Major Donation to Benefit UK Opera Theatre, WUKY

Leaders from UK Opera Theatre and WUKY and donors Ann Bakhaus and Michael Russell speak about Bakhaus' donations to WUKY and UK Opera Theatre. Video by Jenny Wells/UK Public Relations and Marketing. 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 16, 2015) — A recent gift to the University of Kentucky will make a state-of-the-art recording studio worthy of Grammy award-winning artists home to Lexington's NPR radio affiliate, WUKY, and the talented voices and musicians of UK School of Music.

Savvy Bluegrass businesswoman Ann Bakhaus, president of Kentucky Eagle Inc., saw opportunity when a neighboring property came up for sale.

After purchasing the vacant facility adjacent to Kentucky Eagle at 2640 Spurr Road, Bakhaus began to look at the building to see if it would fit her business ideas but was surprised to discover the structure's original purpose and condition. The facility was formerly a recording studio, Saint Claire Recording Company, built with the amenities and technology to not only record big name musical acts, but also provide housing during the process.

"It is such a state-of-the-art building that not a lot of people could use, I said how can I benefit, what is the benefit of this building," Bakhaus said.

While discussing the property with friends, one suggested she might consider donating it. After talking with her children about the idea, she had just the local arts group in mind — UK Opera Theatre.

"I was so amazed at the building, it's built like a fort. It's a heck of a place. They explained to me what the opera program could use, and I thought it's a win-win," Michael Russell, Bakhaus’ son, said.

Passionate about the university's opera program and helping it thrive, Bakhaus took her friend, Director of UK Opera Theatre Everett McCorvey, to the studio and surprised him with her idea for enhancing the program and the students' experience.

Seeing the tremendous value in the gift but realizing it would be impractical for UK students to travel to from campus for instruction on a daily basis, McCorvey sought advice from UK College of Fine Arts Dean Michael Tick, Vice President for Development Michael Richey and Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration Eric Monday on how to best utilize the property.

"It was very exciting for us, because we knew there were other needs at the university. Eric Monday suggested the idea that WUKY was looking for a facility," McCorvey said.

WUKY has been housed on the third floor of McVey Hall on UK's campus in studios originally built in 1939. "While it's adequate for what we did maybe 10, 15 years ago, it’s not an appropriate space anymore. So we've been looking for a new home for WUKY for quite a while," said Tom Godell, general manager of WUKY.

The serendipitous idea just made sense. "It just seemed like a wonderful merger of two organizations on campus that may benefit from this gift from Ann Bakhaus," McCorvey said.

With the new space, WUKY will more than double its square footage. The facility will allow the station to not only record and broadcast their programming and news, but also house the entire staff and even give them room to grow.

"The vision is really where people like Ann Bakhaus come in, because she was able to see that this building would enable public radio and WUKY to have a much larger footprint in the community, to be more active, to do more things and bring more worth and more value both to UK and the community," Godell said.

But how could the gift fill Bakhaus' desire to help UK Opera Theatre? UK, and the College of Fine Arts came up with several ways.

The university had the building appraised to get the financial value of Bakhaus' gift to UK, which was $1.3 million. In return for the gift of property for WUKY, UK agreed to in turn provide UK Opera Theatre with a recurring annual budget for productions.

"It makes all the difference in the world. It changes the game for us here at UK Opera Theatre. It elevated us to a different level," McCorvey said of the programming budget, previously dependent on ticket sales alone.

In addition, WUKY will maintain the recording studio space and make it available to UK Opera Theatre students and other musicians from UK School of Music for recording concerts and other performances, as well as creating demos.

The idea was music to the donor's ears. "It can help with a passion of mine, our opera here in Lexington, and give them support and give them a nice facility for their students. And then (UK) came up with the idea of bringing public radio in to it too. Which I think is absolutely brilliant," Bakhaus said.

And WUKY sees even more opportunities for the partnership with UK Opera Theatre. They are looking at potentially broadcasting performances and even creating a classical HD – high definition digital radio station — that would feature from time to time UK School of Music talents to accompany their two other HD channels dedicated to 24 hour news coverage and jazz music.

Members of the public interested in seeing the future home of WUKY, can get a look at the new facility this weekend as the radio station celebrates its 75th anniversary. Festivities will begin at 3 p.m. Hors d'oeuvres will be served. Live music will take place on the back porch of the building, and tours of the new facility will be offered from 3-5 p.m. A meet and greet with NPR legend Susan Stamberg begins at 5 p.m. The event will culminate at 7:30 p.m. when WUKY personnel will "re-enact" the station's original broadcast on Oct. 17, 1940. 

General Manager Tom Goddell talks about WUKY's 75th anniversary. Video by Jenny Wells/UK Public Relations and Marketing.

MEDIA CONTACT: Whitney Hale, 859-257-8716; whitney.hale@uky.edu