Copious Notes

Lexington Philharmonic music director Scott Terrell conducts a combined rehearsal of the Central Kentucky Youth Orchestras' symphony orchestra and the Philharmonic Oct. 19. CKYO director Kayoko Dan stands at the back of the orchestra, in a black blouse. Photos by Matt Goins.

When I moved to Lexington in 1998, one thing that immediately struck me about the ­local arts scene was the prominence of children and organizations geared toward children.

The Lexington Children’s Theatre’s shows rated the same sort of attention as productions at Actors Guild of Lexington and other area stages.

The Central Kentucky Youth Orchestras’ events and personnel moves were prominent news. There were two institutions - the Explorium (then, the Lexington Children’s Museum) and the Living Arts and Science Center - geared toward children’s arts, particularly visual arts.

The School for Creative and Performing Arts had a prominent place in town, but there were stage, art and music programs at other schools also producing talented graduates who went on to arts careers.

Children’s Health magazine recently ranked Lexington No. 6 on its list of the 100 best places to raise a family. The criteria included crime and safety, education, economics, housing, cultural attractions and health.

I’d be willing to bet that if someone wanted to rank best places to be an artsy kid, Lexington would rate high on that list, too. By virtue of what is offered, we tell our children that the arts are something to do and be respected for doing.

Students Madelyn Nelson, left, Sara Arthur-Paratley, and Mary Rollins-Mathews rehearsed with the Lexington Ballet on Monday in preparation for Youth Arts Day.

The Lexington Philharmonic, the Horse Capitol of the World’s flagship arts organization, will celebrate young artists with its Youth Arts Day family concert at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Singletary Center for the Arts. It will include young singers from SCAPA, Fayette County Public Schools and the School of the Lexington Ballet.

The prominence of youth-oriented groups here is quite a bit more than other communities that I have lived in or observed. Over the nearly 12 years since I arrived, it has become clear that a big reason for that is quality.

Take the Children’s Theatre: In a town that has struggled with the concept of professional theater for adults, the Lexington Children’s Theatre has established itself with its own building on Short Street and a professional staff, including actors. What’s more, Larry and Vivian Snipes have developed a national reputation for the theater by being a venue that presents and creates new work. And the primary beneficiaries are kids.

And it really wasn’t terribly surprising that when the Central Kentucky Youth Orchestras went looking for a new music director at the same time that the Lexington Philharmonic was trying to fill a similar job, it ended up attracting and hiring Kayoko Dan, also a candidate for the Philharmonic post.

CKYO has graduated numerous professional musicians, including Chicago Symphony Orchestra violinist Nathan Cole and hard-to-categorize cello soloist Ben Sollee.

Outside of groups directly geared toward kids, Lexington arts groups have been generous to kids.
Look at Paragon Music Theatre, which routinely loads the stage with kids, including Hello Dolly! this weekend, and even makes a place for them in its cabaret shows.

During years without a professional company, the Lexington Ballet featured its students in productions, and it and Kentucky Ballet Theatre, which has always had a pro troupe, always find ways to present students. Former Ballet Theatre dancer Adalhi Aranda Corn saw such value in Central Kentucky’s young artists she left and formed Bluegrass Youth Ballet and eventually built CulturArte, an arts facility that acommodates a variety of disciplines.

Possibly one of the biggest statements about valuing student artists was when the Lexington Singers’ ­Children’s Chorus was invited to perform in the Our Lincoln performance at the Kennedy Center in Washington in February.

And now LexArts has formed a Youth Arts Council to help focus young artists in the area.

Clarinetists Andrew Burton, 14, left, of the Central Kentucky Youth Orchestras and Mike Acord of the Philharmonic rehearsed together Monday.

Full disclosure: My children have participated in some of these groups, and one is in the Central Kentucky Youth Orchestras, although not the ensemble performing Sunday with the Lexington Philharmonic.

In addition, I’ve gotten to know many other kids who participate in groups. Maybe the most important thing these groups engender is enthusiasm for the arts they are participating in. I hear spirited discussions about play rehearsal and genuine interest in Bach sonatas.

Like anything, Lexington’s youth arts scene isn’t perfect. I remain baffled, for instance, why SCAPA does not have a theater of its own. Then again, SCAPA regularly solves that problem by putting its kids on stages usually graced by adults and pros.

It occurred to me as I left a CKYO rehearsal last week with my daughter that by virtue of her participation in the orchestra, she’s on the University of Kentucky campus every week. Most of us didn’t get used to being on a college campus until we had enrolled.

That’s just one of many ways that through our youth arts, regardless of whether the students pursue arts careers, by supporting such substantial programs, we’re preparing our kids for the rest of their lives.

