It is a slow night, and I have promised myself to try to enter something in the blog every day, and I already skipped Monday.  But my thought go to George "Bunky" Kent, who is retiring from his postion as conductor (and founder) of the Westerly Choral.  I managed to play allmost of of his concerts, starting with a Britten "Spring Symphony" in which I was introduced to the cow's horn, in this case a fibre creation Bunky had made for the concert.  Used a trombone mouthpiece, and had a jump from a Bb to an F, fairly spooky.
I reived to ultimate compliment from Bunky, I played in an Alpinhorn trio at his camp in Maine, Ogontz Camp, and the only thing that topped that was a trip on his lobster boat in one of the coldest days I have ever spent on the water.  The smell on the boat was unique, and I couldn't imagine what it must smell like in the summer. We pulled 21 traps, found 8 lobsters, threw four back, and Bunky gave me the remaining four.  Delicious.
He created such a high standard of performance with his singers, hired some of the great soloists, gave several world premieres, cultivated a veru English sound, created a children's choir which participated in all the performances.  and in general introduced to thousands of people the joys of singing great creations, and the appreciation of all that was so rewarding about classical music.  Even his Christmas Pops and Summer Pops programs could be such powerful experiences.
I had the pleasure of playing a recital at his church, with my own church organist, Steve Young, and that great Fisk organ. 
I am sure things will change, they always do when a new conductor takes over,  and I hope and pray that the chorus will continue to do the great things they have done. And I hope, of course, that they will continue to hire top professional orchestral players, who are very expensive, but are, of course, a huge part of many of the successes of the past.