2007: The Year in Review

Looking back at the past 12 months, 2007 was a crossroads, a year in which the region’s music scene became poised for big change.

First, the dazzlers. My "Glammy Award" this year for Best Classical Music Performance is a three-way tie, going to Cincinnati Opera's "Aida," the May Festival's "Il Trovatore" and Valery Gergiev conducting the Cincinnati Symphony.

In July, Cincinnati Opera broke attendance records with "Aida," the most sensational, gold-encrusted production the city has ever seen. The splendor of the Act II Triumphal Scene was almost blinding, with gold seemingly everywhere, and American soprano Lisa Daltirus was radiant in the title role.

The company announced big plans for coming seasons, too, including the news that native son James Levine is to conduct "Die Meistersinger" with a dream cast for the 90th anniversary in 2010.

In May, the May Festival's James Conlon assembled an all-star cast that included soprano Sondra Radvanovsky in her festival debut for Verdi's "Il Trovatore," an operatic spectacle, reviving the tradition of an Italian opera night at the May Festival.

In February, Russian maestro Valery Gergiev, one of the most renowned conductors on the planet, made an electrifying debut with an all-Russian program with the Cincinnati Symphony in Music Hall.

Here are the stories that made this a year in transition:

The symphony struggles and Music Hall readies for a facelift: While the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra struggled for an audience for its weekly concerts in Music Hall, a task force began to study renovations of the historic hall, built in 1878. If it happens, it will be the Over-the-Rhine landmark’s first major overhaul in more than 35 years.

The task force – consisting of Music Hall tenants, owners (the city) and managers (CAA) – aim to make the grande dame a more glamorous destination. Officials are brainstorming a menu of ideas, including a restaurant, bar, gift shop or donor lounge; fixing up aging symphony offices; and improving backstage technology. (There's also talk of an attached parking garage, built by 3CDC.)

More controversial than paint and spackle, though, are schemes to somehow reduce the auditorium's seating for symphony concerts. It’s a tricky proposition. But Paavo Järvi says nothing will be done that will damage the hall’s widely-praised acoustics.
The team is top-notch: Theater and acoustical consultants Jaffe Holden Acoustics Inc. of Norwalk, Conn.; Fisher Dachs Associates Theatre Planning and Design of New York; and local firm GBBN Architects.

But there are stumbling blocks, such as – where will the orchestra play while Music Hall is a hard-hat area for up to two years?

Meanwhile, how can the orchestra build back its audience, after its attendance, subscription and single ticket sales plunged by double digits last year? Can the new marketing director, Sherri Prentiss, ignite a turn-around?

There was good news, too: In an historic first, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra awarded Paavo Järvi an evergreen contract. After renewing his contract to the 2010-11 season, it will automatically renew annually ever after – but here’s the clincher – by mutual agreement.

And the orchestra announced it is preparing its third international tour with Järvi, April 4-18, 2008. It will play 12 concerts in five European countries, including the cities of Vienna, Amsterdam, Munich, Frankfurt and Madrid, and the symphony's first performance at the Salle Pleyel in Paris.

And in October, the CSO marched in to help Lakota West's Marching Firebirds march in the Tournament of Roses Parade -- Southwest Ohio's first high school band to march in the Rose Parade on New Year's Day. It was an unprecedented gesture to benefit a public school band program. The concert was standing room only. They sold 800 tickets and CSO trustees said they could have sold triple that. So, what have we learned here?

What is going on at CCM? A lot of CCM patrons, faculty members and students were scratching their heads over sudden vacancies and program cuts in one of the top music schools in the nation, which is housed in a glorious, new $93 million campus.

But last February, CCM opera chair Sandra Bernhard announced she was leaving to take a post with Houston Grand Opera, starting a chain reaction of empty chairs at the famous arts and media school, including the head of theater and the dean.

In October, struggling to close a deficit while grappling with a permanent cut of university allocations, CCM pared down its summertime calendar, including the prestigious Lucca Festival, effective in summer 2009. The move surprised and even angered some students and faculty members.

Now, CCM is pondering a possible reorganization into three separate colleges, each with potential naming rights, as its searches for a new dean to replace Douglas Lowry, who departed to head the Eastman School of Music.

The job description is daunting: Someone who can raise CCM's profile while raising millions of dollars for critical endowment money, and then raise tens of millions more for the university campaign; who can keep program quality high during a stringent cost-cutting period; fill up to nine key faculty posts; incorporate new technologies; and guide a possible major reorganization of the college for the first time since 1962.

