BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 X-WR-CALNAME:News Center PRODID:-//Sitemason, Inc//Sitemason Calendar//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:US-Central LAST-MODIFIED:19870101T000000Z BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:16011104T020000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYDAY=1SU;BYMONTH=11 TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0600 TZNAME:CST END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:16010311T020000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYDAY=2SU;BYMONTH=3 TZOFFSETFROM:-0600 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:CDT END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT UID:http://www.sitemason.com/element/836bmcs/id/116080 SUMMARY:Opera Memphis losing its director - Ching moving to Iowa\, will concentrate on composing DESCRIPTION:By Christopher Blank - The Commercial Appeal\nSaturday\, March 13\, 2010\nMichael Ching\, general and artistic director of Opera Memphis\, is stepping down after 18 years.\nHis wife\, University of Memphis professor Barbara Ching\, recently became chair of the 60-person English department at Iowa State University in Ames\, a prestigious position that Ching says will allow him to focus on composing.\nChing\, 51\, will finish out the season with the company\, conducting "Madame Butterfly" on April 17 and 20.\nWith a $1.4 million budget\, Opera Memphis is a comparatively small regional company. Chartered in 1953\, its biggest growth came in 2003 with the opening of the Clark Opera Memphis Center in East Memphis.\nChing says his job comes with artistic and financial challenges\, as audiences shrink and competition for entertainment dollars grows.\n"We need to get butts back in seats\," he said. "The very word '\;opera'\; has some negative connotations that we have to change."\nAs a composer\, Ching'\;s work includes "Corps of Discovery" (2004)\, which celebrated the Lewis and Clark bicentennial\, and "Buoso'\;s Ghost" (1997)\, a comic sequel to "Gianni Schicchi" that is getting its 12th regional staging this year.\nOpera Memphis recently received a $15\,000 grant from the First Tennessee Foundation to stage Ching'\;s new a cappella opera "A Midsummer Night'\;s Dream" at the new Playhouse on the Square next season\, though Ching says the board will decide today whether to continue with that production after he'\;s gone. "Aida" and "The Barber of Seville" are also planned for next season.\nChing submitted a list of candidates to the board of directors. He hopes his replacement will be someone committed to living in Memphis full time.\n"I believe in a resident leadership\," he said. "I would never propose to run the company from Ames."\nLongtime board member Ed Kaplan said the board should remain flexible in filling the position\, even splitting the job into two positions -- an executive and artistic director -- if necessary. He said it took three to six months to hire Ching in 1992\, and it will likely take that long to find a replacement.\n"We'\;re going to miss Michael\," Kaplan said. "In addition to being a good conductor and artistic director\, he got out there in the community\, and that always helped our image. We'\;re losing an excellent fellow." URL;VALUE=URI:http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2010/mar/13/opera-memphis-losing-its-director/ CLASS:PUBLIC SEQUENCE:2 DTSTAMP:20120207T225155 CREATED;TZID=US-Central:20100315T093318 LAST-MODIFIED;TZID=US-Central:20100319T162845 DTSTART;TZID=US-Central:20100313T090700 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR