On Tuesday, September 15th at 7pm, at The Woodward Theater in Cincinnati’s Over The Rhine District (1404 Main St), the chamber music group concert:nova will join with Cincinnati indie-rock band The Mitchells to perform an adaptation of Franz Schubert's vocal-and-piano song cycle masterpiece Die schöne Müllerin (The Lovely Maid of the Mill).

Schubert wrote Die schöne Müllerin in 1823; the song cycle is based on poems by Wilhelm Müller and was the earliest song cycle to be widely performed. The twenty songs in the cycle evoke an emotional range from optimism to tragedy. The story is simple: a man wandering the countryside finds a mill at which a beautiful girl works. He tries to impress her, but she loves a hunter. Desperate and heartbroken, the wanderer drowns himself in the millside brook. Often performed and recorded, Die schöne Müllerin (DSM) is one of Schubert's most respected works.

The Mitchells have composed a five-song adaptation of Die schöne Müllerin, while concert:nova has composed a five-song adaptation of Wintereisse, a related, but distinctly different, Schubert work. They both follow the journeys of a wandering miller, but they are distinct and complete song cycles in their own rite. Lyrically, The Mitchells will be retelling the original DSM story, sometimes using the original text (at points even using the original German) and sometimes using newly written lyrics. Musically, The Mitchells have written entirely new songs which support and drive the story. While parts of the new songs borrow themes and melodies from the original Schubert music, they are not arrangements of the original Schubert music for rock band instrumentation; they sound like The Mitchells’ songs.

Joining The Mitchells for this performance, Grammy-nominated producer and guitar player Ric Hordinski – referred to by knowledgeable musicians in the industry as the “guitarists' guitarist” – will add his masterfully subtle guitar work to The Mitchells’ composition and performance.

concert:nova artistic program director Ted Nelson and composer/songwriter Julie Spangler will join the group’s various instrumentalists for this unique performance.

Check out our photo galleries of previous concert:nova performances:
Concert:Nova-Halloween
Concert:Nova with Louisville Flemanco
Concert:Nova at Rhinegeist