Copious Notes

MSNBC Political analyst Chris Matthews, left, political consultant Stephanie Cutter and Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear prepare for an interview after a commercial break during a taping of the show “Hardball with Chris Matthews” on Thursday. Debate Festival area outside the 2012 Vice Presidential Debate,Thursday, Oct. 11, 2012 at Centre College in Danville. © Herald-Leader photo by Jonathan Palmer.

Today is the day for Danville’s major media closeup as all the networks and many other media outlets present live coverage from Centre College, site of the 2012 vice-presidential debate between incumbent Joe Biden and challenger U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.). We’ll be keeping an eye on television coverage and noting any funny, meaningful, cool or otherwise noteworthy moments from the coverage.

Midnight

Big shocker, on Fox News the feeling is Paul Ryan was the adult in the room rising about Joe Bidens smirky rudeness and on MSNBC the general feeling is Biden put the Obama campaign back on track with a feisty performance that helped put the Obama-Biden ticket back on track.

It looks like Chris Matthews is going to be the one to turn out the lights with a final Hardball from in front of the Centre Library. The crowd is dying down – just a few dozen folks hanging on the rail. By 1 a.m., it might just be him and Lincoln, and I don’t think Matthews would mind.

Good night.

11:20 p.m.

Fox News’ Sean Hannity told U.S. Sen. Mich McConnell (R-Ky.) he noticed debate organizers were giving away Bourbon. McConnell replied that Kentucky loves Bourbon and Hannity said he wondered if Vice-president Joe Biden had some before the debate.

8:50 p.m. 

Martha Raddatz on stage now at the Norton Center on CNN. She offers the cell phone warning and says that having worked in war zones she is not used to having her back to the audience and she is also not used to all the fuss prepping for the debate. “Usually I just roll out,” she says.

Props to CNN. It has not had as much of an on-air Kentucky presence as its cable news brethren, but in the final hour before the debate, CNN has been the network to convey the sense of an impending event from footage inside the hall to spin room interviews to moments others have not shown.

8:37 p.m.

Very cool that CNN is showing in a spilt screen the audience seated and the preliminary program before the debate. Really didn’t know there was a preliminary program.

8:07 p.m.

MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell is doing a standup in front of a banner that says NCAA 2012 Basketball Champions. Wonder how that slipped in to Centre College. Have to say that when we contacted MSNBC to ask who was coming to Danville, they named three: Chris Mattews, Chuck Todd and Andrea Mitchell. But they actually have a good compliment of people in Danville including Tamryn Hall, Krystal Ball and O’Donnell, plus a number of their regular contributors like Mark Halperin and Eugene Robinson, who both have day jobs with print publications, on site.

Still, the left-leaning network’s coverage is anchored from New York with Rachel Maddow leading a long table of talking heads.

While Fox has Bill O’Reilly on now, they will be the only network actually anchoring from Kentucky.

CNN’s correspondent says that the Norton Center for the Arts’ Newlin Hall is freezing and notes that most people in the hall are looking through the official program.

7:50 p.m.

Fox News live shot of Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) shows an increasingly busy spin alley as debate time draws closer.

Coverage across the board is decidedly turning toward the main event at this point. Enough chat about bourbon and shopping runs to Walmart. The chatter is focused on R’s and D’s and last-minute prognostication about how the debate will go. Well, not all the chatter feels like it’s lasting minutes.

7:45 p.m.

I have to wonder what it’s like watching this fight between Chris Matthews, Michael Steele and Joy Ann Reid on Hardball with one of three fighters (Reid) not at the table.

7:05 p.m. 

Lots of blue Obama signs have flooded the background of Chris Matthews’ Hardball, though he has a pretty ardent heckler in the background. It seemed to be tripping up his opening monologue.

Fox and Shepard Smith  are once again inside the Norton Center with throws outside.

6:50 p.m.

Kind of a quiet hour Kentucky-wise. The network news shows threw to correspondents in Danville, but with short time, they were very focused on the event at hand. Looking to see how much the rowdiness has ratcheted up when MSNBC goes back to Hardball at sunset.

