Greetings, neighbors!

The KSO always looks foward to our free gatherings in the park each year. They provide us the opportunity to share great music across generations in a relaxed, friendly, open-air environment (when Mother Nature cooperates). Nearly 400,000 of our neighbors have enjoyed these concerts with their families the years. 

This summer – our 28th in the great outdoors – offers more of the nostalgia and unique presentations that you’ve come to expect from the KSO. You’ll hear familiar marches that accompany ceremonies, opera, ballet, film and more. You’ll experience the hit shows and songs of America’s most celebrated musical theater composer and lyricst. And you’ll toast the classic songs from America’s golden era of entertainers and crooners as the Rat Pack – Frank, Dean, and Sammy – returns to Greater Cincinnati with celebrated tunes and antics. 

As always, these shows are free to attend, but they certainly are not free to produce. I hope you’ll support these cherished times with friends and family by visiting the donation boxes about the park or go online to KYSO.ORG and show you value our time together as much as we do. Enjoy your summer with the Kentucky Symphony Orchestra. 

James R. Cassidy,
Music Director

Words, music by

INTERMISSION

* arrangements adapted by Terry LaBolt

The Carol Ann and Ralph V. Haile, Jr. Foundation
2022 Summer Series Presenter

Concert Sponsors

KSO Summer Series Partner

The KSO receives general operating & season funding from:

Additional Summer Program Support provided by:

 The Milburn Family Foundation
Elsa Heisel Sule Foundation
The Charles & Ruth Seligman Family Foundation
The Wohlgemuth Herschede Foundation
Summerfair Cincinnati
Matinée Musicale

Additional support comes from:

It’s been more than half a century since Americans were enthralled by a group of five entertainers that embodied the prosperity, glitz, and energy of the United States after World War II. They were known for their freewheeling attitude and swagger, but they also were immensely gifted performers – some in more than one genre – and, like many bands of brothers, they deeply respected each other’s talents. They were known as the Rat Pack.

The term was one they had neither coined nor liked. It can be traced (as much as such a generic term could) to the party­going, boredom-fighting circle in orbit around Humphrey Bogart: Lauren Bacall is alleged to have commented that the crew, on returning from a night on the town, looked like a pack of rats. That Holmby Hills Rat Pack (named for the Los Angeles neighborhood where Bogart and Bacall lived) included a big band crooner who had turned to acting after his singing career had apparently peaked – Frank Sinatra.

By 1957, Bogart died of cancer, and Sinatra was in the midst of one of entertainment’s greatest comebacks. He won an Oscar as an actor, and his recordings, made at Capitol with arranger Nelson Riddle, established him as the greatest living song interpreter. Around him, a new Rat Pack coalesced. It included fellow singer-actors Sammy Davis Jr. and Dean Martin, English actor (and brother-in-law to soon-to-be President John F. Kennedy) Peter Lawford, and comedian Joey Bishop. 

While their individual talents were inarguably prodigious, it was their charismatic personalities that really connected them with the public. No surprise, then, that the setting that most epitomizes our image of them is Las Vegas, and particularly the Copa Room at the Sands Hotel. They always wore a tuxedo on stage and could almost always be seen balancing a cocktail and cigarette. For an entire generation of postwar America, they embodied cool.

Both on stage and off, the Rat Packers genuinely enjoyed each others’ company, and they often made impromptu appearances at each others’ performances. (The Sands marquee once famously read, “Dean Martin, Maybe Frank, Maybe Sammy.”) In some combination, they made 20 films together, although all five appeared in just two, including Ocean’s 11. 

Despite rock ’n’ roll, the British invasion, and the social changes sparked by the Vietnam War, the careers of Davis, Martin, and Sinatra continued to thrive through the 1960s, including success on television. Sinatra attempted to launch a reunion tour with the three in 1987, but it faltered. Though all three have been dead for more than 20 years, their influence continues through an enormous audio and video legacy. Sinatra’s albums with Riddle, in particular, remain the gold standard both for vocal expression and instrumental support. No popular solo singer today is immune from their influence. — Thomas Consolo

Violins

Manami White,
The John & Gloria Goering
Memorial Chair
Jacquie Fennell
Johann Bast
Thomas Consolo
The Katie & Stephen
Wolnitzek Chair
Evan Hurley
Luke Coan

Violas

Peter Gorak
Lynn Pofffenberger

’Cellos

Tom Guth
The Fred Espenscheid
Plumbing Chair
Kat Aguiar

Reeds

Jeremy Long
Dwayne Irvin
James Bunte
Sonny Burnette
Phil Hilger

French Horn

Brad Granville
The Don & Sue
Corken Chair

Trumpets

Scott Belck
The Wilbert & Ellen Hackman Ziegler Chair
John Zappa
Eric Lechtliter
George Carpten

Trombone

Jason Branscum
Scott Forney
Camden Scarborough
Josh Omaits

Rhythm

Phil DeGreg, keyboard
The Schultz Marketing Communications Chair
Brian Deyo, guitar
Mike Sharfe, bass
Jim Leslie, drums
Brian Malone, percussion