So, on a lark I attended the Dead Composers Society event on Saturday evening. It was dinner at Cottage Inn followed by tickets to the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra‘s concert at the Michigan Theater. Husband was otherwise committed so I went solo. And though I’d planned to meet a friend there, I saw only strangers when I entered the downstairs banquet room at Cottage Inn. (Gulp, flee!!)
Happily for me, the strangers were quite friendly and not unusually strange, and there was a non-goofy ice-breaker that got the tables talking and got folks mixing, so by the time my friend Dara arrived, I was doing just fine.
I am embarassed to say that before Saturday morning, I had no idea that Ann Arbor had a professional orchestra. The program was interesting–the first piece was a world premiere composed by a current UM music student, two of the other three were by actual dead composers (Beetoven, Gershwin), the last was by another living one (Peter Maxwell-Davies). The bagpipes in the Maxwell-Davies piece were affecting (first time bagpipes have ever made me tear up, ever), perhaps some of it was just the surprise of them coming from the back of the Theater. Overall a nice evening, and nice folks.
Anyway, I have twisted Dave’s arm hard enough that he’s coming with me to the next items in the series. The more the merrier if anyone else wants to join. The next one is January. Let me know if I should arrange additional tix.
That sounds like a good time. If it doesn’t conflict with the New Orleans schedule, I’d be into it!