6:18 p.m.

Bret Baier of Fox News gives a tour of the Norton Center stage calling Newlin Hall an “intimate space.” He then takes a fast-forward walk over to the gym-turned-media center and Spin Room. A photographer in the background of Baier’s interview with Obama spokesperson Stephanie Cutter can’t seem to get out of the Fox shot.

6:07 p.m.

CNN’s Jim Acosta, in Danville, reports the Ryan camp is upset Time magazine released new photos of the vice-presidential candidate today. The photos, including Ryan in workout mode, have created a bit of a buzz in the political echo chamber. Wolf Blitzer says Time editor Rick Stengel says they thought it was a good time to put the images out.

6 p.m. 

Sign over Chris Matthews shoulder during the “Let me finish” segment on Hardball: Coach Cal for President.

Rev. Al Sharpton did not make the trip to Kentucky, so MSNBC is originating from New York the next hour.

Bret Baier’s Special Report is originating from inside the Norton Center for the Arts, which Baier fully name tagged in his intro.

5:50 p.m.

Kimberly Guilfoyle is on Fox News out in front of the Norton Center showing a nice display of Kentucky Beverages. “Don’t drink that!” co-host Eric Bolling shouts, but she does anyway. They and the other three hosts — it’s called The Five for a reason — then go into a quick discussion about how Ryan will win tonight and Guilfoyle signs off with, “Kisses from Kentucky.”

5:25 p.m.

Wolf Blitzer! You couldn’t move the Situation Room to Kentucky?

5:20 p.m.

Back from a drive-time errand. Heard NPR’s Don Gonyea talking about the beautiful drive from Lexington to Danville – y’all are here at the perfect time. He also talked about seeing a gas station with a big “Thrill in the ‘Ville sign.”

On MSNBC, Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear is on Hardball with host Chris Matthews and Stephanie Cutter, spokesperson for President Barack Obama’s campaign. Matthews asked Beshear, a Democrat, how he got elected in such as red state that has sent Republican Senators Rand Paul and Mitch McConnell to congress. Beshear said Kentucky is a “schizophrenic state” that voted for Jimmy Carter, then Ronald Reagan, then Bill Clinton, then George W. Bush in Presidential elections.

3:25 p.m.

CNN has not originated a show from Danville since we have been watching, but they are doing a lot of live shots from in front of the Norton Center. Right now U.S. Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) is in a spirited interview with anchor Brooke Baldwin.

3:05 p.m.

MSNBC’s Krystal Ball is live from Danville, opening The Cycle noting Kentucky is the home state of Muhammad Ali and invoking fight metaphors for tonight’s fight: Joey “Deleware” Bide vs. Paul “The Kid” Ryan. BTW, yes, that is Krystal’s real name.

Also, Centre’s Dead Fred is getting its moment in the spotlight, periodically being held aloft in the background on MSNBC. The portrait is of Fred Vinson, a Centre alum from Louisa who went on to become Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. The portrait goes everywhere, including to all Centre home football games. According to the Centre website, Dead Fred was the first to be seated at the 2000 VP debate.

Chase Ely, left, Nick Hiller, Alyson Partain, Miranda Willis and Preetha Suresh attempt to be seen by MSNBC cameras outside Crounse Hall on Thursday. Debate Festival area outside the 2012 Vice Presidential Debate,Thursday, Oct. 11, 2012 at Centre College in Danville. © Herald-Leader photo by Jonathan Palmer.

2:04 p.m.

Fun moment: On Fox, Kelly did a throw to Ed Henry, who appeared to be standing about 10 feet from Kelly judging by the backdrops in the shot of her and the shot of him. Turned out, when Kelly outed the shot, it was even less than that. Henry stepped over and complimented Kelly’s Walmart wardrobe. Wonder if Bret Baier’s stuff made it to Kentucky?

