Teams of Employee Choirs from Top Companies Help Celebrate the Arts, Raise Awareness

Last night on April 9, ArtsWave hosted its first-ever CincySings event at the Aronoff Center. Hosted by artist Drew Lachey, the high-energy evening featured amazing performances by 11 employee choirs from top regional companies. Judges Bob Herzog, Kathy Wade, Pamela Myers, and Casey Hayes reviewed the performances and provided commentary throughout the show.

For several years, both P&G and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and Medical Center have run “sing-off” events as part of their ArtsWave workplace giving campaigns, encouraging employees to create small choral groups and take the stage in support of ArtsWave. This year, Melanie Healey, Group President – P&G North America and Chair of the 2014 ArtsWave Community Campaign, suggested expanding the concept to encourage other top regional companies to run internal competitions and then send their winning choirs to face-off in a friendly showdown.  

Ten local companies sent their top choirs to CincySings: American Modern Insurance, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and Medical Center, Duke Energy, Fifth Third Bank, GE, Horseshoe Casino, Humana, Kroger, P&G, and TriHealth. Several of the teams worked with a vocal coach provided by ArtsWave from one of the city’s many vocal music and arts organizations including Cincinnati Opera, the May Festival, Cincinnati Boychoir, the Young Professional’s Choral Collective, Cincinnati Children’s Choir, Southern Gateway Chorus, and Know Theatre of Cincinnati.

“CincySings brought our employees together in a new and creative way,” said American Modern Insurance Group President and CEO Manny Rios. “It helped us raise more funds for ArtsWave than ever before and also generated a lot of goodwill and team spirit among the entire company.”

 “It was so exciting to see the creativity, energy and community pride onstage – an extraordinary example of the arts bringing people together,” said Melanie Healey, ArtsWave 2014 Campaign Chair.

All of the company champions succeeded in bringing amazing performances to the stage. After intense discussion, the judges felt that they had to recognize two teams with an “Honorable Mention”: Vocal Intensity from American Modern Insurance Group and Just Roll With It from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and Medical Center.  GE Aviation’s Any Direction narrowly took the runner-up spot and P&G’s Legal Notes was declared the winner. Legal Notes will sing the national anthem at the Cincinnati Reds game on April 14, and with the Cincinnati Pops at Riverbend in July.  Any Direction, Vocal Intensity, and Just Roll with It have been invited to perform at Summerfair on May 31.

As the nation’s first and largest arts fundraising drive, the ArtsWave campaign supports the work and impact of over 100 arts and cultural organizations with grants and services. More than 400 companies and 37,000 donors contribute to the effort each year, many through workplace giving campaigns.

For more information on CincySings, visit www.theartswave.org and follow @ArtsWave and #CincySings on Twitter.