galt house hotel & belvedere festival park , Louisville, ky

May 24-28, 2007

Behind the Scenes

2007 was another bumpy year because banks were starting to hurt and suddenly Fifth Third Bank pulled out, which was a substantial financial loss. However, stop the presses! In the 11th hour, the great newspaper The Courier-Journal came on board as our title sponsor and saved the event.

2007 was the introduction of LOVE. LOVE was born as a true labor of LOVE, dreamed up and put together by a group of musicians who had never before played together. First discussed by me and Hal Bruce in late 2006, we reached out All You Need is Love and Mark Beyer, who abruptly told me, "it's impossible, it can't be done," but then, loving a challenge, he joined the project. Then we got Rachel Blanton, British Export, and soon everyone under Hal's direction began learning their very complicated parts.

After two days of intense rehearsals in Belleville, Ontario, some suggested we scrap the project, But Hal and I kept talking, and then with our production company's expert guidance, we just kept going forward.

There was never a completely full rehearsal until the night it premiered. The 30 performers had still never been together on the same stage. There was a packed house at the Bomhard Theater; everybody eagerly anticipated what this would be.

It was a masterpiece – that’s in fact what it was, and we have continued to do it with different masterful players for 15 years. We often thought it was the end before, but in the end, all you need is LOVE.