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Hello everyone, and welcome to being Frank. We're the only way to be is Frank. I'm your host, Frank Lebonno, and I'd like to thank you for joining us on what we like to call the Intelligent Conversation Podcast, where no conversation out of bounds and all points of view are welcome. You know, we record live to tape and I give you the date so you have some context and relevance. It is the thirtieth of October. You know.
The actor Felicia Rashad said, before a child talks, they sing, before they write, they draw, as soon as they stand, they dance. Art is essential to human expression. Well, our guest has been bringing the world of art to so many people in so many ways for a long time as a digital creator, producer, journalist, empresario, teacher, philanthropists, and so much more. Here is just a partial list of
as many accomplishments and qualifications. It's a creative consultant at the Public Theater and NYC Studios, producer at ITZAC Perman broadcaster and producer at New York Public Radio, Radio host at the Chamber of Music, Society of Lincoln Center, executive producer at the Public Theater, executive and artistic director at Arts Rock. Please welcome my friend Elliott Farrest to being Frank Elliott. Thank you so much for joining us here.
Today, Prank, thank you so much for having me. And I just want to start off and say what a treasure you are to our community. You seem to be everywhere at every major event, and you document it in a way nobody else does. So thank you for everything you do, Elliott.
I really appreciate that. I truly do. And you can tell them a little nervous because we've got a heavyweight here today. I've already stumbled over myself far more than I usually do, and I usually do a lot.
So just take a deep breath.
You know.
I'm not sure how I feel about heavyweight. I've tried to lose weight. But this is going to be fun.
It works with whist from a true pro, and we'll do our best and I'm going to have some fun and I think people are going to enjoy what we have to say, what you have to say. We talk a little about arts Rock here locally, which is a wonderful organization. Who's your work I enjoyed, But we'll talk about that in time. First let's talk about Elliott Forrest. You know what from your youth shaped your future? I mean, what was your childhood like, I know you come from Midland,
Texas originally. What was it about your childhood that prepared you for a life in the arts.
Well, it was a number of things. You know. I blame my parents for introducing me my both my parents were born and raised in Brooklyn, and my father was transferred to West Texas in the Air Force. We were always these fish out of water. We were these New York Brooklyn Jews in West Texas. And I was the only Jewish kid in my high school. So we were always just a little bit outside the mainstream in West Texas. But my parents were involved with the community theater. We
went to the symphony. I was in the band and in the orchestra early on in junior high and it was particularly a community theater, the Midland Community Theater that I got involved in from age fourteen, and just like, well this is where I need to be. I need to be. I wasn't sure what I was going to do whether I was going to be an actor. I went on to get my theater degree at the University of Texas in Austin and was told one day in one acting class from a teacher that we were paying
you're not an actor. And I was hurt and I didn't know what to make of that, although I didn't really feel like acting was necessarily going to be my call. But I took some directing classes and ended up directing and producing my first musical at nineteen and have pretty much done the same thing ever since.
Yeah, you know, I heard very similar things Elliott, when somebody told me I have the face for radio. That's what you notice we stream We stream audio here, but no video. So thank god for small fings. But anyway, let's continue your journey. So you start producing in high school, but Midland, Texas is a long way from New York City and then, nayak, how did you work your way back into into New York and major producing here in the media capital of the world. That's no easy feat.
Yeah, you know, like a lot of people, I had my eye frankly coming out of college in the late seventies early eighties, thinking that it's going to be either in New York or LA. And I didn't really know anybody in Los Angeles at the time, and I still had a lot of family here in New York. So you know, I called an ant and said, can I come live in your basement? There was a little way
station in there, which actually was quite pivotal. After college and before New York, I lived in Kansas City, Missouri for eighteen months. There was a friend of mine who had a theater company. I didn't know what to do. I wasn't ready to go to New York or LA. And she said, come to Kansas City. I have a theater company, a children's theater company. You can act and direct and design and be a part of my theater company.
