First, howdy, y'all. Sorry I've been away for a bit, had to do a little travel and communication wasnt really possible.

So the latest musical news is that the orchestra has a new name--The Austin Radio Theater Orchestra. Predictably enough, my Halloween hopes were a bit optimistic, but never fear. I decided to go all the way with this thing and am in the process of collecting 34 pieces, with each section being led by a UT orchestration professor, or someone equally spiffy, learned, and talented. A wonderful team grows as we speak. We'll be doing my songs, Will's songs, as well as Brecht/Weill and Randy Newman and others, with a heavy emphasis on the Weimar/little-man-crushed aspects of all of the above. Maybe some Sinatra stuff--some Gershwin, Cole Porter, I dont know, you get the picture. Theatrical music. Brother, Can You Spare a Dime, that kind of stuff. Which brings me to the general question...

How many people do you think would buy five monthly cd packages of this orchestra? Say we did a "A Fine Mess" style packaging on one of these discs a month, for five months, and had a preorder for the series. How many people would prepay twenty bucks apiece for five of these records? This knowledge would impact greatly on the production values.

yrs,

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