Ixi Chen, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s second clarinet, “is a musician with a mission,” writes Sandra Okot-Kotber in Friday’s (1/31) Women of Cincy, a Cincinnati-based nonprofit. Ixi is also managing artistic director of concert:nova, whose musicians come mostly from the Cincinnati Symphony and Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra. “Q: How would you describe yourself? Ixi: I would say that I’m a supporter…. I never wanted to be the star and have all the solos and glory.… I started concert:nova [in 2006], and that’s where my passion has been besides teaching: creating a vehicle of community building through chamber music…. I just wanted my 20-something buddies to come and enjoy the music that I like.… We did this piece called ‘The History of the Soldier.’ It was about a fiddler who was serving in a war, and he came home. In the original story, he came home to his love, a princess who had no speaking role. We had someone rewrite the script…. It was a post-traumatic story…. Q: Who are some influential women in your life? Ixi: Michele Zukovsky who played in the L.A. Phil when I was in school there…. [Clarinetist] Sabine Meyer, who I grew up listening to.”
Change font size
