3 in A Minor, Op. 44 (1936)

Estimated run time: 100 minutes

Location: Corbett Auditorium

Places We Can No Longer Go

September 17

CCM welcomes guest composer John Mackey in a concert that showcases Places we can no longer go, featuring GRAMMY Award-nominated soprano Lindsay Kesselman. Written about Mackey's mother's struggle with dementia, Places we can no longer go is the story of the disease, but in reverse as confusion turns to clarity, and grief turns into comfort. The concert opens with CCM Commercial Music Production faculty member Jasmine Guo's the sound of where i came from. Commissioned by the League of American Orchestras, Guo's piece acts as a musical exploration of home, culture and personal memory. The performance closes with Mackey's newest work The isle is full of noises, inspired by Shakespeare's The Tempest.

GUO: the sound of where I came from

MACKEY: Places we can no longer go

MACKEY: The isle is full of noises, Symphony No. 2

Estimated run time: 90 minutes, including a 15-minute intermission

Location: Corbett Auditorium

Lerner and Loewe's Brigadoon in Concert

September 25-26

The CCM Philharmonia and CCM Musical Theatre collaborate on a special concert performance of Lerner and Loewe's Brigadoon. Brigadoon tells the story of a mystical Scottish village that appears for only one day every 100 years. The musical concert blends romance and fantasy with some of Broadway's most recognizable songs, including "The Heather on the Hill" and "Almost Like Being in Love." Presented with colorful lighting designed by CCM Lighting Design and Technology students.

Estimated run time: 2 hours and 15 minutes, including one 15-minute intermission

Location: Corbett Auditorium

Tickets: $26 adult, $15 student, $20 UC faculty/staff, $10 UC student, $5 CCM student; group discounts available.

Intimate Apparel

October 1-3

Inspired by turn-of-the-century photographs of her own relatives, Nottage's play follows the life of Esther, a gifted African American seamstress living in New York City in 1905. Esther creates beautiful clothes for women from every part of society, but longs for her own romantic partner and home life. While drawn to the Hasidic shopkeeper who sells her cloth, she nonetheless begins a correspondence with a Caribbean man, George, who asks to marry her, sight unseen. A delicate and tender exploration of the human heart, Intimate Apparel won the 2004 New York Drama Critics Award for Best Play.

Estimated run time: 2 hours and 15 minutes, plus one 15-minute intermission

Location: Cohen Family Studio Theater

Tickets: $26 adult, $15 student, $20 UC faculty/staff, $10 UC student, $5 CCM student; group discounts available.

La Bohème

October 29-31

Rent is overdue, but passion burns bright among a group of young friends scraping by on talent, wit and borrowed time. Puccini's soaring arias tell the tale of Mimi, Rodolfo, Marcello and Musetta — dreamers adrift in Paris on the cusp of a new century, where the city is literally reinventing itself. As the first Paris Métro trains rumble beneath, ushering in a breathless age of speed and possibility, life in the garrets above remains unchanged: cold, precarious and lit by the fierce glow of youth. A story that transcends time and place, its message is for the artists, the dreamers, and the everyday people who face challenges but never lose sight of love and connection. Sung in Italian with projected English supertitles.

Estimated run time: 2 hours, including a 15-minute intermission

Location: Corbett Auditorium

Tickets: $36 adult, $20 student, $15 UC faculty/staff, $10 UC student, $5 CCM student; group discounts available.

Rent

November 12-14

La Vie Bohème! Based loosely on Puccini's La Bohème, Jonathan Larson's RENT shaped a generation of dreamers and taught us all to measure our life in love. The story follows a year in the life of a group of starving young artists and musicians struggling to survive and create in New York's Lower East Side, under the shadow of HIV/AIDS. RENT is about falling in love, finding your voice and living for today. Winner of the Tony Award for Best Musical and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the musical has become a pop cultural phenomenon with songs that rock and a story that resonates with audiences.

Content advisory: This production has mature themes, including drug addiction, HIV/AIDS, sexuality, and strong language.

Estimated run time: 2 hours and 30 minutes, including a 15-minute intermission

Location: Patricia Corbett Theater

Tickets: $36 adult, $20 student, $15 UC faculty/staff, $10 UC student, $5 CCM student; group discounts available.

A Sea Symphony

November 20

Ralph Vaughan Williams' A Sea Symphony gives voice to majesty and mystery of the ocean, bringing musical life to sea poems from Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass. A Sea Symphony is celebrated for its ambitious scope, masterful integration of choral and orchestral forces, and its deep emotional and philosophical impact. It stands as a testament to Vaughan Williams' creativity and his ability to capture the grandeur of the natural world through music. Presented with colorful lighting by CCM Lighting Design and Technology students.

Vaughan Williams: A Sea Symphony

Estimated run time: 1 hour and 45 minutes

Location: Corbett Auditorium

Duke Ellington's Nutcracker Suite

November 22

The romantic melodies of The Nutcracker Suite transform into jumping jazz tunes arranged by Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn. Swing into the season with jazz interpretations of the beloved holiday masterpiece, including "Toot Toot Tootie Toot (Dance of the Reed-Pipes)," "Peanut Brittle Brigade (March)" and "Sugar Rum Cherry (Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy)." Presented with colorful lighting by CCM Lighting Design and Technology students.

