Adaptistration

POP QUIZ: What do rattlesnake hunting, taxidermy, and binge drinking have in common with orchestra concerts?!? To find out the answer, you’ll have to read Roger Ruggeri’s TAFTO 2007 contribution. The first in our Three Basses series, Milwaukee Symphony bassist, Roger Ruggeri, is not only a professional musician but he’s also an accomplished composer, program annotator, lecturer, and expert in orchestra governance.

After all, there’s nothing quite as comforting as having a guide who has “been there, done that” when you’re seriously thinking bout charting unknown waters and that’s precisely what TAFTO readers will find with Roger’s contribution. And since you might have dodge rattlesnakes on the way to the taxidermy shop all while nursing a killer hangover you acquired after attending your first orchestra concert, having a knowledgeable guide along just sounds better and better…

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Although Take A Friend To Orchestra is in its third year, there has only been one instance of a contributor actually taking someone to a concert event. Fortunately, Frank J. Oteri marches to the beat of a quarter tone drummer and I’m glad to say that he jumped right into the spirit of TAFTO with both feet and took a friend to a concert in only the way he could…

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It isn’t a TAFTO month if there isn’t an entry from someone who isn’t a musician, manager, or critic. As such, Paul Alter, a self described “practicing music addict”, contributes to TAFTO 2007 with a round of practical advice. Moreover, Paul takes us back into U.S. orchestral history. Way back. All the way back to the days of 78-rpm records and Victrolas.

Having such a comprehensive look at how orchestras and their concert environments have changed over the decades is a real treat and seeing it from the perspective of someone in the audience makes it even more special…

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Some people don’t think about classical music at all while others think about it occasionally. Then there are people like composer and blogger Galen Brown who think about classical music a lot. Really, I can’t understate that point: a lot. And when classical music is on the brain to that degree, it is difficult to separate it from the other aspects of life; instead, it intertwines with all that you experience.

Case in point, Galen’s TAFTO contribution does a wonderful job at taking you through a lifetime of defining moments and key observations which conspire to create something entirely useful and fascinating. Then again, what else would you expect from a composer…

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