Tamryn Hall’s show is now on MSNBC live from Danville with guest Chris Matthews, host of Hardball. Sign being held behind Matthews: “Chris Matthews listens to Nickleback.” Insult? I’d take it that way. The network’s promo for the veep debate is “Wingman Showdown.”

1:50 p.m. 

Delta Airlines is getting no love from Fox News’  Megyn Kelly. She says they lost her luggage, including the choice outfit she had for tonight’s broadcast,  and she had to go to the Danville Walmart for clothes to wear on the air today.

1:15 p.m. 

As we start at 1 p.m., both MSNBC and Fox News have gone live from the Centre campus. Andrea Mitchell is on the air with a sea of observers behind her hoisting “Centre Debate 2012″ signs behind her. Supporters of Republican nominee Mitt Romney and Ryan also are flooding the backdrop for the Democratic-leaning network with their signs.

Over on Fox, Megyn Kelly has the Norton Centre for the Arts, site of the debate, behind her but not as much activity as the area in front of the Norton Center has restricted access. Fox has 2008 Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin on commenting on debating Biden, who she faced four years ago. The former Alaska Governor, interviewed from a location that appeared far west of here and south of Alaska, recalled the man who played Biden was “a real stinker,” who made her wonder if Biden would be that much of a “stinker” and she said she thinks Ryan needs to trip Biden up on his flip-flops.

Earlier in the day, MSNBC’s Chuck Todd hosted his Daily Rundown show from the networks Centre outpost and guests including analyst Michael Steele and U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Ky.) commented along with Todd that they could use a nip of bourbon to ward off the frosty morning chill.

Vince DiMartino in the basement studio of his Danville home. © Herald-Leader staff photos and video by Rich Copley

At the end of this post, see video of Vince DiMartino demonstrating historic horns that will be played at this year’s Great American Brass Band Festival.

DANVILLE — It was trumpet virtuoso Vince ­DiMartino’s first official day of retirement.

“The Monday after ­commencement, I drove down to Tennessee and I went to hear a friend’s brass quintet, … the Stiletto Brass Quintet,” DiMartino, 63, says. “I sat in the ­audience, didn’t have a note to play. I had dinner with Doc ­Severinsen, who was there, and we just sat there ­talking about stuff, and it was so great. I drove back to Danville, and the next day I practiced.

DiMartino in his basement with the poster for the first Great American Brass Band Festival in 1990.

“That was my first day of retirement, and it felt really good. There’s always work to do. It’s the perspective that’s changing, not the work.”

After 40 years of ­teaching, 21 at the University of Kentucky and 19 at Centre College, DiMartino is no longer keeping office hours at a school of music. But he has plenty to keep him busy, including a couple of books about trumpet playing, a few new recordings, music and trumpet organizations he’s ­involved with, workshops and conferences. Already, friends are calling him about giving master classes and artist residencies at their institutions.

DiMartino hopes to spend a lot of time basking in the sun on his enclosed back porch, but it will have to share him with the rest of the trumpeting world.

This week, one of the events DiMartino helped found, Danville’s Great ­American Brass Band ­Festival, will be a big ­retirement party for the trumpet master.

The 23rd annual event will feature his hero, ­Severinsen, plus colleagues, many students and his son, Gabriel DiMartino, who has established his own career teaching trumpet at Syracuse University in New York.

“That’s why I’m ­practicing, so I can keep up with him,” DiMartino says of his son. “It means a lot to have them all here at once and have sort of a ­celebration of the retirement from this aspect” of his work.

DiMartino came to ­Kentucky from the ­prestigious Eastman School of Music in 1972 to teach at UK.

“I was only 23,” he says. “I wasn’t much older than my students. I’m sure some of them came in and said, ‘What’s he doing teaching me?’”

Read the rest of this entry »

Stephen Rolfe Powell’s Sassy Sarcastic Swooper, is valued at $22,000, but if you’re lucky, you might be able to get it for $100.

