Famed Navy Blue Angels to fly at Dayton Air Show next year
DAYTON, Ohio (AP) — The U.S. Navy’s famed Blue Angels are set to soar over Dayton for the first time in four years.
The Dayton Air Show, scheduled for June, was without a headline military jet team the past two years after crashes grounded both the Blue Angels and the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds, preventing them from performing in Dayton.
A Blue Angel jet made a stop in Dayton last week as part of a nationwide tour. The Dayton Air Show is scheduled for June 23-24.
The Thunderbirds canceled their Dayton performances this summer after a jet slid off a runway at Dayton International Airport and crashed, injuring the pilot, the Dayton Daily News reported. An Air Force investigation concluded that excessive speed and the jet landing too far down the runway as factors in the crash.
The Blue Angels canceled their Dayton performances in 2016 after a crash killed a pilot during a practice show in Tennessee.
Dayton Air Show officials said they’re pleased they’ll have a marquee act at next summer’s event.
“We’ve pulled it off without a jet team and still had a quality show, but it’s the centerpiece,” said chairman Scott Buchanan. “It will be very good to have a jet team back.”
Organizers have said attendance has dipped in years when jet teams didn’t perform. The air show drew an estimated 44,000 spectators this year and 51,000 in 2016.
Opera company looks to cyberspace for chorus members
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — An Ohio opera company is auditioning singers online for an upcoming production, with plans to create a virtual chorus synced to a live orchestra.
Opera Columbus is looking for singers of all types for next April’s performance of Orphee et Eurdice, a 1762 composition by Christoph Willibald Gluck.
Singers have until Jan. 15 to submit audition videos. One hundred entries will be selected to be projected onto the set during performances.
Peggy Kriha Dye, Opera Columbus artistic director, says the company is looking to innovate and transform the way the opera is presented and experienced.
The opera is being produced with Against the Grain Theatre in Toronto, Ontario and Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in Banff, Alberta.
Wright State seeks federal funds for archives center
DAYTON, Ohio (AP) — Wright State University has applied for federal funds for a new center to house its archives, including a Wright Brothers collection and first-edition works by poet Paul Laurence Dunbar.
The Dayton Daily News reports that the university has filed an application with the Priority Development and Advocacy Committee in Dayton for $2.2 million in funding over the next year to go toward the planned $8.2-million archives center.
The committee prioritizes regional applications it receives to determine what money to request from federal officials.
The university announced in October that it was launching a $6.5-million fundraising campaign for a new home for its historical archives.
Officials say the new center would provide improved environmental conditions to protect the historical artifacts and include an exhibit gallery and a conference room.
$1 million gift to UC to establish Islamic studies chair
CINCINNATI (AP) — A mosque is donating $1 million to the University of Cincinnati to further a better understanding of the Islamic religion and to address concerns about Islamophobia.
The university will add a titled professorship in Islamic studies after receiving the gift from the Islamic Center of Greater Cincinnati. The Cincinnati Enquirer reports the money originates from Inayat Malik and his wife, Ishrat.
Inayat Malik is a former board chairman of the Islamic Center and was a UC College of Medicine faculty member for 20 years.
The university currently has chairs in Judaic and Catholic studies.
Dean Kenneth Petren says the college will begin a formal search to find a renowned scholar to fill the chair.