So it's like it's the only offer I had. I moved to Kansas City, and in that eighteen months, not only did I find lifelong friends, some of which I'm more in touch with than at people I went to college with, but we were doing a play for kids and they said, you were on the radio. My first radio job was in West Texas. I never thought it was going to be my life, but I'd been on the radio at seventeen and so when I moved to
Kansas City. They said, oh, you were on the radio and I was like, yeah, a couple of years ago, you know, as a summer gig, but you have a nice Voicego record this public service announcement at this radio station in a horse pasture in Kansas City, Kansas. And I went out to this radio station. It was a classical music radio station. I recorded the PSA and I said, you guys don't need anybody, do you. I wasn't making
a lot of money doing theater in Kansas City. And they went, yeah, we're looking for an afternoon announcer, and I auditioned, got the gig. I was on the air on a classical station in Kansas City for a year. Little did I know that that day changed the course of the rest of my life. I had no idea on that day, but I reflect back to it all the time because it was a pretty casual sort of well, this will be fun, and it affected everything for the rest of my life. I've been on the radio in
New York for over thirty five years. It led to a gig on A and E television that I had for twelve years. So after about eighteen months in Kansas City. I just went, I think it's time to move to New York and didn't have a gig, didn't have a job, moved in with an ant into a basement, and then just started pounding away doing plays and doing theater and eventually more radio and then TB.
And never a classic. Never looked back in a way. I'm sure you have, because you have reflected. But you know, it's a it's a term that we understand. You just kept going.
We're gonna talk a little bit about WQXR, your radio gig here in New York, which you're very well known for in just a second. But but you also produced concerts, major concerts and major shows around the country in the world. Are there any that stick out in particular after so many? Are there? There are there one, two, a few that really stick in your out in your mind?
And why well, it's on my mind now because I just got off of a tour co directing a large scale oratorio about Matthew Shepherd called Considering Matthew Shepherd. As many or most of your audience may know, Matthew Shepherd was the young man who was tied to a fence and beaten because he was gay and died and was a turning point in the LGBTQ community in the subject of the play Laramie Project, which is one of the most produced plays in America. And now there's this musical
version of Matthew's story called Considering Matthew Shepherd. I was the original director for the I directed the PBS television version and then an early tour, and then we just went on tour again. An extremely meaningful and beautiful work composed by Craig Hella Johnson for choirs, and I've been involved in some thirty different productions of it in one way or another. So just beautiful. And we just did
that both in Philadelphia and in Austin. And then I'm also on and off on tour with the great violinist at Zuck Pearlman.
I was going to mention that specifically, the incredible virtue of so yes, that must be experience, you know.
I first started to create these large scale symphony concerts by adding projections and multimedia stuff in two thousand and five, strangely enough, and the first one I ever did was at the Hollywood Bowl, which was a wild place to be the first one. But once I had these incredible pictures of the Lace, the Elis Orchestra, La Symphony Orchestra, and at the Hollywood Bowl. I was able to take these pictures and pitch and be able to do concerts
for a number of different orchestras. And then I got a call from Itzac Pehlman's manager, what I create and produce this multimedia event, this concert series, concert tour with him that is half playing, half storytelling.
He's very charming, He's very Is he really that witty? You know? You know these and forgive me for the expressions kind of eggheaded musicians. All they can do is play the violin, but he gives the impression of being a real win Is that real?
Oh yeah? Oh no, totally. If I had written down every joke he ever told at a meal, you know, every meal contains the phrase have you heard the one about? And? And they're usually these really sort of bad shaggy dog stories. You know. We tell the story in our concert tour because it's biographical, autobiographical about him having polio at the age of five and not being able to use his legs for the last almost seventy five years. But I walked into his dressing room after the first performance and
I said, you know, you're really funny. If you hadn't been a violinist, you could be a stand up comic. And without missing a beat, he went, except not standing up.
It's the kind of thing you've kind of grown to expect for me.
And it's very real, very great guy. Really, I'd loved the tour. I've really relished every moment of it. We did five performances pre COVID and then like everyone else, we shut down for about a year and a half and then we went back on tour and we've probably done it another twenty five times and then you know, we have more on the books, but we're actually starting continuing next week to create part two, this biographical evening
with multimedia. You know, it's ok. Pearlman, great violinist, was on the Ed Sullivan Show when he was thirteen, and we show that during our show and made his concert debut at age seventeen, and so we were just going to continue after that.
Terrific, you know, and you mentioned WQXR. It's in one of your more consistent gigs. With all the things you've done. It's through thick and thin, You've always seemed to come back to w QXR. Tell us about your experiences there, how you wound up there, what is it you like about it, et cetera.
So, yeah, after I came to New York and really was pursuing a life in the theater, broadcasting just kept
calling me. I was on a radio station, a w EVD for those who remember the Eugene V. Debs radio station in Manhattan, and I was on a station on Long Island, and then a dear friend of mine called me up and said, hey, you know, if you ever want to be in New York City, which you know, at that point, I had not been on a New York City radio station, which was you know, for a kid from a small West Texas town, was kind of like,
you know, a dream. WNCN is looking for people, which was the other classical music radio station for many years here in New York. And so I auditioned, I got the job, and I was on WNCN for seven years. And then it turned heavy metal overnight. We we had literally less than twenty four hours notice.