Louisville’s 21c Museum Hotel and Preservation Kentucky are raffling the Centre College artists’ piece off to benefit the organization that works to preserve historic and prehistoric places in Kentucky. Only 300 tickets are available in the raffle through Dec. 7. The drawing will be part of the Pecha Kucha preservation lecture at 8 p.m. Dec. 7 at 21c. Tickets are available at preservationkentucky.org, by calling (502) 871.4570 or emailing info@preservationkentucky.org.

Patrons filled the Meadow View Barn for the May 30, 2010 performance of the Chamber Music Festival of the Bluegrass. Photos by Kirk Schlea.

The Chamber Music Festival of the Bluegrass, which has become an annual Memorial Day weekend event at the Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, is back on for 2011.

David Finckel and Wu Han in performance at the 2010 festival.

In previous seasons, the festival had been announced as part of the season at Centre College’s Norton Center for the Arts. But this season, the center has bowed out of participation in the event which will be presented exclusively by Shaker Village. As in the past, the festival will feature musicians from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and be directed by the society’s David Finckel and Wu Han.

This year’s festival will feature four concerts: 11 a.m. performances in the Meeting House May 28 and 29 and 5 p.m. concerts in the Meadow View Barn those afternoons. There will also be pre-concert lectures by composer Patrick Castillo at 3 p.m. each day.

The musicians this year will be the Orion String Quartet, which was featured at the 2008 festival, and violin and violist Ida Kavafian, clarinetist Jose Franch-Ballester and pianist Inon Barnatan, who was a soloist with the Lexington Philharmonic in November.

Admission to the festival ranges from individual concert tickets to festival, accommodation and meal packages. Visit shakervillageky.org or call 1-800-734-5611, Ext. 1545 for more information and reservations.

The 2,012-seat "Broadway-capable and Broadway-quality theater in the new Center for the Performing Arts at Eastern Kentucky University, Monday, January 31, 2011, will be the second largest performing arts theater in Kentucky. Photos by Tim Webb.

I am not aware of any historic rivalry between Centre College and Eastern Kentucky University. But it seems like one fired up on Monday morning, when EKU announced Debra Hoskins, the former assistant director at Centre’s Norton Center for the Arts, will run the new Center for the Performing Arts at Eastern Kentucky University.

Here’s the backstory on this move: Hoskins served for nearly two decades as the program and public relations director at the Norton Center before being promoted to assistant director late in her tenure. Over those years, she worked closely with center director George Foreman to bring an astonishing list of performers to the small liberal arts college in the small Kentucky town of Danville. The guest list included the Boston Pops, Kathleen Battle, Dolly Parton and many, many more.

Debra Hoskins talks with Madison County Judge-Executive Kent Clark and former Madison County representative Harry Moberly after she was announced as the new executive director of the Center for the Performing Arts at Eastern Kentucky University.

In 2009, Foreman accepted a position as the director of the performing arts centers at the University of Georgia. Hoskins threw her hat in the ring for the director’s job at the Norton Center, but officials chose to bring in Steven A. Hoffman, a well traveled venue director whose last gig was the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas, Calif.

Despite his credentials, many of Hoskins’ ardent supporters saw this as an insult to a woman who, just days before Hoffman’s appointment was announced, had announced she had booked the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and Gustavo Dudamel for an unprecedented concert at the Norton Center last September.

Hoskins stayed on for a while, but departed the Norton Center in December saying it was time to move on.

Turns out, she moved about 35 miles east.

At the same time Hoskins was leaving Centre, the original director of EKU’s center, Katherine Eckstrand, announced she was leaving to tend to family medical issues in Ohio, opening the door for Hoskins to lead the new facility at what happens to be her alma mater.

Do we have to spell out the forming rivalry out anymore?

Well, at Monday morning’s announcement, some university and public officials did. Madison County judge executive Kent Clark couldn’t help but invoke the word “stupid” in describing Centre’s decision to let Hoskins go.

