The Symphony is rehearsing this week for our second annual "Symphony Under the Stars" on Saturday. It's held on a hillside at Carroll College. It's free, it's outside, and it's one of the high points of the summer for alot of people. Click on the poster on the right. The tradition was started in 1998, with the Montana Summer Symphony--an orchestra comprised of musicians from the seven orchestras in MT (didn't know there were that many, did you??). The short story--it was sponsored by Montana Power for 5 years, and at its peak, played for about 20.000 people in August of 2000 (click on the pictures below to get a sense of that!).
Montana Power eventually went belly up (a long, disgusting story of corporate greed), and there was no concert in 2003. The Helena Symphony picked up the idea, and since I was heavily involved with the production end of things, we were able to re-establish old contacts, trim the budget by 80%, and present it last year. We had about 3500 last year, which is not bad at all, since it was not a state-wide group. This summer, we're tied in with the Lewis & Clark Bicentennial activities, which are also in town right now. Plus the fact that the word has spread around the state--we should have at least 5000 there!
So that's what I'm doing this week. I'm triple-dipping again this year. I'll be paid big bucks as production manager (logistics of the stage, lighting, sound, etc.), as personnel manager (finding enough musicians to play--not really a tough job), and as musician! By this time next week, I'll be flush with a great deal of money! I'm excited!! But I'll have to deal with alot of shit this week as we get closer. So my blogging will be infrequent, at best. I'll get HNT started, of course, but if you guys could help the newbies feel at home, I'd appreciate it! And, by golly, so will they! Have yourselves a wonderful week!
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