Didn't quite fit in with the heavy metal scene. I gather Elliott, now.
You know it was. It actually turned into Q one O four, which is classic rock. And at the time of the of the when WNCN went off the air, I was actually hosting a number of different series on A and A television, including a rock series, and I was touring. I interviewed Chicago, the Ben Chicago and Aaron Neville and a whole bunch of people. So it wasn't the music. I actually felt like I could have done that.
It was heavy metal music. Would you feel comfortable with that?
Yeah, heavy metal was sort of a little on the edge of the well. It was sort of a transitional thing they did before Q one A four took over, and not exactly my favorite exactly, to be honest, but you know, we sense that that was going to be transitional, and eventually it turned into classic rock, which I love and Ken Dashau, who's on that station at Denis Elsis are for all friends of mine, you know, I love
those formats. But but I didn't want to stay. I really felt like that the way they handled the canceling of the format was was not great, and I just I really objected to the whole politic of the way they handled the the ending of w NCN. So I quit and a couple of months later I went to QXR, which was you know, I can be honest with you because it's frankly speaking, you know, qx For seven years, NCN and qx R were competitors. This was the station
we wanted to beat. QXR at the time was the old fogie classical station and NCN had more of a hip appeal, and so we loved that competition. We relished in that radio competition that we would check the books and who had the better ratings, and you know, seven years of and you know, this would have been my late twenties and early thirties where I was really you know, fun to really take on the competition and be competitive
and be exciting. So when NCN went off the air, and I was like, oh, I guess I'll apply to QXR whatever. And so I did go there and I was there, frankly about a year, and I was only doing part time and I had a small, you know, a growing family, kids that needed to be fed, mortgages that needed to be paid. And I got I applied and got a job with the CBS Radio Network, co hosting a late night radio talk show with the legendary
Tom Snyder. And that was great. It was a full year of doing I think some three hundred and sixty interviews, including spending a lot of time with Tom Snyder, which was just great and so important to me and pivotal. But that contract lasted a year, and when it was over, I was looking back at regular radio and local radio in New York and QXR came knocking and somebody was leaving. My mentor and friend, Lloyd Moss, was retiring at the age of eighty. Did I want to come back on
the air there? Which I did, And now I've been on QXR for twenty two years. XR during the first part of that was owned by the New York Times, and we just passed the fifteen year mark where WQXR was sold by the New York Times and purchased by New York Public Radio and being a sister station at WNYC. And I couldn't be more delighted. It's a great building.
It's a you know I have you know, been next to I've been at the urinal next to Brian Larr and yessive, those those moments are you know, very exciting to me.
We are being frank right, no conversation is out of bounds here we go.
And I wasn't at the urinal with Brook Gladstone, but you know there are that when I would listen to on the media or radio lab or Brian Lair. I was a fan, you know, and a listener well before I was a colleague and a fellow employee. So to have a galla or even a meeting or just run into them down the hall to be a part of New York Public Radio is glorious. Public Radio is is is very important to me, and I think very important to our country and and I think it's been a good partnership.
Absolutely Now and you mentioned some of you mentioned Chicago, and through the course of your time both working directly with or interviewing many celebrities and famous people, you continue to do. So we're going to talk about that as part of your duties as artistic and executive director of Arts Rock. And you've got a big one coming up
with Tony Shaloub and Brooke Adams shortly. I've seen a few of your interviews here locally at what used to be the First Reformed Church is now the Angel and I going to talk about that too, and just a bit. But to get to it, of all these people is the first of all the twofold question, how do you
prepare for your interviews? Okay? And then who sticks out in your mind as one of the better interviews that you've done and one of the better interview is So first, how do you prepare for some of these people who are always very well known? As you already try to make as I do, try to make the questions, and it's interesting in penetrating what method do you use? And then who sticks out in your mind as one of the better interviews.
My preparation is all about preparation. I you know, I can sit in front of my laptop and go through video clips and old interviews and Wikipedia, and you know, I come up with what I believe to be as an arc of an interview. I believe a good one has a beginning, middle, and ending.
Uh.