Patrons at the Mother’s Day performance of Silas House’s new play, Long Time Travelling, will get an extra treat. Cellist Ben Sollee, a Lexington native and University of Louisville graduate, will perform a set before the 2 p.m. performance of the Actors Guild of Lexington production at the Downtown Arts Center.

Ben Sollee at The Dame, Dec. 11. Photo by Rich Copley | LexGo.

Sollee’s Bend was one of the songs House cited as inspiration for the play about change in the life of a rural family. After the performance, Sollee and House will particpate in a talk-back session about the play, arts and activism.

House will also give a pre-show chat at 7 p.m. May 16, prior to the 8 p.m. performance of the play that night.

Sollee also has another gig at the Dame coming up at 8 p.m. May 21 with special guest Anni Rossi.

Ben Sollee at The Dame, Dec. 11. Photo by Rich Copley | LexGo.

Ben Sollee, the Lexington-raised cellist who has carved out a unique career with the instrument, will make his national television debut tonight on Jimmy Kimmel Live.

Sollee grew up in Lexington, studying cello and playing in the Central Kentucky Youth Orchestra before joining Michael Jonathan’s Folkboy Orchestra on Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour. He went on the University of Louisville and since graduating in 2006 has developed a singular career with the usually-classical instrument, integrating it into American folk and blues music. Sollee has recorded two critically acclaimed albums and an EP.

In December, he packed out The Dame for a homecoming concert. Click here to read Walter Tunis’ review.

Jimmy Kimmel Live airs at midnight in ABC, WTVQ TV-36 (Insight Channel 10) in Lexington.

Cellist Ben Solle (center), guitarist Justin Craig and drummer Jon Moore perform at The Dame Dec. 11. LexGo photos by Rich Copley.

More photos below.

If I want to see a hot young cellist in Lexington, it’s pretty obvious where you’ll probably find him or her: on the stage of an area concert hall, like the University of Kentucky’s Singletary Center for the Arts. In fact, a week ago last night, a hot young cellist was on the Singletary stage: Andrea Kleesattel, playing Antonin Dvorak’s legendary Cello Concerto with the UK Symphony.

The Dame is not such an obvious venue for hot young cello talent. The Main Street bar and music hall is a place where a lot of the musicians crank their six strings up to 11. But Thursday night, cellist and Lexington native Ben Sollee was centerstage, rocking and mesmerizing a packed house. That was a lot of people without gray hair listening to a cello — and I say this as a guy quickly acquiring my gray.

Ben Sollee at The Dame.

Sollee undoubtedly has talent. But maybe the biggest thing this twentysomething has going for him is imagination.

He took a fairly traditional route to learning the instrument, picking it up in elementary school, excelling enough to join the Central Kentucky Youth Orchesrtra, and studying the instrument at the University of Louisville, which he graduated from in 2006. But somewhere in there, Sollee heard more to his instrument than just concert and recital halls and people who patronize those venues. He heard folk, he heard the blues, he heard rock ‘n’ roll, he heard the Appalachian music his father played around the house.

And now, in his performances and recordings, we hear it.

Sollee is not unusual. Music schools these days are teeming with kids who appreciate and have mastered the complexities of traditional classical music but grew up in a pop, rock world and want to find ways to marry the two. New Yorker music critic Alex Ross called it a shuffle generation: kids who load their iPods with a wide variety of music and then let it play together in shuffle mode. We just maybe think of them trying to forge those unions in little clubs on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

But here, in Central Kentucky, it can be manifest in things like the numerous fiddlers I’ve met who are studying classical violin, and vice versa.

Sollee is doing it quite effectively, and a key to what he is doing is that he does not diminish his craft. He hasn’t reduced cello down to three chords and a six pack of beer — not that there’s anything wrong with that.

His Dame performance was full of virtuosity and a keen ear for the structure of his songs. Highlights included a rendition of Change is Going to Come, which he grew from a solo piece back into a jam with his band, building on a central theme. Maybe the most fun was I Can’t Be You, which Sollee said he was supposed to play on guitar, but he left it backstage. So, he plucked and strummed it on cello like that’s the way he always played it.

Maybe there is a Dvorak concerto in Sollee’s fingers he will someday play, if he hasn’t already. Maybe his could be a career that straddles the concert hall and club more legitimately than many artists who’ve attempted to “cross over.”

But at this moment, he seems to be taking his cello exactly where it needs to go.

Read Walter Tunis’ review of Thursday’s Ben Sollee concert.

Here are a few more pics from last night:

Neva Geoffrey and bassist Matt Duncan opened the show.

Neva Geoffrey

Guitarist Matt Duncan put a little slide into his performances with Neva Geoffrey and Ben Sollee.

Daniel Martin Moore played his own set and sat in with Ben Sollee for a number.

Ben Sollee during one of numerous cello solos in his set.

A singing cellist is not something I can recall seeing before.