For her own part, Hoskins did not express any animosity toward her former employer. Read the rest of this entry »

Centre College students sat in the aisles of Centre College's Newlin Hall in the Norton Center for the Arts during the rehearsal by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Gustavo Dudamel. Photos by Rich Copley | LexGo.com

Reminder: The Vienna Philharmonic concert at Centre College’s Norton Center for the Arts will be broadcast live, starting at 8:15 p.m., on WEKU-FM 88.9 and WUOL-FM 90.5.

DANVILLE – It was only a rehearsal, but Nick Niehaus was breaking out the tux anyway.

“This is the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra!” Floyd said, explaining his late morning attire. “I thought, I have the tux, I ought to wear it.”

The 18-year-old freshman joined most of the student body at Centre College at the campus’ Norton Center for the Arts Monday morning to hear a rehearsal by the orchestra and conductor Gustavo Dudamel, who were set to perform Monday night in a concert that will see many more black ties and evening gowns in the audience.

For many students, just hearing a rehearsal was exhilirating.

“They’re breathtaking,” Niehaus said. “My heart was pounding.”

Louesa Akin, a 20-year-old freshman from Paducah said, “They’re so smooth and everything that’s in the music shows. Watching Dudamel, you see the excitement and the passion.”

After rehearsal, Gustavo Dudamel signed a Dvorak score for Central Kentucky Youth Orchestra music director Kayoko Dan.

Joining the Centre students were others from the Central Kentucky music community, including the University of Kentucky Symphony Orchestra. They got to see the extent of the event planned for the concert, including cameras mounted on giant cranes over the stage for NBC to film the concert.

For Central Kentucky Youth Orchestras music director, it was a chance to reconnect with an orchestra she had enjoyed a summer program with and to see another Youth Orchestra conductor who’d made it big. Dudamel first became known for work he did with the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra, a youth orchestra in Caracas, Venezuela, that is part of the arts education program El Sistema.

“It means this job can be the start of an awesome career,” said Dan, who asked Dudamel to sign a score for her. Dan said she knew of about eight to 10 CKYO kids who are coming to the concert, “but I can’t, because we have rehearsal. I let them off though. It was a good excuse.”

After watching the rehearsal from backstage, Dan said, “The energy comes from him, and his sound is just amazing. The soft is amazingly soft – you can barely hear it.

“It takes time to do that, and a lot of young conductors just rush to the next thing, but he works with it.”

UK Symphony director said the Philharmonic, “knows that music inside-out, and with that, they can really make it their own.”

Jasmine Watts, a 20-year-old Centre junior from Boston said that while she has plenty of cultural opportunities back home, “this is pretty special to have it right here on campus, and its free.”

For Akin, the rehearsal was not to be missed because, “This will never happen again at Centre College, so it’s exciting to be a part of it.”

Conductor Gustavo Dudamel, background, in red, watches as UK graduate student Eric Brown conducts the Haitian Harmony Childrens Choir at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games. Photo by Rich Copley | LexGo

We are in a caravan of vans heading from Danville to Bluegrass Airport. The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra is on a plane heading from JFK Airport in New York to Bluegrass Airport.

Around 2 p.m. we are supposed to meet. It will be an unprecedented meeting: one of the world’s greatest orchestras and hottest conductors, Gustavo Dudamel, coming to a small Southern city. The staff of the Norton Center for the Arts has planned a full day for the VPO with a visit to the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games and two horse farms in the offing before heading back to their hotels in Danville. We will keep you posted with a live blog through the afternoon and evening. ~ Rich

1:45 – A major logistical operation is afoot, moving gift bags brought up from Danville in minivans onto a pair of Bluegrass Tours buses that will transport the orchestra. A big black SUV awaits maestro Dudamel, as if he were a visiting head of state.

1:55 – Minor crisis: No bottle openers for the bottles of Kentucky Ale being given to the musicians. Fortunately, there are college students around who tend to carry such things on their key rings (and a Herald-Leader arts writer’s OBX botlle opener has been impressed into service), and the airport gift shop just made a killing on bottle openers.