And I'm and I'm a big fan of that order. And and then I prepare and then and then I listen, you know, Then I I like, I like to be prepared, but I also want to be flexible. Sometimes I've had interviews go directions I never expected. And I've I've personally seen way too men interviews where it might as well be question one, and then they ask their question question two, and it's like they're not even paying attention to something interesting that comes up that go really tell me more
about that. So I'm perfectly willing to be surprised and delighted and have it go into a different direction than I expected. But yeah, I I like to be really prepared. I don't necessarily need to know the answer to every question, but it helps oftentimes into both avoid pitfalls and also overall just to make my guests feel comfortable. I want them. I think if they're comfortable, the audience is comfortable, and everybody enjoys themselves. It's hard for me to pick. I've
been so lucky and fortunate. You know, it's just name dropping central basically, but please do so.
It's an impressive list. I've seen some of them there. They're always fascinating interviews with really fascinating people. You have the ability to bring that interest out because if you will, look a hackneyed phrase going beyond the headlines. But yes, so well, so many. Please please give us the list. It's important to know. I think it is.
Well. Let's see in the beatle category, I interviewed Paul McCartney at Carnegie Hall at the debut of his Liverpool Oratorio. That was pretty exciting. Linda was still alive and the bodyguard was holding onto me the whole time. I have a picture of it. It's on my website, but there's a guy in the corner and all you see at the back of his head and a black jacket, but that's the bodyguard literally holding onto my jacket. So like like I was gonna hit him on the head with
the microphone, I don't know. I did a live interview on the radio with George Martin because he had something to promote, which was very exciting. And then on A and E television I spent some time with Ringo Star so I'm the fifth Beatle basically. And then even out here in Rockland County, we've done so many sit down interviews. I was able to bring Edward Albe out, you know. I think one of the first ones I did in Nyak was actually Mike Nichols. We was sold out in Nayak.
We had six hundred people in the audience, and I walked him through his entire career with film clips. He put together some of the clips himself for us we sort of waited and held the grad. We did it chronologically except for the graduate, which we waited until the very end to show he was really gracious and lovely and funny. And if we can jump ahead many years, I ended up interviewing Mike Nichols again in the cast of Death of a Salesman with Philip Seymour Hoffman, and
this was in the Green Space. And I mean clearly Philip Seymour Hoffman, after dying of a drug overdose, had bigger problems than me. And I'm not taking this personally, but he just did not want to be on stage with us, and so everything I asked was yes. I mean I tried to avoid yes or no questions, but I was getting monosyllabic answers. I was just getting one
and it wasn't going anywhere. And it was supposed to be twenty minutes with him, and then the rest of the cast was going to come on, So like five or ten minutes into the interview, I just like went, oh, this is great to spend some time with you. Let's bring out the rest of the cast, you know, I just sort of like bolted the interview.
As they say, he was.
It was just very weird. And then I brought Nicholas and Andrew Garfield and the rest of the cast, and Mike Nichols saved the day. You know, he was a stand up comic, He's charming, he's funny, and so I had two shots at at Mike Nichols, which was very important to me. You know, we've got this series at in Rockland that I do hear. We had David Hyde, Peers, Alec Baldwin, Lewis Black, Robert Klein, Cheetah Rivera again, we'll
talk about Tony Schlubin Brook Adams coming up soon. So you know, it's an education, it's great fun for me, and the audiences seem to like spending time with these celebrities close up and hearing them and being able. And they've been so gracious to come out to Nayak and spend some time with us on stage.
You mentioned Mike Nichols. Who else in your mind, and not only for their interviews, for their personality. Who is someone that sticks out in your mind as Wow, that's an impressive person.
Well, you know, I love comedians and that's just me. So, you know, having time with John Cleese and again, more than once Lewis Black. I knew Lewis frankly for more than twenty five years. He wasn't even really a stand up comic when I first met him, so I love spending time with him. So lots of funny people. I always really enjoy that you mentioned Felicia Rashad. She was
a part of it. That she's she did one of ours out in Nayak, Susie Eddie Izzard, Eddie Izard goes by Susie now and she has been a part of what we've done out here in Nayak and at WQXR for a while too. Also an amazing talent, superstar, comic and actor. So yeah, I've been I've been fortunate you.
Certainly, and we've been fortunate to have you, to have your work, to have you on QXR, to have you here at Nayak. And you know, people always tease them, always raving about Nike, but there was something about this place and talk a little bit more about it where it embraces art and how important that is. Elliot Love was going to save that for later, but since it came up, now, why don't we talk about the importance you do it here locally? I mean, you do it
on a grand scale. We've talked about that nationally internationally, but you do a lot of work locally too with local arts organization. We're going to talk after the break in more detail exactly about Arts Rock as an organization, but before that, why is it important for you and for others to become involved in local art projects in art themed projects.
