This week the Stones are giving three concerts in three vastly different
venues in the Boston area.  Perhaps I have not grown up yet but I am caught
up in all the excitement and I love the Stones.

Mick Jagger's solo album this summer won ecstatic praise from the critics
but was a flop financially has one cut "God Gave Me Everything I Want".
The lyrics reflect a meaningful catalog of what makes life a joy.  One
of the lines is "I can hear it in a symphony".

Vic Firth, the famous timpanist of the Boston Symphony orchestra, who just
retired from the BSO after fifty years and incidentally manufactures drum
sticks used by the Stones, related a story recently in the Boston Globe.
The Grateful Dead drummer uses his drum sticks and invited him to one of
their concerts several years ago.  To his amazement the drummer asked Vic
to join the Dead in the concert and he did.  The daughter of one of the
trustees of the BSO was at the concert and informed her father.  Soon Vic
was taken to task by the Executive Director and in no uncertain terms told
never to do this again.

If I was the executive director I would have looked at this as a publicity
bonanza and plastered the newspapers with the news.

The classical music world has to make a connection with the youngest two
or three generations.  Where is the future audience? My estimate of the
average age of BSO attendees is about ninety years old.  How long can this
last?

Bob Summers