2:30 – The Vienna Philharmonic have arrived. Gustavo Dudamel immediately asked for one of the blue horse stickers that airport hospitality personnel were passing out and affixed it to his lapel. The musicians gathered up their belongings and got on the Bluegrass Tour buses waiting outside. And Norton Center director Steven Hoffman went to work passing out bottles of Kentucky Ale. When he offered water, a chorus of “Nooooo” rang out from the musicians.

4:30 – The Vienna Philharmonic had a quick, but eventful visit to the World Equestrian Games. Alltech founder and president Pearse Lyons met the orchestra and Maestro Gustavo Dudamel, who were serendaded by the Haitian Harmony Children’s Choir and Tonan Tynan.

6 – Finally a Vienna Philharmonic musician had to play. After listening to local bluegrass band Kentucky Blue for a while, VPO violinist Erich Schagerl borrowed Marty Harley’s fiddle and joined in for a few numbers, to the delight of his orchestra-mates, party guests and the band.

Vienna Philharmonic violinist Erich Schagerl joined Kentucky Blue - David Cottrell, banjo; Greg Breeding, guitar; Laurie Cottrell, bass; Ron Mobley, mandolin and Andy Ruff, dobro - for a few tunes at Taylor Made Farm.

8 p.m. – Gustavo Dudamel is currently standing with a bluegrass band, Kentucky Blue, listening intently to renditions of House of the Rising Sun and other tunes at Taylor Made Farm.

“He really got into it,” Kentucky Blue mandolin player Ron Mobley said. “He was standing there saying, ‘This is amazing, this is amazing.’”

Mobley said a lot of the Vienna Phil musicians complimented the band, and when they acted surprised, Mobley says the visitors said, “Music is music, no matter what it is.”

A day of events has turned into a little party under the stars for the maestro and the Vienna Philharmonic.

9:15 p.m. – At the end of an eventful day, the Vienna Philharmonic buses are headed home to Danville. When a few fireworks appear in the sky, Norton Center director Steven A. Hoffman looks back at the passengers on Bus B and says, “That’s for you.”

DANVILLE — Steven A. Hoffman navigates the dining hall at Centre College like a returning student, heaping some salad fixings on the plate, hitting the sandwich counter for a generous serving of sliced turkey on top, and noting to his guest about to default to Diet Coke that the soda fountain also has Diet Dr Pepper.

Steven A. Hoffman, the new director of the Norton Center for the Arts at Centre College in Danville, Ky., on the stage of the Norton Center's Newlin Hall. Photo by Rich Copley | LexGo.com

In his role as the new director of the Norton Center for the Arts on Centre’s campus, Hoffman doesn’t necessarily have to deal with students on a daily basis. But he wants to.

“Having been here two months before the students arrived, I was kind of waiting,” says Hoffman, who started at Centre in July. “Now that they’re here, the energy is something that I was hoping for, and it’s just great.”

Hoffman, who succeeds George Foreman as the Norton Center’s director, came to Centre from two non-collegiate posts — at the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas, Calif., and the Washington Pavilion of Arts in Sioux Falls, S.D.

But Hoffman’s arts management roots are in academic settings.

“When I was an undergrad at the University of Illinois, I kind of put all my eggs in one basket and decided I wanted to go to U of I because they had a group called Star Course,” Hoffman says. “Star Course was the student organization that ran and presented all of the concerts on campus. I said, ‘I want to run that before I graduate.’”

Before his senior year, when he was a candidate to manage the group, Hoffman withdrew, thinking he needed to focus on his major, actuarial science. He figured out that what he really needed to do was change his major.

So he focused on business, got jobs at places like Chicago’s Goodman Theatre and Ravinia Festival, and went to graduate school at the University of Wisconsin in the business school’s arts administration program. There, he advised the student presenting group.

“I worked with students who were all dressed in black with black fingernail polish and jet-black hair — it was the goth time,” says Hoffman, who was at Wisconsin in the early 1990s. “I said, we have 30,000 people on campus. How do we program five nights a week for a community, and not just ourselves? It was really about the programming.”