Well, you know, I think we're carrying on a tradition, you and I Arts Rock and all the other artists and creatives in Rockland County that goes back several generations. I think part of it is the duality of being less than an hour from Times Square and we're close to Manhattan, so you know, whether it's Maxwell Anderson or
Helen Hayes Hersel for uh, Jonathan Demiville. Yeah, so historically this is it's the duality of being close to Manhattan but cheaper than Westchester and a little harder to get to, so it's a little bit more in the country.
You know.
I've heard stories about Kurt Vile and lot of Lenya who are married lived in our community here in the Nyak Rockland area, and evidently she hated to do the dishes, so she'd have famous people over, they have big dinner parties, and she just walk out to a creek behind her house and just throw the dishes in the creek instead of my style of housekeeping the dishes exactly. So we're
carrying on this tradition of artists. I mean, I live a block from Joe A. Lessi, the first chair trombone player of the New York Philharmonic, people from the Metropolitan Opera. They're actors, they're directors, They're all sorts of artists here. So I think this a bit a little bit of countryside, this little bit of deer in our front yard, while being close to Manhattan, attracts a certain artist that doesn't
want to be in the heart of Manhattan. But beyond that, there is a philosophy and we at Arts Rock at artsrock dot org care about this. Is that every community should have law enforcement, should have their garbage taken, and have a hospital and healthcare, but they should also have their own arts. And just because we're forty five minutes or an hour from Times Square doesn't mean that everyone
goes into the city. And so we believe that both national artists coming to Nayak and featuring local artists who already live here. Is important to the culture and the lifestyle of what it is to be a member of the community.
Hell, we're going to take a quick break when we come back, and we're talking detail about arts rock, their mission, the role that you play, and the exciting lineup you got coming up shortly. It begins in November. So you mentioned with your interview with Tony Shaloub and Brooke Adams. Is also a candlelight concert. Too many things for me to mention. I know you have a list and I go over them because they're terrific, and the role that
arts rock plays and how important it is. And we'll have all of that coming up in just a minute. So you don't go anywhere, but you don't have to have got you as a captain, for he is talking about everybody else. Please don't go anywhere yet. This is being Frank. I'm your host, Frank Lobono. It's intelligent conversation for sure. My very special guest is mister Elliott Forrest. We'll be back more with him and so much more right after these brief commercial messages. Don't go anywhere yet.
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Welcome back to Being Frank, the Intelligent Conversation podcast. Thanks for sticking with us. I'm your host, Frank Lebono. Our engineer is Neil Richter. Our very special guest, who will we will reintroduce in just a moment, is Elliott Forrest. You know, we bring our audience a fresh topic every week and we stream from Hudson River Radio, which is located and beautiful and very historic Stony Point, New York.
But remember you can catch Being Frank anywhere you get your favorite podcast that includes Apple, Spotify, iHeartRadio and all the others. And remember Being Frank is archives, so you can listen to any program anytime you like. It's very convenient. Can finally to Being Frank on the Hudson River Radio Facebook page or at our website Hudsonriverradio dot com. Just click and you're there. Okay, back to our special guest, Elliott Forrest from wqxor Arts Rock Rockland, et cetera, et cetera,
et cetera. If we go through it all again. We won't have any time left in the show, so let's get back to it. You are the artistic and executive director of Arts Rock. You mentioned a little bit about what it is as an organization. Tell us a little bit more in detail about what your overall mission is and what role you play as executive and artistic director there.
Arts Rock started very much as a community effort in the center of Nayak out of a former space that we had been programming in for four years. And then a number of us got together and said, well, we should just continue the programming when the space went away.
And so that was fifteen years ago, and so we have a robust board and a lot of programming and we've kept the programming philosophy and a mission going for all these many years, in which we present family shows, concerts, conversations, some theater, you know, a mixed bag of classical and rock and folk music again, professional performing arts in Rockland County and a number of different venues. As artistic and
executive director, I oversee all the programming. I have a managing director, Derre Falco, who had been with us for many many years, stepped down recently and Laura Steinberger is now our managing director and Kate Ashby is our marketing director. So it's basically the three of us and then help from both financial and guidance and programming help from the
board as well. So we do anywhere. I mean, you know, we did some virtual programming during during COVID, but basically we do about ten shows a year in the community and that may expand as we look to having more of a home at the new Angel Nayak.
Let's talk a little bit about that, so then we'll get into the specifics of the upcoming season. But there is this really nice new venue called the Angel in Nayak, which was formally, if I'm correct, the First Reformed Church, beautiful old Gothic structure. But tell us a little bit more about how they're involved in the community and your involvement with them.
