Cincinnati talks often about preserving its history, but preservation should include the sounds that helped give our city its character. Small music venues, neighborhood clubs, and independent artists rarely make headlines, yet they create the places where strangers become neighbors and young musicians discover who they want to be.

I hope we continue making room for live music—not only the acts capable of filling arenas, but the pianist playing to thirty people on a Tuesday night, the singer trying an original song for the first time, and the little club willing to give them a stage.

A city's culture isn't something we simply inherit. It's something we choose to keep alive.

Patricia Kaiser
Cincinnati