Estimated run time: 75 minutes

Location: Corbett Auditorium

Tickets: $26 adult, $15 student, $20 UC faculty/staff, $10 UC student, $5 CCM student; group discounts available.

Dance Works

December 3-5

Join us for an evening of magic and mystery as we visit beautiful gardens and shadowy kingdoms. The program includes selections from two classical ballets — "Kingdom of the Shades" from La Bayadère and "Jardin Animé" from La Corsaire — plus Pas de Quatre, a work originally choreographed for the four greatest ballerinas of the 19th century. CCM Dance Chair Shauna Steele creates a new contemporary work exploring themes of dissonance, veritas and the indomitable nature of the soul.

Estimated run time: 2 hours and 15 minutes, plus one 15-minute intermission

Location: Patricia Corbett Theater

Tickets: $36 adult, $20 student, $15 UC faculty/staff, $10 UC student, $5 CCM student; group discounts available.

Feast of Carols

December 5-6

A Cincinnati tradition for more than 100 years! Bring family and friends to CCM to welcome the 2026 holiday season with festive choral favorites performed by CCM's, UC's and CYC's fabulous choirs and outstanding guest choirs. Presented with colorful lighting by CCM Lighting Design and Technology students.

Estimated run time: 90 minutes

Location: Corbett Auditorium

Tickets: $26 adult, $15 student, $20 UC faculty/staff, $10 UC student, $5 CCM student; group discounts available.

Cabaret

March 4-6

Forget all your troubles and come to the Cabaret, where life is beautiful and the music is always playing. Daring, provocative and exuberantly entertaining, Cabaret explores the dark and heady life of bohemian Berlin in the late 1920s. With the Emcee's bawdy songs as wry commentary, Cabaret explores the tumultuous life of Berlin's natives and expatriates as Germany slowly yields to the emerging Third Reich. Cliff, a young American writer, is immediately taken with English singer Sally Bowles. Meanwhile, Fräulein Schneider, proprietor of Cliff and Sally's boarding house, tentatively begins a romance with Herr Schultz, a mild-mannered fruit seller who happens to be Jewish. A Tony Award-winning musical, beloved songs include "Willkommen," "Cabaret," "Don't Tell Mama" and "Maybe This Time."

Content advisory: This production contains mature themes, including strong sexual content, profanity, drug use, abortion, violence, antisemitism and Nazi imagery.

Estimated run time: 2 hours, including a 15-minute intermission

Location: Patricia Corbett Theater

Tickets: $36 adult, $20 student, $15 UC faculty/staff, $10 UC student, $5 CCM student; group discounts available.

Mahler Five

March 10

The next stop on CCM Philharmonia's Mahler excursion is his epic Symphony No. 5, paired with the world premiere of CCM Professor Michael Fiday's new orchestral work "5." Introduced to American audiences with its U.S. premiere by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in 1905, Mahler's fifth is a romantic masterpiece — from the iconic trumpet fanfare opening to the final Adagietto, often dubbed Mahler's "greatest hit," the music takes audiences on an emotional journey from mourning to triumph.

FIDAY: "5" *World Premiere

MAHLER: Symphony No. 5 in C-sharp Minor (1902)

Estimated run time: 100 minutes

Location: Corbett Auditorium

Star Wars x The Planets

April 6

Journey through the galaxy in a cosmic concert featuring Gustav Holst's celestial showpiece The Planets and John Williams' epic Star Wars Suite. Presented with colorful lighting by CCM Lighting Design and Production students.

HOLST: The Planets

WILLIAMS: Star Wars Suite

Estimated run time: 2 hours, including a 15-minute intermission

Location: Corbett Auditorium

Ariadne auf Naxos

April 15-17

A lighthearted "opera within an opera," Ariadne auf Naxos entertains audiences with high art and low comedy. Heartbreak meets humor when a serious opera and a bawdy comedy troupe are forced to perform simultaneously on stage. The result is a witty, yet heartwarming, story about love, loss and transformation. Sung in German with projected English supertitles.

Estimated run time: 2 hours and 35 minutes, including one 15-minute intermission

Location: Patricia Corbett Theater

Tickets: $36 adult, $20 student, $15 UC faculty/staff, $10 UC student, $5 CCM student; group discounts available.

Journeys Through Time

April 23

Travel across time, myth and imagination in a concert that blends vivid contemporary soundscapes with the sweeping power of the Romantic era. Music by David Biedenbender, Ida Gotkovsky and Patrick Harlin launches us into a world where time bends and motion propels us forward. The journey continues with the majestic music of Richard Wagner, from the radiant Prelude to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg to the shimmering forest textures of "Waldweben" and the thrilling momentum of "Siegfried's Rhine Journey." From fleeting moments to epic sagas, this program invites audiences to experience music that captures the passage of time and the power of storytelling in sound. Presented with colorful lighting designed by CCM Lighting Design and Technology students.

CCM Wind Symphony:

BIEDENBENDER: Time Flies

GOTKOVSKY: Poeme du feu

HARLIN: The Time Traveler

CCM Philharmonia:

WAGNER: Prelude to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (1868)

WAGNER: "Waldweben," from Siegfried (1876)

WAGNER: "Siegfried's Rhine Journey," from Götterdämmerung (1876)

Estimated run time: 2 hours, including a 15-minute intermission

Location: Corbett Auditorium

Don't Miss a Cincinnati News Story
Sign up for all the news on the Summer season, discounts & more...