Well, Arts Rock for the first fifteen years of our organization, including now, has been nomadic, and we will be at Bosi's or Nayak High School or the Nayak Center, or we would be in Japan, or at the First Reformed Church in Nayak, which is across the street from Key Bank, right in the center of town. And then the church had decided that they really couldn't keep it going on their own anymore, that they didn't have enough of a congregation to be able to make it work, and wanted
to sell it. So a group of people have stepped up, and it looks like if all goes through, it will be converted to an event and art space. And it's in the process of that right now, meaning a lot of you know, paperwork and things with the state of New York and that sort of thing, but ultimately renovation including adding air conditioning and lighting and both inside and out. I mean, you drive by it at night, there's no outside light at all. You don't even see the building.
It's just dark there. But as you indicate, it's a beautiful Gothic structure. It's got a clock tower on it. The idea that we would in a way finally have a new performing arts center in Nayak is long overdue. You know, I've attempted this a number of times in a number of places. If you think about it, Rockland County has the turning point as far as a regular performing art space, and you know that seats like sixty people. You know, it's extremely tiny. We don't have any more.
The Maurene Jazz Club of great jazz venue and also sixty seventy people, small.
Beautiful place, and I love Dave Budway and his beautiful wife, and I really admire the work they're doing in their jazz club. But as a broad based performing arts center that can be used by a number of different people that could see hundreds of people, we just don't. We don't have a Terrytown music hall, you know, we don't have that in our community. And so it's time, and
so we're hoping this is it. And I have been invited and my organization has been invited to be a or the underlying arts organization at the Angel Nayak and for the first time in fifteen years, we might have a regular home, which would be foundational for any nonprofit arts organization to have a to have a space that brings.
You to then the consistency of a great season. You have a really exciting upcoming season this new venue. Talk about it in some detail, please.
Well, we have five shows that are on our website right now at artsrock dot org. But that's just the beginning for this particular season. And actually we're already looking ahead at twenty twenty five, twenty six, twenty seven. You know, these things are usually planned out well in advance, but arts Rock starts off our season on November ninth, twenty twenty four this year with another candlelight, a classical candlelight series. This has been a national trend to have classical candlelight
series in different churches and venues. And there's actually one I really love out in a cemetery out in Brooklyn. And so for those that might be either slightly intimidated or don't really know or care that much about classical music, the idea that the entire concert is lit almost entirely by candlelight, we hope is an added value of a date night, an environment, something that's really fun and exciting for people to enjoy. We've done a couple of them already.
We had Bridget Kibbi, who is one of the great harp players in America, she's a regular with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Beautiful Night and Sarah Sana brogio cello player. So on November ninth will be the next one. It's a group called Trio Fate Aline and they'll be playing a number of different kinds of pieces of music highlighting the immigrant experience. It's a combination between violin and fadolina and cello. So I really encourage everyone
to come. As a matter of fact, Yeah, you can see all that information at artsrock dot org. We follow that up a couple of like a week or so later with one of our signature interviews in which the great Emmy Award winning actor Tony Shaloub will be on stage with his beautiful wife, Brooke Adams. If people remember the film Days of Heaven, she was the beautiful angenoue in that film, and they're married. They're a married couple.
They've done Broadway together, and of course he was Galaxy Quest and Men in Black and Monk Monk is actually coming to Nayak. So that's November sixteenth with Tony Shalhoub and Brooke Adams. Then we're going to do another Candlelight series in February with a group that is a chamber ensemble that'll have multimedia. They do images and video in
addition to their performances with the Candlelight stuff. And then in March of twenty five and next year, I've invited the esteemed Multi Grammy award winning conductor Leonard Slackin to join me on stage and talk about movie music. I have a passion for movie music. I play it on the radio on WQXR all the time. We have a thing we call the Score at four at four o'clock.
We play movie music every day, every weekday. And so I put together an evening It's about ninety minutes with forty different film clips on the history of movie music from the silent era up to today. And I was going to do it by myself, and I was talking to Leonard Slackin for something QX are and I said, would you join me on stage and just talk about this.
I don't know how much of your audience knows Leonard Slacken, but he's probably conducted the recordings of I don't even know how many sixty recordings, major recordings over his eighty years. But his parents were in Los Angeles and were in the orchestra for a number of these classic film scores, Corn Gold for the Robin Hood film and a number of other films. So he grew and he would go.
He would as a kid, he would sit by on his parents knee while these film scores were being made these classic film scores from the forties, and he was in the recording studio and has since gone on and championed movie music as well. So I couldn't be more thrilled to have Leonard Slack and join me on stage on March twenty eighth to talk about movie music. Last year, we partnered with this great cellist named Jody Ferber for
something called Ecotnes. I'm not sure if you made it, Frank, but we did this event in which world class players were playing live in Riverhook and Upper Nayak outdoors.
