When the Saint Louis Symphony's publications manager, Eddie Silva, invited me to SLSO's Bloggers' Night 2, a preview of the symphony's April 4 Carnegie Hall show, my first thought, I'll admit, was more along the lines of "Wow, my mom would love this" than "Wow, classical music!" Though in elementary school I once won a blue ribbon in the symphony's Picture the Music contest, and in high school played in every band, including Florissant's Northwinds Concert Band, I haven't invested myself in orchestral works the way I have in pop music.
At the time I won that blue ribbon, as I recall, my favorite musical artists were M.C. Hammer, En Vogue, Chaka Khan, and The Pointer Sisters, with some Spyro Gyra thrown in for good measure. And as my mother reminded me en route to Powell Hall Friday, although some of my earliest memories are of sitting in the symphony's plush red velvet seats, I often eschewed the charms of sitting and listening for the more seductive charms of falling asleep on the floor. So much like Vowel Movements' Julie Dill, I was a tidge apprehensive about writing up Friday night's performance.
Delightfully, though, that apprehension faded once the evening got under way, and I managed to scribble volumes in my notebook over the course of the night. It's been a long time since I sampled as many new (and wonderful) things in one evening as I did Friday.
As colleagues headed off to Shabbat dinners and fish fries, we headed down into the dimming city...
