Four years ago, clarinetist Ixi Chen moved from New York to join the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and immediately began networking with other young professionals. A brainstorming session drew 15 musicians, and concert:nova was born. The group took inspiration from cellist Matt Haimowitz, a champion of new music who performs in concerts halls and Rock clubs and collaborates with leading conductors, Hip Hop artists and Klezmer musicians.  

Once a month, crowds gather at Northside Tavern for a hot session of trio sonatas and brass quintets. Or wind ensembles and string quartets. Or operatic arias. On a recent Sunday evening, an audience decked out in jeans, multiple tattoos and piercings ambled past the Cincinnati Wind Quintet warming up to perform a Viktor Ewald piece. It's another evening of Classical Revolution, Cincinnati's branch of a growing national network that bypasses the concert hall for bars and nightclubs.  

Amazingly, with all that ills the world today and the repeated missteps of the Bush administration leaving a wake of messes to clean up everywhere, President Obama says getting greener is a priority for our country. That hum you're hearing might be the collective sigh of green-conscious people everywhere coupled with the big one let out by Mother Earth herself.