elmore, Max Rudolf was certainly a dynamic character. Robert Knauf, our music teacher/chorus director, was a friend of his (I think Mr. Knauf used to do something with the May Festival as well) and somehow, every year he got the Cincinnati Symphony and Mr. Rudolf to come to our high school for a concert. The chorus would do a few numbers with them, then the symphony would play for another hour...right in the gym, the audience in the bleachers.
I also remember Mr. Rudolf introducing a young conductor under him...Erich Kunzel, who all the girls thought so dashing...
We...and several other high schools...sang some Leonard Bernstein piece at the May Festival (I think it was the May Festival) under the choral direction of Robert Shaw. That was a pretty big deal too. I remember being bussed over to Concert Hall to rehearse.
Well, I don't know whether he's innocent or not, but Bobby Blake still has a way with a phrase, "I used to be a rich man. Now I couldn't buy spats for a hummingbird."