Category Archives: On Stage

Count Basie Orchestra Makes Rare Cincinnati Stop at Music Hall
Thursday, February 5 – 7:00-10:00 PM
to Benefit Public Radio WMKV 89.3FM and WLHS 89.9FM

Count Basie Orchestra.

CINCINNATI, OH – One of the rarest appearances by a legacy big band is happening at Cincinnati Music Hall Ballroom on Thursday, February 5 from 7:00-10:00 PM as WMKV 89.3FM and WLHS 89.9FM bring The Legendary Count Basie Orchestra to Cincinnati for the first time in more than a decade.  The event will be a dance and concert with a large open dance floor.

Tickets are $30 and are on sale now at (513) 621-2787, www.cincinnatiarts.org, and the Music Hall and Aronoff Center Ticket Offices.  Discount $3 parking is available for the event.  A limited block of student discount tickets is available by calling (513) 621-2787.

“This is a coup for Cincinnati since the national touring Count Basie Orchestra rarely comes through this area,” says WMKV Development Director Bob Hanneken. “It’s taken us two years to work out the details to bring this band here, and our goal is to preserve this tremendous big band music.”

The Legendary Count Basie Orchestra is the family-sanctioned national touring big band that travels the U.S.   It will present a three-hour concert and dance to benefit public radio WMKV 89.3FM which is simulcast on 89.9FM WLHS.

This is another in a series of big bands to be brought to the Music Hall Ballroom by WMKV/WLHS, including legacy bands such as the Glenn Miller Orchestra, the Harry James Orchestra, and the Artie Shaw Orchestra, plus the Boilermaker Jazz Band’s Tribute to Benny Goodman.   Music Hall Ballroom can accommodate enough audience so that WMKV can entertain the notion of bringing in a band as popular as the Count Basie Orchestra.  John Morris Russell of the Cincinnati Pops has dubbed the series “Big Bands in the Ballroom.”

The concert is made possible by the support of Mercedes Benz of Ft. Mitchell.

“This is one from the WMKV ‘bucket list’ because we’ve had so many fans asking about the Basie Band, and tickets should move briskly,” adds WMKV Station Director George Zahn. “Offering some student discount tickets also reinforces the trend we’ve seen of younger dancers joining our events, making it ideal for adults of all ages.”

WMKV is an independent public radio station in Cincinnati, Ohio, celebrating its 19^th year of operation, and the only station in the country owned by a continuous care retirement community (CCRC), Maple Knoll Village, and serves as a mission-oriented feature of parent Maple Knoll Communities, Inc.  The station has carved a niche as a local broadcast and worldwide-streaming audio leader for nostalgia including music (now oldies, standards, and big bands), classic radio comedy and drama, and information programs.  The station can be heard at 89.3FM (now also simulcast on 89.9FM WLHS in Butler and Warren Counties), and streams audio worldwide 24/7 at www.wmkvfm.org.

The 22,000 square-foot Music Hall Ballroom is Cincinnati’s largest event room outside of those in the Duke Energy Convention Center in downtown Cincinnati.  When it opened in January of 1928 on the second floor of the south wing of Music Hall, it quickly became the place to socialize and celebrate events and has hosted countless concerts, dances, and celebrations.  Renovated in 1998, the Music Hall Ballroom features many art deco fixtures from the old RKO Albee Theater, and now houses The Mighty Wurlitzer Organ, which was once located in the RKO Albee Theater and later in the Emery Theatre.