Cincinnati Moving with the Times

15 International Arts Manager September 2002 Cincinnati Moving with the times Cincinnati is on the brink of international cultural recognition. Paul Cutts visits a city coming to terms with its new-found status TANDING ON THE NORTHERN ority complex, yet there is a deep sense of opera alone was given $900,000 by the banks of the Ohio river, Cincinnati civic and cultural pride in the city and Fund, around 15 per cent of its entire sboasts the largest concert hall in the corporate community,' says Muni, a annual operating budget. the US and the country's second oldest native of NewJersey. There is also a long Becoming a private arts benefactor is opera company. It is also home to a tradition of supporting the arts here. It is a strong part of local tradition and is nationally respected ballet troupe, a a sophisticated town in terms of the actively encouraged among the upper symphony orchestra counting such cultural mood.' echelons of Cincinnati society. But nor greats as Leopold Stokowski and Fritz Muni has been surprised at the are they averse to boldness: a new home Reiner among its former music directors dynamism of the last few years. 'If I look for the city's Contemporary Arts Center - and has the oldest choral gathering - the back on where the community was when currently under construction and funded Cincinnati May Festival - in the western I arrived, it has really zoomed forward,' in part by generous private gifts - has hemisphere. he comments. 'At the time there was been designed by avant-garde architect Yet for aplace that is ranked in the top nothing special going on. The energy was Zaha Hadid, whose radical plans for a ten most attractive areas to live in the US really started by the theatre scene, partic- new opera house in Cardiff were very by Fortune magazine (Winston Churchill ularly the Cincinnati Playhouse and the publicly abandoned in the 1990s. called it America's most beautiful inland Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival, and Local husband and wife teams Cathy city), Cincinnati maintains a peculiarly museums; everyone has benefited from and Tom Crain and Harry and Linda low profile. Overshadowed for decades by that initial spurt.' Fath underwrote the Opera's newproduc- its brasher Ohio neighbour, Cleveland, Geographically, Cincinnati is well tion of Jake Heggie's Dead Man Cincinnati has developed an almost placed to capitalise on this artistic initia- Walking,a highly risky venture given the puritanical reluctance to shout about tive. Nestling in the extreme southwest nature of its subject matter in a state itself - in large part, a psychological corner of Ohio, the city is effectively the where capital punishment is well legacy of the city's serious-minded capital of the 'tri-state' area (Kentucky supported. Older patrons such as Patricia German founding fathers. But the and Indiana are both a short drive Corbett have given millions (often balance of cultural power in the region is away). It is the US hub for Delta Airlines, anonymously) to support cultural shifting as a combination of strong making it a major transit point for inter- ventures in the city, including substan- artistic leadership, dynamic program- national tourists and business travellers tial contributions to the $93m construc- ming, venue rebuilds and engaged alike. The city's arts organisations have tion and renovation project of the audiences are reconfiguring Cincinnati's also been historically well supported by College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) at artistic landscape. corporate America, thanks in large part the University of Cincinnati. In February 'We often hear that Cincinnati has a to the fact that pharmaceuticals giant small-town mentality,' concurs Maureen Procter & Gamble has its headquarters Dillon, a member of the Cincinnati in the city. Nic Muni has striven to Opera board and a committed arts If Procter & Gamble come on board include more advocate in the city. 'But that can be very as sponsors,' comments one cultural contemporary works in positive as well as negative. There is a executive in the city, 'their stamp of the opera's repertoire good relationship between the artistic approval will encourage others to give, directors here and with that sort of too. Nobody wants to be seen to be cultural co-operation and collaboration ignoring the arts if the biggest firm in you can really move a community town is involved.' forward.' The community, moreover, is The arts also benefit from the Fine very involved. 'We have enormous volun- Arts Fund (FAF), The third largest arts teerism and very engaged boards,' says fundraising body in the US, FAF has Dillon. generated an astonishing $9m this year Nic Muni, artistic director of in private donations to the 'big eight' Cincinnati Opera since the mid 1990s, groups in town, including the opera, and widely respected for his creative symphony, ballet, Playhouse and vision, agrees. 