Henry “Hank” Cates

Host of Opera House, Saturdays 1:00-6:00PM

HOMETOWN

Berea, Kentucky

FAMILY

Three children - one of each (actually two sons and a daughter)

ACTIVITIES / HOBBIES / INTERESTS

I enjoy working on our farm near Berea restoring the log cabin my grandfather built. We moved it from the original site on the mountain overlooking the farm and it has been a 15 year work in progress.

I also built an Oxford rowing skull several years ago and enjoy rowing on a lake near the farm.

MY FAVORITE BOOK

When I want a warm and fuzzy feeling after reading it, is To Kill a Mocking Bird.

When I am feeling frustrated at the current state of affairs, I read Barrack-Room Ballads by Rudyard Kipling to remind me that this has all happened numerous times before.

When I want something light, I reach for any English mystery writer of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

MY FAVORITE MOVIE

I enjoy movies of the 1930’s and 1940’s and well into the 1950’s for their tight dialog and great music i.e. anything with Katherine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy, Cary Grant, Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall etc.

MY FAVORITE COMPOSER / MUSIC

Anyone that has listened to the Opera House on a Saturday afternoon on a regular basis soon learns that I am partial to anything by American composers Samuel Barber and Howard Hanson (I’m a romantic at heart. So sue me!)  I have a soft spot for Brahms and Puccini, too! Who knew!

MY PASSION

Getting the opera I have written completed and staged.

WHAT I LOVE ABOUT DAYTON

Dayton is a friendly town that really has it all. You do not have to take off to New York for great opera and great music.  It’s here!