Fabulous location, beautiful parks, the mansions on Upper broad North Broadway and Upper Niac, beautiful spot. Folks worth taking a ride to believe me.
It's a really beautiful idea that she places these chamber ensembles throughout the park. You wander around to hear different groups and different parts of the park play, and then everyone comes together as one big group and play together. She's done this in other cities and she approached me for doing it here and we partner on it, and we did it last year, so we're going to do it again and that's June first.
It's coin was by the way, it was wonderful.
It was beautiful. I mean we look you know again, speak speaking frankly. When you do outdoor events, it's the big three. It's it's power, bathrooms, and weather, weather, and we had all three in our favor that day. You know, the bathrooms provided the way. Other was spectacular, and we worked out the power, considering most of it was acoustic, but we did have some electricity. Anyway worked out well.
We're fingers crossed it'll happen again. That's June first of twenty five, and then those are the ones that are listed. But I'd love to take this opportunity just to sort of mention a couple of the other things we're working on. Some of them are more solid than others. But it looks like we're going to partner again with the Rockland
Symphony Orchestra for a family concert. And we did Peter and the Wolf and something I wrote called Babbling Orchestra last year, and now we're going to do Dan Brown's Wild Symphony. Dan Brown, who is the noted writer of all sorts of books, has written a children's book and accompanying a work for symphony orchestra. So we're going to partner with them. And do that with the Rockland Symphony Orchestra. Our our conversation series can continues. I'm just tossing this
out because this is what's happening. Although we haven't picked a date yet, but I'm hoping John Torturo comes out and then another event with Kevin Bacon to do another one of our interviews. We did a show two years ago with Alice Leon. It was a tribute to Peggy Lee and it was really spectacular and I think we're going to repeat that again.
Great local artists too, terrific.
Alison a great singer, songwriter, a great.
Work loves with children and special needs people.
Great, great lady, great lady, and she did this really lovely evening as a tribute to Peggy Lee. And I think we're going to do it again. And finally, the one I'm gonna mention again this is not on our website.
We haven't announced it, we haven't locked it down yet, but next year is Tom Chapin's eightieth birthday, and so we are working with the family to do a tribute four and two Tom Chapin in twenty twenty five to celebrate this national hero, this national artist that lives right in our community and hope to celebrate the birthday of Tom Chapin.
Yeah, another big player in the arts scene here in Rockland and the surrounding areas for a long time. You know, you mentioned inspiration, and these are inspirational people, But who inspires Elliott Farest.
That's an interesting question. I you know, I've had a lot of mentors in my life. They're not necessarily, you know, people that people know. But my good friend Don France, who is a producer and was one of the original producers of Lion King and Beauty and the Beast on Broadway, I met in nineteen ninety five and it's been a close friend ever since. And you know, people see that I juggle stuff from around the country and arts rock and WQX are and they go, how do you do it?
And I have mentors who I feel like do more than twenty four to seven more than me. And so I see the work, I see the dedication, I see the compassion, the kindness that I get from other people in show business. That's not always around in show business, but there are certainly people the ones that I am, I admire and love and that have taught me have all those qualities. And Don was one of them. You know, my father ninety six years of age.
You'll have him. That's wonderful, that's.
Kind of doing okay. He's been okay on and off. He's taken another fall recently, but always a zest for life. Knows the news is up on things. My mom passed away more than ten years ago, and he started dating again at the age of ninety. There's a lot of inspiration there. So yeah, those are just a few.
I guess, good stuff, Eliet. Now, and you mentioned your time and your programming at QXR. Where exactly can people dial in? Do they still dial in? I know it's probably streamed as well, but do we actually dial in?
You know, I don't own a radio. I mean I do, but none of them are plugged.
In actually work? Now, how can we here? How can people listen to you? At what time? Slide? Can they catch you on QXR.
So if you do have a radio and still have something that's close to it in your.
Car, many people still do listen to car radios, right.
Although you know that I listened to QXR at one oh five point nine FM. We're at one o five point nine FM. But if your phone is plugged into your car. I'm guessing the reception off of our mobile app is going to be much better than actually listening to FM. So the mobile app is good. You can
listen online at WQXR dot org. But you know, I think that not only the future, but what I do personally is walk into a room and say, hey, Google or Alexa or whatever, you have played WQXR and it will so any smart speaker, our mobile app, online or or radio you can get WQXR. I'm now doing middays from eleven am to four pm Monday through Friday. I continue to host the national radio broadcasts of the Chamber
of Music Society of Lincoln Center. We're on two hundred radio stations around the country, and qx are places that I think on Saturday evenings at this point I think so yeah. And my own personal website at Elliott Forrest dot com. There's a lot of disinformation.