In November, CCM announced four finalists for the opera post, and two of them have CCM ties. One, Nicholas Muni, is former artistic director of Cincinnati Opera. The university plans to announce finalists for a new dean by January and make a hire by February.

It's not just Music Hall any more: New and refurbished arts centers are gaining steam around the region, from the Carnegie Visual and Performing Arts Center in Covington to a planned arts and conference center in Blue Ash – and a new theater in Anderson Township. The latter is being eyed as a venue for Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra. In early December, leaders in Warren County voiced a dream for their own venue that would be a home for the county’s rapidly growing arts - including dance, theater, classical music and visual art.

White elephants: Capitalizing on the trend that huge outdoor venues are vanishing, Riverbend announced it will break ground on a new, $7 million pavilion of 4,000 seats. The amphitheatre will offer "niche" acts, alongside the bigger summer tours in the large, 20,000-seat amphitheater.

Pop music news:

Jazzing up the Blue Wisp: In early December, with its future in jeopardy following the death of owner Marjean Wisby, the Blue Wisp Jazz Club downtown was assured survival when a quartet of local businessmen bought the joint and pledged to keep jazz alive. Now, its new owners hope, the club is poised to become a premier destination for jazz.

Who Dey: Following in the footsteps of rocker Peter Frampton, Bootsy Collins made his Cincinnati Pops debut at Riverbend.

A high school dream: Pop music mogul L.A. Reid said his Cincinnati background made him the success that he is today. When he heard that musical facilities at his high school, Hughes, are in poor shape, he promised to do something about it. If Reid, chairman of Island Def Jam Music Group, who has discovered talents such as Usher, Avril Lavigne and OutKast, makes a major donation to his alma mater, it will be a lasting legacy to a musical career that is one of the most powerful in the country – and possibly the world.

And, there was news south of the river: In March, Peter (Frampton) and the Wolf captivated a young audience in Kenton County Library. James Cassidy and the KSO performed Prokofiev’s score to Frampton’s expressive narration.

Cincinnati Opera premiered a new opera based on the story of John P. Parker, a conductor on the Underground Railroad, in Ripley, Ohio. In a symbolic gesture, the company invited the Kentucky Symphony Orchestra under James Cassidy, to make its debut in the opera pit, on this side of the river.

In November, the Carnegie Visual and Performing Arts Center announced its first-ever chamber music series, a diverse mix that will include jazz. The news adds to a growing list of interesting classical music options on the south side of the Ohio. And Northern Kentucky University's music department is in transition, too. In September, NKU appointed a new chair of the music department, Kurt Sander.

Saving an opera company: In October, a small group of arts patrons rescued Sorg Opera, naming a new executive director and launching a sort-of season after two years in limbo. However, Sorg may not return to its old home at Sorg Opera House, now under new ownership, because it's inhabited by Goths and Rocky Horror Picture Show fans.

Saving an organ: The Mighty Wurlitzer Organ, homeless since leaving the Emery Theater, finally found a home, and is being refurbished to move into its new digs in Music Hall's Ballroom.

Opera for everyone: A snow and sleet storm Dec. 15 didn't keep 150 opera lovers from risking icy roads to get to Springdale 18 Cinema DeLux for the region's first High Definition broadcast live from the Metropolitan Opera to a movie theater. The verdict of most of those who attended: It was enthralling. Ticket sales placed "Romeo et Juliette" at No.11 at the movie box office.

Milestones: In July, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir appeared for the first time in our region with the Cincinnati Pops, and thousands of fans flooded the gates of Riverbend for what many called a once-in-a lifetime experience.

In April, the Walnut Hills Wind Ensemble went to Carnegie Hall – and as they boarded their buses the morning after the story broke, financier Carl Lindner sent a courier over with cash for every student to spend in the Big Apple.

Erich Kunzel reflected upon 50 years of conducting, since making his opera debut at Santa Fe Opera, and belatedly picked up his Medal of Arts at the White House. Miami University Men's Glee Club celebrated 100 years of harmonizing. CSO principal trumpeter Phil Collins retired from the CSO, and Earl Rivers announced he is stepping down as music director of the Vocal Arts Ensemble of Cincinnati, the region's elite professional vocal ensemble.

Passings: Arts patron Joni Herschede; CCM faculty member and former May Festival director of choruses John Leman; longtime chamber music supporter Philip Gottling; CCM voice faculty member, co-founder of the Lucca Festival and opera singer Lorenzo Malfatti; Luciano Pavarotti, Jerry Hadley, Colin Graham, Beverly Sills, Mstislav "Slava" Rostropovich, and just this month, the great Oscar Peterson.

What, to you, were the big stories in 2007?