'Cincinnati has an inferi- assorted museums and galleries. The 16 International Arts Manager September 2002 this year, the Corbett Foundation granted year, of which 45 per cent are new or Sunday columns to attack the social a further $1.5m to Cincinnati Opera for recent works. The strategy is paying inclusion record of the CSO. the creation of new administrative and dividends: last year attendance at the 'This has always been a very conserv- rehearsal spaces at Music Hall, the home year-round theatre averaged 98 per cent, ative city and that goes for people who sit it shares with its in-house band the while almost two-thirds of the CSF on its arts boards, too,' Gelfand says. 'I Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (CSO). audience were under 45 years of age. wrote a piece about diversity in the Such financial enthusiasm has 'Now that we are financially healthy,' symphony, which is based in the heart of encouraged Muni to push his company's Minadahs explains, 'we are expanding the black neighbourhood, when it artistic boundaries. The summer 2002 the new work mix. Because we are the appointed its third African-American season saw two company premieres - smallest theatre in town we can change musician in its 105-year history. Dead Man Walking and Strauss' our programming relatively easily. But we Although the CSO formed a multicultural Elektra - alongside Gounod's Romeo et also have a travelling show that reaches awareness council more than a decade Juliette and Mozart's Marriage of 18,000 kids over the course of a year.' ago, it is still a largely white picture.' Figaro. But broader community outreach But she is not critical of every arts 'DeadMan Walking and Elektra are work has become of pressing importance orgnisation. 'The opera's board has been real indications of how open the for cultural groups in Cincinnati in the much more visionary,' Gelfand argues, audience has become,' Muni insists. Tor wake of recent social turbulence. Almost 'and has taken amore active interest. Nic an audience at a traditional opera half of Cincinnati's 400,000 inner city Muni's vision has been to give the company that is 81 years old, and in a population is of African American origin. company much more of a national conservative mid-western town, to react Two years ago the city was flung into the profile and presence and that has the way it did is very encouraging. They national spotlight when the'shooting of included strong outreach work.' have stayed with us on our artistic an unarmed black man by local police Gelfind acknowledges that the journey. We're heading towards triggered days of rioting in the depressed problem of inclusion is a national as Wozzeck,' he smiles. area of town known as Over the Rhine, much as a local issue. But she does detect Such artistic journeying has also right on Music Hall's doorstep. a refreshing wind of change blowing been part of Jasson Minadakis' mission Janelle Gelfand, arts critic of the through the orchestra with the appoint- as artistic director of the Cincinnati influential Cincinnati Enquirer for a ment of PaavoJii as its music director Shakespeare Festival (CFS). With an decade, has been a vociferous critic of from last season. annual operating budget of $820,000 he arts organisations' failure to embrace 'JWi has great initiative,' Gelfand manages to put on between nine and 13 the broader community. A full year enthuses. 'When he first arrived here he main-stage theatrical productions a before the riots, she used one of her went straight to the university to Richard Strauss' Elektra (with Deborah Polaski and Robert Hale) is the sort of opera Cinicinnati audiences have not been used to 17 Inlernalional Arts Manager September 2002 AGENCY represents Orchestras: Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra (chief conductorYiri Simonov) The State Symphony Capella of Russia encourage students and young people to Beggs continues. 'Their approach was (chief conductor Valery Polyansky) come to the symphony. You could almost first to build new ballparks (Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra of the Bolshoi Theatre immediately tell the difference in the has the oldest professional baseball team (conductor Mark Ermler)* make-up of the audiences at Music Hall,' in the US) and to encourage new retail Symphony Orchestra "Russian Philharmony" which Gelfand says have become business into town, but there has also (music director and conductor Alexander Vederniko~)~ younger and more ethnically diverse. been a consensus about the role of the Meanwhile Patricia Beggs, arts. We are not one of the local 'gazelle Chorus managing director of Cincinnati Opera, cities' that is leaping ahead in terms of State Symphony Capella of Russia regards Cincinnati's image as a micro- bringing in communities and growing (chief ConductorValery Polyansky) cosm of America's social ills a source of the economic base.

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