DARING DANCES, The Ohio Valley Symphony

March 15, 2025
at 7:30 p.m.
TICKETS AVAILABLE NOW!

Daring Dances will move you with a selection of dazzling dance music under the baton of conductor Michael Chertock leading the OVS through Ravel’s La Valse and Bolero. Even more dazzling, Michael will also be the piano soloist on Leroy Anderson’s Piano Concerto. Talk about multi-tasking! This concert is sponsored In Memory of Clare E. Gettles.

Michael Chertock, conductor & pianist
Conductor and pianist Michael Chertock has fashioned a successful career as an orchestral soloist, collaborating with conductors such as James Conlon, Jaime Laredo, and Keith Lockhart.

His orchestral appearances include solo performances with, among others, The Philadelphia Orchestra, l’Orchestre Symphonique du Montreal, the Toronto Symphony, the Baltimore Symphony, the Naples Philharmonic, the Dayton Philharmonic, and The Ohio Valley Symphony. He made his Carnegie Hall debut in 1999 with the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, performing Duke Ellington’s New World A’Comin’.

Michael first performed publicly at the age of 11 and by age 17, he performed the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3 with Andrew Litton. He has garnered numerous awards at major competitions, among them the top prize in the 1989 Joanna Hodges Int’l Piano Competition (Brahms Division) and the grand prize in the 1993 St. Charles International Piano Competition.

In 2005, Michael performed the world premiere of Jeux Deux, a work by Todd Machover commissioned by the Boston Pops Orchestra expressly for him. He recorded the piece in Denmark.

Michael released three CDs of his original arrangements entitled Cinematic Piano, Telarc: Palace of the Winds, Christmas at the Movies and Love At the Movies, which have been praised for their lush, original arrangements and exquisite technical facility.

In 2023 Michael was soloist for The Ohio Valley Symphony’s “American Rhapsody”, a musical journey of the greatest hits of the 1920’s when he performed a brand new orchestral arrangement of Rhapsody in Blue just in time for the 100th anniversary of Gershwin’s masterpiece, available on CD and DVD.

Michael is the conductor of the Blue Ash-Montgomery Symphony, located in suburban Cincinnati, Ohio. When not on tour he also serves as principal keyboardist with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. In June of 2004 Mr. Chertock was appointed Assistant Professor of piano at the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music, where he received his Master’s Degree as a student of Frank Weinstock.