THE SENIOR MEN'S CLUB OF NEW CANAAN
Minutes of the Regular Meeting of October 11, 2002
President Bob Witt opened the business meeting at 10:00 on a rainy morning with 121 members present. Total SMC membership is now 500, with 39 waiting. Bob said the membership desk has a phone number and web site to block unwanted phone solicitation. He also mentioned that we should be on the lookout for a different type of predator, since coyotes are roaming the town.
Concerns and Announcements: Dick DePatie reported with sadness the passing of Bob Bunge. Frank Perron and Harry Caesar are at Waveny. So are Art Lutz, who will be sprung today, and Bill Gillerlain, due out Monday. The Nature Center needs 6 volunteers to help at their Fall Fair on the I ~ .Rad Stone advised that channel 73 was starting prime time programming tonight.
The SMC Board will meet at 8:45 on the 25th. And Rod Keagy mentioned a full page article in this week's Advertiser, featuring, among others, our resident artist, Clark Robinson.
Activities: Three will bowl today. Bridge will play at Lapham as usual. 4F's are tentatively set for the NCCC on the 25th. The final golf date, with 23 signed up, is October 16th, also at NCCC. Tennis will continue until Halloween, and it's FREE. Trailblazers will assemble at St. Mark's at 8:30 on the 14th, to walk in Larkin State Park.
Couth: Lee Hindenach reported on the successful trip to see Oklahoma, and Jim D' Acosta again previewed the sold-out expedition to West Point on November 9th. We will check in at 8:45. The early departure is because this is the 200th anniversary of the Academy, and there will be special festivities and a lot of traffic. The December 5th trek to Newport is also sold out. Lee further reported that on January 30th we will see the morning rehearsal of the NY Philarmonic, followed by lunch and a visit to the Metropolitan Museum. Price is $85.
Resident Humorist: John Berg first played on a proctologist's words: Bud Lite and butt light. He then recounted an interesting anecdote about a flatulent horse of the royal carriage team.
Speaker: VP Bob Shafter introduced Maestra Diane Wittry, the new music director and conductor of the Norwalk Symphony. She is the first woman so designated in CT, having been chosen from 185 applicants in a search extending over two years. She is also one of only a few full time professional conductors anywhere. Diane first led us through a fascinating description of her job. She works in partnership with an executive director. She hires and fires, leads auditions (with the applicant nowadays performing behind a screen), and works with the concert master as well as the committee heads of the various orchestra sections. She also helps the music librarian, acts as personnel manager, and must start preparing for a concert a year in advance. Ms. Wittry also, selects the music, with emphasis on compositions which will touch the audience. She seeks for variety and to excite her orchestra. Musicians are mostly full-timers, but free lancing with several orchestras and teaching. There are only 4 rehearsals of 3 hours before each program. Musicians are rated on a confidential "call list".
Diane then dealt skillfully with a wide range of questions, mentioning the importance of her instrumental proficiency (on the violin) and discussing advances by women in orchestral participation. Amateur choirs don't phase her; nor do the intricacies of rating performers. She closed, with enthusiasm and vivacity, by inviting us to the Norwalk concert series. The SMCers were quite obviously enchanted, and it appears that Maestra Wittry sold a lot of tickets today.
Peter Schurman - Assistant Secretary