Right before Valentine’s Day, Moonlight Broadway will put on a production of a compilation of timeless love stories. On this episode of the Front Row, we talk with founder and director of Moonlight Broadway, Gerald Dolter, to give us an inside look at the upcoming performance.
Tell us about this special Valentine’s Day presentation.
This is our first foray, our first attempt, at a pops concert, a really fancy pops concert. I’ve been involved in pops concerts all of my life and I’ve seen some really wonderful ones. I remember very vividly serving as an intern and then public relations assistant for the Louisville orchestrate in Kentucky, I remember them doing a pops concert with Henry Mancini—you know the guy who wrote the “Pink Panther” theme and so many movie themes. And I was very impressed.
They had it set up with tables and chairs and they had the orchestra on an elevated stage with a big parachute, what looked like a draped parachute behind them, and they did basic lighting effects behind them to set the mood for it. Because there were stairs leading out into the audience, the performers could actually go out into the audience. It was a spectacle for the ears and for the eye. And that’s what we’re doing for this concert. I don’t think Lubbock has ever seen a pops concert like what we’re going to be offering…
I failed to mention, you’ve got to have a conductor. Our new director of orchestral activities at Texas Tech is Philip Mann. He conducts all over the world, this last semester he was in Romania conducting. He is energetic. He’s realign injected a lot of energy and life into the orchestral program here at the school of music. And we asked him if he would help us introduce this new series and he said, “yes.”
So he is actually conducting the concert. He and David have actually talked together, they haven’t worked together yet, but they are greatly looking forward to it. It’s going to be so much fun.
Listen to the full interview at the top of the article.