Hoffman has since worked around the country until landing the Centre College gig. He takes over a performing arts center already known for outdoing itself: booking world-class artists from Yo-Yo Ma and the New York Philharmonic to Lyle Lovett and Tony Bennett to play a 1,200-student campus in Danville, a town of just over 15,000.

Read the rest of this entry »

The cast of SummerFest's production of "Rent" practiced with music director Mark Caulkins June 9, 2010 in the movement studio of the University of Kentucky Fine Arts Building in Lexington, Ky. Photos by Rich Copley | LexGo.com.

At a Wednesday evening rehearsal of Rent, Johnny Dawson has just finished singing Your Eyes and wails “Mimi!” and Musetta’s Waltz, a classic tune from from La Boheme plays.

“I get chills when I hear that La Boheme music,” says Mark Calkins, music director for Summerfest’s production of Rent.

Opera is where Calkins spends much of his time as an associate professor of voice at Centre College and Berea College. Music directing Rent is Calkins’ highest profile gig since moving to Central Kentucky last year with his wife, University of Kentucky endowed chair in voice Cynthia Lawrence.

Johnny Dawson as Roger, Immanuel Williams as Angel, Nick Vannoy as Collins, Chip Becker as Mark and Caroline Griffeth as Maureen rehearse "La Vie Boheme" from "Rent."

And Rent gives Calkins a much wider variety of voices to deal with than the budding opera singers he usually works with. The cast ranges from potential opera stars to rockers, capturing the full-range of the spirit of the rock show which was based on La Boheme.

“It’s just as vocally rangy as most operas,” Calkins says of Rent.

Part of director Tracey Bonner’s intent in hiring Calkins to be the music director was getting someone who would know how to care for the voices in the show, which can do a number on the throat, particularly if you add in singing outdoors amidst the foliage of the Arboretum.

Calkins points out that both the main male and female roles have singers in ranges that are not usually comfortable for their genders. So he talks to the actors a lot about how to sing to make their most of their voices, and how to take care of them.

Read the rest of this entry »

Steven A. Hoffman, former director of the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas, Calif., has been named the new executive director of the Norton Center for the Arts at Centre College in Danville.

Steven Hoffman.

Hoffman succeeds George Foreman, who made the small-town, small-college arts center into a major player in Kentucky’s performing arts scene in his 26 years as director of the center. Foreman left at the end of 2009 to become the director of the performing arts center at the University of Georgia.

“The programming and the level of programming are amazing for a community of that size,” Hoffman said Tuesday afternoon. He said that he had wanted to get back to a collegiate environment because, “there’s a special opportunity when you can connect with a student body and faculty and help grow their experience on campus.”

Search committee chair Richard Trollinger said Hoffman’s, “sense of vision for what we we can do in the future to keep the Norton Center’s reputation strong and growing, and for the center to be more of a catalyst for creativity on campus really stood out to us.”

Hoffman was director of the Steinbeck Center before resigning in September in the midst of an economic crisis at the center. The Californian newspaper in Salinas and The Associated Press reported that the crisis was due to the national economic downturn which hit California particularly hard.

“One of John Steinbeck’s sons and his daughter-in-law were among Steve’s references,” Trollinger said. “I was satisfied that what was going on there had nothing to do with Steve. The Steinbecks said, ‘This is not his fault.’”

Hoffman said he went to the center in 2007 with hopes of turning around 10 years of financial upheaval, but when the economic crisis set in, “it was obvious it was time to move on,” Hoffman said.

Both Trollinger and Hoffman said it was his previous job that really prepared him for the Norton Center post.

Prior to the Steinbeck Center, Hoffman was director of the Washington Pavilion of Arts in Sioux Falls, S.D., where he oversaw construction of the $33 million facility and management of the center, which included a science museum, visual arts museum and performing arts facilities.

Hoffman will become the director of the Norton Center effective July 1.

The announcement comes on the heels of the Norton Center’s announcement that it will present its biggest concert ever, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, on Sept. 27. The concert will be presented during this fall’s Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games.