Concert hall effort is a model of tenacity

By BARBARA FREDRICKSEN

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 8, 2000

Sometimes failure is the best thing that can happen to you.

Just ask the members of the now-wildly successful Hernando County Fine Arts Council. It took two big failures in the past five years to put them on the right track. Now it looks as though nothing short of the Return of the Perfect Storm (heaven forbid!) can derail their plans for a 1,000-seat concert hall and an art gallery with classrooms and rehearsal halls on Hunters Lake in southwest Spring Hill.

On Friday, the council mailed a preliminary application to Tallahassee for $93,797 in state funds to start building phase one of this very ambitious project. That's about a 1-for-2 match for the $212,503 in cash, pledges and in-kind services the group has raised locally for the project in just one year. And that is a $306,300 start toward the $3-million facility.

If all goes as planned, the Nimmagadda Cultural Center (named for the first big benefactor, the late Dr. Sriramamurthy Nimmagadda, whose family donated $50,000 a year ago) will be completed within five years on 5 acres by the small lake just off U.S. 19 and a couple of miles north of the Pasco-Hernando county line.

The first building will be the acoustically engineered performance hall, which will serve as a permanent home for the Hernando Symphony Orchestra, Hernando Jazz Society, Hernando Suzuki School of Music, Nature Coast Festival Choir and a host of other visual and performing arts groups whose audiences have grown too large and performances too frequent to use other area facilities.

The council hopes to bring in opera, symphony orchestras, chorales, and other high-end entertainment between the local acts, things that now require an hour or two of driving to see.

"We don't want to compete with Stage West (Community Playhouse) or the Show Palace (Dinner Theatre) in that concert hall," said Barbara Manuel, recently elected chairman of the council. Those venues do Broadway musicals and plays.

Once the concert hall is up and going, the next building will be an art gallery with classrooms, according to Ken Murrin, the former, longtime council chairman.

You might say this all started five years ago when Murrin took over the rather moribund, 11-year-old Hernando County Fine Arts Council and began to make big plans. Up until then, the council had sponsored an art show and put out calendars. But Murrin, a retired French teacher and favorite actor at Stage West Community Playhouse, dreamed of a fine arts center, with classrooms, meeting rooms, a small gallery, rehearsal space for music groups and an outdoor amphitheater.

Those dreams grew like a St. Bernard puppy's feet over the next few years.

Did anyone realize how serious this man was when he said back then, "When I go for something, I don't stop?"

Anyone else would have stopped long ago.

A year after he took over, Murrin thought he had found a location for his dream center -- a 5-acre piece of land on Mariner Boulevard near Landover Boulevard in Spring Hill. The county, which had inherited it from the developer, was willing to sell it to the arts council for $10 for the center.

Then the neighbors objected, saying it would bring too much traffic and scare off the wildlife they loved. One woman went so far as to say she would "go over and burn it down" if the center were built.

Strike one.

Six months later, in May 1997, it looked as though the center had found another home, this time at the Pasco-Hernando Community College campus on U.S. 98 north of Brooksville. The plan was to start with the outdoor theater, then add the classroom/rehearsal center later when the theater started making money.

There was lots of grumbling in Spring Hill about that site. People said the PHCC campus was too far away and that Spring Hill retirees wouldn't drive on narrow U.S. 98 to get there, especially at night. Others said they didn't want an outdoor venue, that they liked air conditioning and a sturdy roof, especially in the summer. Besides, the area already had Stan Olsen's gorgeous Rock Crusher Canyon outdoor amphitheater 15 minutes north in Citrus County. Just how many such facilities does one area need?

Of course, Brooksville people huffed that it was time something neat was built in their back yards and that Spring Hill always got everything.

Then, in April 1998, the second disaster happened.

Call it the "Starr-crossed Concert," an event destined for doom.

It sounded like a good idea at the time. Fly in 1950s singer Kay Starr (Wheel of Fortune) for a concert at the Hernando High School stadium in Brooksville. With tickets at just $17.50 and 2,000 seats available, it sounded like an easy $35,000 gate, with a $25,000 net profit.

Only thing is, Kay Starr fans are not exactly Rolling Stone followers and were not eager to sit outside to hear her. Perhaps more telling, Spring Hill people weren't willing to drive to Brooksville for the show. Only 100 people bought tickets.

Instead of a $25,000 profit, the council had a $10,000 loss.

Strike two.

"We learned from that experience," Mrs. Manuel said. "You have to try something to know if it works. It spearheaded what we're doing now."

Which brings us to Hunters Lake in southwest Spring Hill and what looks like a home run.

I drove up and looked over the site Friday morning, and it is gorgeous. It's easy to envision people dressed in their finest wending their way to an opera or a concert of chamber music and enjoying a glass of wine at intermission while looking over Hunters Lake.

Apparently, others could imagine that, too. A year ago, the money started coming in. First, it was the family of Dr. Nimmagadda and its $50,000. Five months ago, Oak Hill Hospital pledged another $50,000 to be paid over the next five years. In April, the Hernando Symphony Orchestra happily donated $40,000, half now and half later. Various and sundry others made pledges, bringing the total to more than $250,000 and qualifying the council for state funds.

It will be a year before the council learns whether the state money will be forthcoming, but that hasn't stopped this extraordinarily ambitious bunch.

A core group of 15 has put together a full schedule of fundraising events during the next two years. The next one is Classical Elegance at Twilight, a dinner show with a brass quartet of University of Tampa faculty on Aug. 27 at Glen Lakes Country Club. In keeping with the thrust of this venture, those who attend are told, "If you wear your fanciest clothes, you will not be overdressed."

Doesn't that sound great?

Nearly half the tables have been sold already, but good seats remain. Call (352) 688-5808, both for tickets and if you want to be a sponsor.

Before you know it, we'll all be watching Cosi Fan Tutte and Lucia di Lammermoor in Spring Hill.

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