Madison Cunningham: The Ace Tour
Depending on the game, an ace can be the highest or lowest card, zero or infinity. A breakup feels similar—one path crumbles, while all others remain infinitely possible. How do you write about heartbreak when you’re going through it? Ace, GRAMMY Award-winner Madison Cunningham’s third record for Verve Forecast, tracks every part of it: falling out of love, having your heart broken, and then falling in love again. Co-produced by Cunningham and Robbie Lackritz (Feist, Rilo Kiley, Bahamas, Peach Pit), the fourteen-track album is honest and full of heart, even as it breaks. Ace builds off of the success of Revealer (2022), a darkly funny portrait of an artist that won Cunningham her GRAMMY for “Best Folk Album,” but it is a different record. A slow burn until it wasn’t. It follows a period of writer’s block. On Revealer and her debut album Who Are You Now (2019), Cunningham says that she was writing songs about heartbreak, but they weren’t about her heartbreak. They were sketches, observations. She wanted Ace to be emotions first. Heartbreaking and lush and bold. Her first single from Ace, “My Full Name,” was released to praise by Paste Magazine, who called the lyrics, “simultaneously sprawling and intimate,” recalling “an ancient work of poetry.” On Ace, for which Cunningham serves as co-producer, she wanted piano to move into the foreground. “I wanted it to feel like a mountain peak,” she says. “I wanted Ace to feel like a mountain we built together.” It’s a record that feels alive and lush in all the ways Cunningham hoped when she started writing. It is a record of mastery and honesty. Cunningham loves every single song on it. You can tell.
Another Longworth-Anderson Series evening of great music, food, and drink! Complimentary pre-concert reception features live music from Stone & Snow, light bites from Ollie’s Trolley and N.Y.P.D. Pizza, and craft beer tastings from HighGrain Brewing Co.
“Taste and Tour” with Colonel Todd Mayer
Cincinnati Memorial Hall Society (CMHS) is pleased to present our new “Taste and Tour” series at historic Memorial Hall, with generous support from the Friends of Memorial Hall. Join us on a one-hour tour hosted by Colonel Todd Mayer, CMHS Trustee. Learn about Memorial Hall’s storied past and stunning 1908 Beaux Arts architecture. Enjoy complimentary, artfully crafted charcuterie from Taste of Boujie and a Veterans Affairs art exhibition on view in the lower-level ballrooms.
CHARCUTERIE & SELF-PAY BAR (21+): 5:30-6pm
TOUR: 6-7pm starting at the Memorial Hall front steps and moving inside
FREE | 18+ | MAXIMUM CAPACITY 25
REGISTER AT MEMORIALHALLOTR.COM
“Taste and Tour” with Bill Baumann
Cincinnati Memorial Hall Society (CMHS) is pleased to present our new “Taste and Tour” series at historic Memorial Hall, with generous support from the Friends of Memorial Hall. Join us on a one-hour tour hosted by Bill Baumann, Chair Emeritus of CMHS and Chair of the Longworth-Anderson Series. Learn about Memorial Hall’s storied past and stunning 1908 Beaux Arts architecture while enjoying complimentary, artfully crafted charcuterie from Taste of Boujie.
CHARCUTERIE & SELF-PAY BAR (21+): 5:30-6pm
TOUR: 6-7pm starting at the Memorial Hall front steps and moving inside
FREE | 18+ | MAXIMUM CAPACITY 25
REGISTER AT MEMORIALHALLOTR.COM
Peter Rowan with Sam Grisman Project
The music that my father David Grisman and his close friend, Jerry Garcia, made in the early 90s (in the house that I grew up in) is not only some of the most timeless acoustic music ever recorded, it also triggers my oldest and fondest musical memories. What I find most inspiring about this material is the way their camaraderie and their love and joy for the music, simply oozes out of each recording. It is also impressive how deeply they get beneath their favorite songs—whether they are originals, covers or traditional/old time tunes—and how expertly that material was curated.
My goal in starting Sam Grisman Project is to build a platform for my friends and me to showcase our genuine passion and appreciation for the legacy of Dawg and Jerry’s music. By playing some of their beloved repertoire and sharing the original music that our own collective has to offer, we will also show the impact that this music has had on our own individual musical voices. Ultimately, there is nothing that makes me happier than playing great songs with my best friends and my hope is to share that happiness with audiences all over!
Another Longworth-Anderson Series evening of great music, food, and drink! Complimentary pre-concert reception features live local music, light bites from Ollie’s Trolley and N.Y.P.D. Pizza, and craft beer tastings from HighGrain Brewing Co.
Longworth-Anderson Series & Talk Low Festival present Clipping., Why? X concert:nova, Kelly Moran
When you donate $10 or more to Strategies to End Homelessness, you’ll receive $10 off your ticket as our way of saying thanks.
Your donation goes directly toward programs that prevent homelessness, provide shelter and housing solutions, and support outreach services for individuals and families in Greater Cincinnati. Strategies to End Homelessness works with a network of local agencies to ensure resources are used effectively, from emergency shelter to long-term housing stability. Every $10 you give helps create a path toward safety, dignity, and a permanent home for those in need.
Talk Low Music Festival is proud to partner with Longworth-Anderson Series to bring a night of adventurous sounds to Memorial Hall
Clipping.
The critically acclaimed West Coast-based experimental hip-hop trio, “clipping” is fronted by Tony and Grammy winning actor, rapper and writer, Daveed Diggs along with producers Jonathan Snipes and William Hutson. They initially rose to prominence with their debut album MIDCITY and follow up, CLPPNG. In 2016 they released their opus, SPLENDOR & MISERY, a science fiction concept album that garnered international critical acclaim, including a Hugo Award nomination for Best Dramatic Presentation. This was only the second time ever a music album was nominated for a Hugo Award, putting them up against the likes of GAME OF THRONES and BLACK MIRROR. Their follow up, THE DEEP, garnered similar attention including another Hugo Award nomination as well as influencing a Simon & Schuster published novel of the same name. Most recently the band diverted from their sci-fi storytelling and released a set of horror-based concept albums, THERE EXISTED AN ADDITION TO BLOOD and VISIONS OF BODIES BEING BURNED. Line of Best Fit’s Jack Bray hailed it as “sonically intriguing” and “another successful experiment for the group and one of the eeriest examples of modern hip- hop to date.”
Why? x concertnova
Yoni Wolf has spent the last two decades traveling the remote sonic terrain where underground hip hop, avant-pop, and psych-rock meet. In that time he’s cultivated a unique sound, and a unique position as one of contemporary music’s most distinctive voices. Some of Yoni’s most compelling and critically-praised musical experiments have been issued under the moniker WHY?, but Yoni has been involved in various other freewheeling music projects, including Yoni & Geti, Hymie’s Basement, and the seminal cLOUDDEAD.
Concertnova is a Cincinnati based organization whose mission is to: transform hearts, minds and communities through thought provoking musical exploration.
concertnova is a collective of like-minded musicians who create unique multi-sensorial performances that bring art forms together.
Our collaborative process draws inspiration from everywhere: visual art, dance, film, gastronomy, even the performance location itself.
We instigate an intimate dialogue between artist and audience, blurring the line between sender and receiver, creator and participant.
Concertnova will join Why? During several songs.
Kelly Moran
Over the past decade, New York-based composer and producer Kelly Moran has challenged the piano’s traditional, classically-imposed school of thought with a more contemporary, experimental approach. An accomplished and highly sought-after composer, Moran has collaborated and performed with FKA twigs and Oneohtrix Point Never as part of their live ensembles. Moran has also composed for classical musician Margaret Leng Tan and recorded collaborations with other visionary contemporaries like Kelsey Lu, Yves Tumor, The Avalanches, Helado Negro, Bibio, and more.
As a solo artist, Moran’s critically acclaimed albums, Bloodroot and Ultraviolet, have explored a variety of extended piano techniques like John Cage-inspired prepared piano and exercises in improvisation. Her unique strand of experimental piano compositions, which conjure hypnotizing textures and dramatic compositional arcs, have been included on year-end lists across classical, avant-garde, and metal genres. Moran’s most recent album out on WARP Records, Moves in the Field, was praised by the New York Times for being “a softhearted but steel-skinned set of 10 piano pieces that are as rapturous as a waterfall or as delicate as vapor. Her first album in six years, it is the redemptive conclusion in an extended span of personal tragedy and professional doubt, all ingrained in its sweeping songs.”
About Talk Low Music Festival
Whited Sepulchre Records presents the second annual Talk Low Music Festival, Sept. 26–28 at it’s new home at Contemporary Arts Center and Memorial Hall, bringing three days of experimental music from around the world to Cincinnati, The festival is organized by Ryan Hall, founder and executive director of Cincinnati-based record label Whited Sepulchre Records, Britni Bicknaver, and Brianna Matzke, executive director of concertnova.
Continuing the tradition of MusicNow and No Response Festival, Talk Low Music Festival makes Cincinnati a destination for world-class musicians, claiming space between multiple disciplines, genres and identities. The festival is designed to create unique contexts that foster deep listening and develop opportunities for collaboration and education.
The Talk Low lineup features LA experimental-rap group clipping, featuring stage and film star Daveed Diggs (Hamilton); Moor Mother pianist Kelly Moran; Cairo-based experimental electronic Nadah El Shazly; White Boy Scream; Cole Pulice; organist Sarah Davachi; and a special collaborative performance between Why? and concertnova.
Created by Whited Sepulchre Records in 2024, the inaugural Talk Low presented artists such as New Age legend Laraaji, Peruvian sound artist Maria Chavez, bassoonist Joy Guidry, and Kenyan electronic artist KMRU. With its return in September, the festival continues to grow, adding placemaking collaborations throughout Cincinnati, educational workshops from established artists and educators, and a line-up of artists at the pinnacle of their craft.
Talk Low makes Cincinnati a destination for inspiring world-class experimental music, with the goal to rival festivals such Big Ears( Knoxville, Tenn.) or Time:Spans (New York City) and to contribute to Cincinnati’s cultural fabric and economic development.