So, who the heck am I, to presume that I can digest the classical courses of America’s biggest and best arts festival for you?

Well, most of Chucktown’s highbrow musicians and fans will attest to my local notoriety as an all-round (though distinctly un-stuffy) classical geek. They all know me: I’ve presided for ten years over what was once the Southeast’s biggest and best commercial classical CD inventory: at Millennium Music, Charleston’s premier CD store. But the internet has lately leveled the playing field, and we will, Alas! – soon be closing to the public (like as soon as Spoleto’s over). But, during my happy tenure there, it has become my life’s joy to do what I can to help bring good people and great music together.

I’m also a semi-professional musician: a singer (deep bass) and pianist. I wrote regular reviews for the Post and Courier for quite awhile, before the City Paper lured me away with a lot more work, real creative license, and all the Spoleto coverage I could handle. I’m also nationally published, as a regular contributor to American Record Guide: a welcome chance to tell fellow classical nerds everywhere how to spend their CD bucks. Google me sometime.

I began life as an Army brat – and was lucky enough to grow up in places like Vienna and Munich, where classical music still holds sway. Having thus heard the greatest classics – delivered by the cream of the world’s musicians – from childhood on, I know what makes for the best music and the classiest performances.

I’ve seen seventeen Spoletos since returning home to Charleston (yup, I’m a proud native), and have gradually gotten acquainted with the festival’s various classical directors and leading lights – like Maestro Emmanuel Villaume, Dr. Charles Wadsworth, Dr. Joseph Flummerfelt (I sang for him in eight Spoletos), Dr. Joe Miller, John Kennedy, Andrew von Oeyen, and others. I guess they must like what I’ve had to say about them (well, mostly).

Wadsworth, in particular, has granted me delightful pre-festival interviews in recent years – wherein he let drop some top-secret revelations about what works are to be played (and when) in his matchless Bank of America Chamber Series (remember, his programs are never published in advance). And he’s authorized me to selectively leak these tempting tid-bits to you, right here in Eargasms. Look for my first installment in a day or two. You won’t be made privy to such deep mysteries anywhere else.

This will (sniffle!) be the last Spoleto I cover from Millennium Music: my historic festival base-of-operations. Working there during the festival has always been a blast for me. That’s because various festival musicians often hang out here between rehearsals and performances: members of the festival orchestra and the Westminster choir, assorted opera performers, etc., etc. These brilliant artists are where the musical rubber meets the road … and I get to pick their brains for news of the latest festival crises and sudden program or cast changes – not to mention assorted malicious gossip and unfounded rumors.

Oh – I almost forgot our track record: last year’s City Paper festival blogs got nearly a third of a million hits (up from just a few thousand the year before) – after getting linked by the New York Times. I take that to mean we’re worth reading. So tune in – and let’s see if we can do even better this year.

Don’t hesitate to talk back to me, whether you agree with me or think I’m a pompous windbag. You can easily register a comment to any of my assorted posts. I thank you in advance for choosing to careen along with me as I hurtle headlong through one of the known universe’s biggest and best arts extravaganzas.

Try as I might, I can’t cover it all by myself. But, as I told you in my previous post, I’ve got some gifted backup. We’re bound and determined to cover all of the good stuff for you. If it belongs to the festival’s classical end, and it’s worth blogging about, you’ll read about it right here.