Well, last question, Elliott and we mentioned support for the arts, and often some people see, I think, unfortunately, spending on local arts as disposable income, if you will, rather than using essential income. But that seems contrary to what we're talking about. Our initial quote that supporting arts locally is important and it is worth the expenditure. Your thoughts on.
That, yeah, I couldn't agree with you more. I mean, look, at this point, tax deductible contributions are still part of our tax code, so you know, you can fund the government, and however they may spend it willy nilly or for causes that you believe in, or you could give locally and get a write off. But more importantly, I think it's to support arts organizations and artists that you believe in.
And I'll tell you one more thing. We have done family shows every year, and it became very clear to me that after COVID, when we started to have three four five year olds in the audience, they had never seen a live show that we were introducing. The idea of we're in the same space and I'm performing for you and you're here and I'm here had never happened in their lives. So I think that kind of thing
is important. Not only that we partnered many times with Jeffrey Freiberg and his Music for Life group here in NYAK and not only perform warming four kids on the spectrum and with different disabilities and different neurodiverse issues, but with them. In some cases, we actually created a show where all of the students were neurodiverse or had some
disability of some kind. And coming from a classical background where we spend a lot of time going don't talk during the movements and make sure and be quiet and sit on your hands and all that kind of stuff, the idea to present family shows where doesn't matter. Your kid can be loud, they can jump around, they you know,
they do whatever they would do in their lives. And we make what they call sensory friendly shows, which is the signal to people with families with neurodiverse individuals in their family that they might speak up, they might talk, they might run around, doesn't matter. All is welcome. It's a celebration. We make a place comfortable for families to bring their families and know that they are welcome and
not trying to just constantly monitor their behavior. So that's the kind of thing we believe in, and if people believe that that's important, I hope they support us. We have a donate button at arts rock dot org. People can go right to our website and make a donation of any amount. Give early and often all.
Right, one last time too. All the important websites how people can find you arts right, arts rock against it. We don't do things visually. Sometimes we repeat them with audio so they have them. What are the important websites that people can get to you, arts rock, tickets, et cetera. What do we need? Yeah?
Everything is it for arts rock and our local shows? On how to donate, ticket prices, even information on free tickets are all at arts rock dot org, A R T, S R O c K dot org And for me personally, Elliott Forrest dot com. And that's two l's, two teas and two rs. Don't blame me. My parents gave me a lot of double letter.
I keep I have to keep looking and singers. It's the two tea's, the two l's, the two do all as I know, always gets the redline. What am I missing?
It's been a lifetime of sous as my mother tell me.
But mind last name Lobono. I've been called bono everywhere every word.
Where's that capital? So?
Why is that capital letter in there? That's not right? So why I hear your brother? I hear you?
Is it?
Elliet? What a pleasure? I really want to thank you for being so so Frank with your intelligent conversation. Forgive the trite analogy, but I had to really Elliot, this has been great. I really enjoyed it. Thank you for joining us.
Thank you Frank, and thank you for everything you do in our community.
Oh it's so great to hear that. It's my pleasure. And of course we have to offer special thanks to our listeners because they take time to give us a voice in their lives. But remember we also offer fresh topic every week. Catch us wherever and whenever you get your favorite podcasts, Apple, Spotify, Speaker, all the rest. Also check SAT on the Hudson River Radio Facebook page. You can leave us a comment and we ask you to
consider sharing being Frank with others. I always leave you with two little I called him nuggets, a song and a closing. We start with a stick closing statement, if you will, and this one comes from the great artist Salvator Dali and it fits within our theme overall, a true artist is not one who was inspired, but one who inspires others. Okay, I think it's a little bit of both there, and we've got some great closing music for you. If you remember, last week we featured Eric DeVito,
a jazz performer and teacher. I saw his opening jazz series at the Piermont Library last week. It was terrific. He's got another one coming up in Nayak if you get a chance to catch it. He's absolutely terrific. So here he is with his original tune sunscript for our engineer Neil Richter. I'm your host, Frank Lebon, and we hope to have you join us on the next being. Frank, We're the only way to be is Frank. Thanks everyone, h.
M L.
And now at.
The pad that happened.
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The beam SNA. This is Hudson River Radio dot com.