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SPOTLIGHT
ON THE ARTS - February 2005 by Deanna Mascle A Symphonic Revolution
Cassidy’s dream, the Kentucky Symphony Orchestra, has grown from a $20,000 start-up budget and four concerts during its first season to a schedule of nearly 40 concerts and a budget of $650,000. “The KSO is a people-friendly orchestra that was formed to make symphonic music more attractive, accessible and affordable,” says Cassidy, who acts as KSO’s music/executive director. “Our presentations are thematic and explore a wider range of music than any orchestra in the US.” He points to KSO’s 2005 program to prove that point. The program includes a January presentation of Barber, Berg, and Bartok; February’s Fifth Dimension, KC & the Sunshine Band, and Gretchen Wilson; Beethoven in March; and Evita in May. Formerly known as the Northern Kentucky Symphony, KSO presents thematic concerts that include both the familiar and the unique to make their work both compelling and entertaining. The KSO devotes significant programming to new works, having presented the regional premieres of Berlioz’ “Messe Solennelle” and Michael Daugherty’s “Dead Elvis” for bassoon and orchestra (with the bassoonist dressed like Elvis, as the composer specified). Carl Davis’ score for “Ben-Hur,” which accompanied a screening of the 1925 silent film, was a U.S. premiere and earned the orchestra a Post-Corbett award nomination. World premieres have included Randall Wolfe’s “Late Night Drive,” commissioned by the KSO and funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, and retired CCM professor Gerhard Samuel’s “Oh Yeah, A Misunderstanding for Steel Drums and Orchestra.” Through the years, KSO concerts have offered many surprises, including silent films, dancers, comedians, zoo animals, alternative, rock and country bands, a limbo contest, aerobic classes, poetry readings, and Civil War battle re-enactments. KSO has also collaborated with local arts organizations such as the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Cincinnati Ballet, Ensemble Theater of Cincinnati, Cincinnati Opera, Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival, the Taft Museum, and community institutions such as the Cincinnati Observatory and Kentucky National Guard. KSO often mixes it up by combining different genres. This season included the area’s first complete performance of Bartok’s controversial “Miraculous Mandarin” with the original Menyhert Lengyel pantomime performed by Ensemble Theater of Cincinnati and an upcoming presentation of Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s “Evita,” in another of the KSO’s highly successful series of semi-staged opera and musical theater concerts. Cassidy and the KSO like to have fun with their music - as evidenced by January’s “Killer Bs,” featuring works by Berg, Barber and Bartok. Barber’s “Medea’s Dance of Vengeance” involves Medea killing her own children to spite her husband; “Lulu” Suite, by Berg, is centered around a prostitute murdered by Jack the Ripper; and Bartok’s “Miraculous Mandarin” (banned after its premiere in Cologne) is about a Chinese mandarin who – despite strenuous attempts by a gang of thieves – will not die until his passion for a prostitute is satisfied. This is exactly why Cassidy once dreamt of starting KSO. “In the summer of 1992, I saw that the traditional orchestras that I grew up with and loved were not evolving or reaching out to meet newer and broader audiences,” Cassidy says. ”So the KSO is a result of taking a passion for music, adding variety, and applying packaging and marketing concepts that don’t compromise the music’s integrity or musician’s high standards.” “Through our sometimes risky and off-the-wall symphony programs, and our subsidiary groups (Newport Ragtime Band, Floodwall Jazz Quintet, Boogie Band, etc.) we have broken down many barriers (stuffy, boring, expensive) and made going to the symphony friendly and - hopefully - fun,” he says. “In other words: We’ve taken the “phony” out of symphony.” Deanna Mascle is a
staff writer for The Lane Report. |
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Over the last dozen years, James R. Cassidy has seen his dream become a reality and that reality exceeds even his expectations.
Artistically, the KSO performs on a high level. There is a paid core of about 50 professional musicians. More than 90 percent of KSO members have ties to the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music including graduates and current students. Cassidy himself is a graduate of the conducting program at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music