Gustavo

[from this excellent article and slideshow here]

I'm in love. Plain and simple. That man has more passion for music in his pinky finger than anyone else I know.

[Hey it's me!]

It was great to be both under his baton and in his presence...what a conductor. His descriptions about repeated passages in Mozart involved him miming his love of having ketchup cover every bite of his hamburger --for what is a hamburger without lots of ketchup? And thus what is a sequence of notes in Mozart without phrasing and feeling?

He is one of those people who anyone---especially kids---would do anything to please. He's just so charismatic and so ---so---amazing. That's it, that's all. He can come back anytime.

(also---I don't want this to sound like a slam on our current conductor...because it isn't. He is also incredible, and happens to understand the MIT ethos like nobody's business. The fact that he is able to prepare MIT students for four concerts a year with our crazy schedules...four concerts where we actually sounds quite good...that is a tremendous feat. We were really prepared for the master class, and it showed)

[The horns and Gustavo. The best part about this picture is
that he is holding a bottle of ketchup in his right hand. Epic]