[Carfreeliving] SFCTA ED up for a Grammy?

[A P Thornley]

random clip from last week's Chronicle -- the 
initial nugget intrigues, but the elaboration 
gets gooey . . .

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Leah Garchik, SF Chronicle
Wednesday, December 21, 2005

. . . . . .

José Luis Moscovich, executive director of the 
San Francisco County Transportation Authority, is 
a librettist whose work was nominated for a 
Grammy for best classical contemporary 
composition. The nomination is for "Corpus 
Evita," an opera by Carlos Franzetti. (Supervisor 
Tom Ammiano, who reported this news, says he 
wants to go along with Moscovich to the Grammys, 
to talk transportation issues with Gwen Stefani.)

As to the confluence of transportation and music, 
Moscovich is mainly a conductor, and conducting 
and urban planning use "all of the same skills of 
timing, coordination and therapy ... with lots of 
people who have different ideas, and all of them 
feel tremendously strongly that they are right." 
In his musical career, said Moscovich, "I can't 
tell you how many times the arguments are over 
real estate. If the pit is small and you have too 
many musicians ... well, violinists need room for 
the bow, and the flute points to the right, so 
can't put them against the wall. ... A crotchety 
oboe player complains that the trombone player 
behind him blasts into his ear. ... You spend the 
half hour before each rehearsal trying to make 
people happy. Multiply that by 90 people in 
orchestra, you do more therapy than music.

"It's the same as planning, it's part of the job. 
The more I do, the more I realize how well 
qualified I am for each."