Along the Way: Accomplished Blossom violinist hails Kent's beauty

Kent area classical music lovers who attended the Kent State Blossom Music Festival’s Faculty Concert on July 10 at Ludwig Hall on campus received a musical treat plus a heart-warming compliment.

The Poeisis Quartet, a sensational foursome, so accomplished and yet so young, seemingly set on its head the usual repertoire of the chamber music concerts I have attended, performing pieces composed in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the sole exception being an ambitious late 19th century quartet by Brahms.

All four, two violinists, a violist and a cellist, are in their 20s and are the Graduate String Quartet at the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music having graduated from the Oberlin College Conservatory. At Kent State, where they were in residence for most of a week, the four were teaching Blossom musicians who in some cases are older than they are.

Classical music is an acquired taste. I attribute my appreciation to my mother, who never let up decades ago, taking my siblings and me, who were not always happy about it, to family concerts at Severance Hall in Cleveland.

But, just as sweet to my ears as Poeisis’ music, was an unanticipated compliment about Kent.

Sara Ying Ma, one of Poeisis’ two violinists, hailed downtown Kent as she introduced the first half of the evening program.

“I can’t believe there is a community this beautiful in Ohio,” the 21-year-old violinist said as she described walking around the city.

I wish all those who have worked so hard over so many years to resuscitate Kent from its rock bottom days of the early 1970s, could have heard her. I snapped a photo with my cellphone of what I imagine Ma might have seen walking into Kent. Framing the photo with the School of Architecture on one side and the Wick Poetry Center on the other, I looked west across the Lefton Esplanade, the land bridge linking campus to the downtown.

So much has been accomplished and more is coming.

The rebuild of Haymaker Parkway and East Main Street that will create over three years a tree-lined boulevard, will showcase the front campus, facilitate vehicular traffic, and make the pedestrian experience safer. Kent City Hall construction is nearing completion. Perched on what is probably the most visible point in downtown Kent, it will welcome those coming to town.

The bustling Mill District on North Water Street has new additions, including the Sandford Building with Each + Every and Daisy Pops, Bar Lucci and North Water Brewery.

West River Neighborhood anchors now include the Silk Mill; Williams, Kratcoski, Griffin & Can law firm; Kent Free Library along River Street; the Carlson Building; AxessPointe; Bell Tower Brewery; and the LN Gross building along Gougler Avenue. Farther north is the River Merchant Restaurant on North Mantua Street. They overlook the beautiful, cleaned up Cuyahoga River with Kent’s downtown River Edge Park and the Brady’s Leap upgraded portion of the Hike and Bike Trail that extends south and on into Fred Fuller Park. Remember the construction of the Fairchild Bridge that supplanted the Crain Avenue span?

In downtown, East Main and Erie Streets are bustling with restaurants, gift shops, art galleries, a toy store, Hometown Plaza, the refurbished Franklin Hotel building and the popular Kent Stage. Ron Burbick’s Acorn Alley has succeeded. Attorney John Flynn rescued the handsome Post Office building that opened in 1936 and later served briefly as Kent Municipal Court, until a new municipal courthouse was built between the Kent Historical Society and the Martin Dental Practice on East Main Street. Flynn has turned his building into an impressive law office complex. Franklin Avenue restaurants are flourishing. The Kent Hotel and Conference Center, which opened 11 years ago, and its 1910 Restaurant is busier and better.

I am a Portage County lifer who grew up in Kent and split my adult career life between Kent and Ravenna. Too often, I take the local scene for granted, but not often enough I think all the changes and the efforts by so many individuals who made them possible. Sara Ming Ma, a member of Poeisis who had never been in Kent before her Blossom experience, remarked how surprised she was to find a town so beautiful in Ohio.

Kent’s downtown has indeed traveled quite a distance from its sorry state of the early 1970s and more improvements are coming. Violinist Ma’s acclaim made me appreciate the journey all the more.

David E. Dix is a former publisher of The Record-Courier.