A Tribute to Erich Kunzel

Last night’s memorial concert for Erich Kunzel was both a sad, moving experience and an exuberant celebration of Erich’s own exuberance. All 3500 seats of Cincinnati's Music Hall were full, and another 1300 were in adjacent ballroom watching on jumbo screens. Another crowd watched from Fountain Square downtown.


It opened with Bach’s Air from Suite No. 3, played beautifully by the orchestra on a darkened stage while a spotlight shone on the empty podium.

A video capturing Erich’s life and career followed a brief introduction by Trey Devey, President of the Cincinnati Symphony and Pops Orchestras.

There were reminiscences by a longtime friend of Erich’s and another by a nephew, which brought both smiles and tears to the evening. Henry Coe, who had been friends with Erich for 50 years, had contacted me prior to the concert and used something that I had written as part of his tribute.

Keith Lockhart of the Boston Pops, who worked here with us in the early nineties before he went to Boston, conducted two numbers – the Carmen Dragon arrangement of America the Beautiful (which we recorded on the Pops’ American Jubilee album) with the May Festival Chorus, and a fun rendition of the theme music from The Magnificent Seven, preceded by various western sound effects that bounced around the hall (think horses’ hooves, mooing, neighing – very Erich).

Bob Porco, in a red Pops jacket for the first time, conducted the chorus and Kathleen Brett (a favorite soloist of Erich’s, filling in as a last-minute substitution for Frederica von Stade, who was ill) in You’ll Never Walk Alone.

Paavo Jarvi led Elgar’s “Nimrod” from The Enigma Variations, followed by Strauss’ Blue Danube waltzes, the sounds of which whirled with alternating delicacy and excitement from the stage.

Vince Lee, the CSO and Pops Assistant Conductor, led the orchestra and Miss Brett in a moving Climb Every Mountain.

The final segment of the concert was led by Steve Reineke, of the New York Pops and the Cincinnati Pops, another protégé of Erich’s. He came out in the Pops red jacket, as had both Porco and Lockhart, but he was also wearing the white trousers that were Erich’s trademark. (His conducting is very much like Erich's as well.)


Erich’s ebullience was evident in Reineke. He shared some Erich stories, including the first and last things Erich had said to him. Steve had been engaged to help with some arrangements for an upcoming CD, and when they met, Erich remarked, “So, kid, are you any good?” Kunzel’s last words to Steve were, “Make me proud.”

Reineke united the old era with the new, as he conducted Erich’s musicians in his own arrangement of “America” from Bernstein’s West Side Story. Reineke then led the assembled crowd, which now included the chorale from Erich’s beloved School for the Creative and Performing Arts, in a rousing sing-along of “Sing a Song” and “I Believe in Music,” after telling how much of a Sesame Street fan Erich had been.

Finally, a soul-stirring Stars and Stripes Forever brought the crowd to its feet, clapping throughout and cheering the woodwinds. It ended with the chorus joining in with the final refrain, “Hooray for the flag of the free, may it wave as our standard forever.” Confetti fell from the ceiling, from confetti cannons (so Erich), and a flag filled the space behind the musicians as the evening drew to a close.

History of Meridian, Part 1 -- In the Beginning

In the beginning…


That’s the usual place to start a history of just about anything, so it seems appropriate to begin this one the same way.

Meridian’s beginnings, like any place on Earth, started with the condensation of a ring of dust and debris around the sun. That ring of dust and debris became the series of planets that make up our solar system. However, that beginning is covered in a lot of other books, so we’ll skip much of the first 4 billion years and start with the most recent Ice Age, which lasted over 100,000 years, ending between 10,000 and 15,000 years ago.

If you look around, you’ll notice the fairly uncommon landscape that surrounds Meridian. The village sits in the middle of a large field (sometimes called a “swarm”) of glacially-formed hills called “drumlins.” There are about 10,000 drumlins in upstate New York, following the southern shore of Lake Ontario. There are drumlins on the floor of Lake Ontario itself and another 7,000 drumlins exist across the Lake on its northern shore in Canada. Other drumlin fields on Earth are much, much smaller

Drumlins follow the direction of the glaciers, ice thousands of feet thick, that formed them. As these massive rivers of ice moved southward, they sculpted the landscape. Drumlins are very visible evidence of the glaciers’ movement. Those around Meridian are aligned askew from north-south, inclined slightly to the northwest. The shape of drumlins has been compared to that of whales, long and narrow. Traveling from east to west or vice versa in the Meridian area can sometimes feel similar to riding a roller coaster.

The eastern entrance to the village on Route 370 cuts through a classic drumlin. The northern half of it used to be called “Butter Factory Hill.”

That same Ice Age, as its glaciers moved southward, gouging out the landscape, was responsible for the creation of the Finger Lakes as well as the drumlin field. The two lakes south of the village, Otter and Cross Lakes, may not be as long or as deep as Cayuga or Seneca or the other, more “official” Finger Lakes, but they were created in the same way and are equally important evidence of the huge effect of glaciers on the New York State landscape.

Lakes such as Cross and Otter Lakes aren’t as deep as some of the other Finger Lakes, and there are still shallower depressions that resulted from the glaciers. Today we see lowlands and marshes in these shallow depressions that aren’t deep enough to be lakes. The “Sunnyside” area, east of the village, is a classic example, as is the swampy area to the northwest of Cato Meridian School. The Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge at the north end of Cayuga Lake, is an extreme example.

Those swampy areas had in important role in later New York State History, creating difficulties for early settlers because they were perfect breeding grounds for malaria-carrying mosquitoes. Many of the workers who built the Erie Canal, the main means of transportation to Meridian’s region, died of malaria.

The glaciers also deposited soil. That soil was later the basis for the agriculture that made upstate New York an excellent place for the human beings, both Native American and European, that eventually settled here.

Know Theatre's production of Peter Sinn Nachtrieb's Boom opens Saturday at the theatre's Mainstage on Saturday, October 10.

Boom is a comedic tale of the apocalypse, and continues in the Know's tradition of slightly off-center theatre.  The production is directed by Drew Fracher and features Joshua Murphy, Alison Vodnoy, and Liz Vosmeier.

I'll be there.  Will you?

Visit Boom online for more information.