WOSU Public Media - Classical

Was there evah anyone finah?

No, there was not.

Godspeed gracious lady.

–Christopher Purdy

April is Jazz Appreciation Month…and what better way to show your appreciation than by seeing the Columbus Jazz Orchestra.  They just last week wrapped up another great season of the Swingin’ at the Southern Series with Cole and Cole, a tribute to Cole Porter and Nat “King” Cole.  Actor and singer Keith David, (A Tony nomination for his role in Jelly’s Last Jam is among his myriad credits),  joined Byron Stripling and the CJO to bring the music and magic of these two musical giants to life this weekend.  WOSU has once again had the privilege of broadcasting a number of CJO performances live from the Southern Theatre this season.  If you have not been to a CJO concert, don’t despair.  Vegas comes to Columbus in May as part of the Great American Songbook Series when the Columbus Gay Men’s Chorus teams with Jazz Arts Group in two evenings of  glitz and glamour in A Night in Vegas at the Capitol Theatre.  If you love great music, be sure to spend some time rockin’ with the Columbus Jazz Orchestra! For a little insight into the life and music of Cole Porter, or to hear a conversation with Byron Stripling, Keith David, and his music director Frank Owens, click on the button below…and for yet another reason Columbus is a great place to live, make sure you check out the Columbus Jazz Orchestra! –Boyce Lancaster

George & Ira Gershwin

One hundred years ago, Rosa and Moishe Gershovitz bought an upright piano and had it hoisted into their 2nd Avenue flat on New York City’s Lower East Side.  They intended to have their oldest son, Israel, take piano lessons.  However, when Israel’s brother Jacob sat down and began to play some of the popular tunes of the day, it was quickly decided Jacob would receive the lessons.  The boy’s parents would eventually Americanize their name, so the family became Morris and Rose Gershwin.  Their sons, of course, are better known to us as George and Ira.

While George was experiencing great early success in his music career, Ira was working odd jobs around town, at least until his brother George asked him to write lyrics for his music.  A team was born and musical history would be made.

Some of the ongoing legacy of George and Ira Gershwin was heardlast week with the Columbus Jazz Orchestra at the Southern Theatre, as Byron Stripling and his crew welcomed singers Capathia Jenkins, who has toured nationally with Dreamgirls,  and 2004 Tony Award nominee Michael McElroy to celebrate what many consider George Gershwin’s crowning achievement…Porgy and Bess.

It ran Wednesday through Sunday at the Southern…and I hope you were able to join me for our live broadcast last Saturday night at 8pm on WOSU radio.  If you have never experienced a Clive olumbus Jazz Orchestra performance, you owe it to yourself to head downtown.  I promise you won’t be disappointed!

In my search for information about the Gershwins, I happened across two interesting pieces.  One is comments Ira Gershwin made about his brother in a 1961 interview.

The other is a fascinating recounting of how Gershwin made it into the concert hall in the first place by the man who made it happen…Paul Whiteman. — Boyce Lancaster

Last Sunday’s Columbus Dispatch had a lot to say about the plethora of committees, commissions and coreligionists who meet regularly at the behest of other committees, commissions and coreligionists to decide what is wrong with the funding the arts and how to fix funding the arts. No one has “fixed” arts funding. Prince Esterhazy was rich and liked music so he hired Haydn. You got enough and you want it? Problem solved. For the rest of us, its either 90% government subsidy because the local culture deems orchestras, dance companies, theater, the visual arts etc to be an integral part of the culture (”"one of the reasons we get out of bed in the morning”) or, as here we follow a free market business model where the weak die and the strong are generally ignored by 80 percent of a blitzed out population. I’m not sure the funding battle is worth fighting any more. More and more of our arts decisions makers seem not to be arts consumers themselves, or employ the business model that makes efficient management of emotion based products difficult.

Oh yeah, Columbus Ohio. Ask around in our coastal cities and you’ll get the blank stare or football references. But here’s a quick, and my no means exhaustive-list of what has been happening in the art in Columbus, Ohio in the past twelve months, during the worst recession we can remember.

The Columbus Symphony weathered a financial tsunami that got nasty and personal and public. They have exciting new management in place. There are strong ideas and conversations going on about outreach. The line up of guest conductors over the next several months promises a full buzz quotient.  Gunther Herbig, a protege of Karajan’s and “The real thing” in terms of fine maestri is at the helm until a new music director is in place.

The Arts Initiative at Ohio State has fine new digs in the gateway district and spends a lot of time effectively matching international cultural programs-such as the Royal Shakespeare Company-to the needs of our city. That’s just one of their on going projects. That any university thinks to have an “Arts Initiative” is glorious.

The Lincoln Theater has been renovated, and the lights are back on on Columbus’s near east side, a fabled neighborhood of jazz and cultural greats robbed of its heyday by the blight of I-70 and I-71 barrelling through the neighborhood. Never mind. The Lincoln is beautiful and  booked.  Crucially, the third floor houses the Columbus Jazz Orchestra’s Jazz Academy, bringing our American music to a whole world of talented kids.

We have two theater companies that in the past years have gone from day care to center aisle:  Available Light, and Evolution Theater. Both are in residence at the Riffe Center downtown. No more garages.

We have anew chamber orchestra The New Albany Symphony is in residence at the McCoy performing arts center-itself new-and begins its second season in October.

CATCO continues excellent work as our flagship theater company. They are all about quality.

Columbus Dance Theater has their own performance space downtown and continue to present great evenings of modern dance. People are attending or they wouldn’t do it.

Ballet Met has had two successful visits to the
Joyce Theater in New York and are preparing the new season with Swan Lake. That’s  an audience favorite, but is not produced by a company worried about its future. Force et confidence!

WOSU Public Media. You know the story. Or many stories. Or you wouldn’t be reading this.

Go ahead. Add your own good news stories to this post. And remember one thing

If everyone who says ‘isn’t it a shame’ when orchestras or dance companies or opera companies or museums near financial collapse would buy tickets to two presentations per season, there would be no financial crisis in the arts in America…ever!

–Christopher Purdy

….don’t get me started.

The sound of jazz will echo within the walls of the Lincoln Theatre for the first time in some fifty years when Byron Stripling and the Columbus Jazz Allstars perform there Thursday June 4th. Byron Stripling and his all-star quartet, featuring keyboard sensation Bobby Floyd, bassist Chris Berg and drummer Bob Breithaupt will give Columbus jazz lovers a chance to enjoy the intimate setting and beautiful architecture from the heyday of jazz. CJO Drummer Bob Breithaupt, who is also Executive Director of the Jazz Arts Group, Carol Argiro, Director of Operations and Community Programs - Jazz Academy, took me on a walking tour of the Lincoln and gave me some insight into the plans beyond what takes place in the auditorium. –Boyce Lancaster

Bob Breithaupt tells how it all started.

How did the Lincoln Theatre look the first time they saw it?

BobBreithaupt and Carol Argiro take me into the auditorium for the first time.

First View of the New Curtain: While we’re talking, the new curtain makes its debut.

The Lincoln Theatre Project is about more than just performance.

How does Jazz Arts Group reach out to Central Ohio?

Some of the events scheduled for this summer.