I had the great pleasure of having lunch today with Jim Reagan, Executive Director of the Austin Symphony Orchestra. He is an incredible innovator who is committed to bring the symphonic power of music to new audiences. In addition to everything you'd expect from a symphony orchestra, he also has been, no pun intended, instrumental in creating educational opportunities to bring the music to the Central Texas community. And it's not just basic education about the value of music.

The Austin Symphony's educational programs have been developed to engage kids in math and science, in fact they've developed materials directly connected to both those subjects which they make available to teachers in the Central Texas area. When he first mentioned it to me, all I could think was how many times my friends would groan during math or science and ask, "why can't they put this stuff to music? at least then I would care about it!". And, that's not all.

One of the coolest ideas he's working on is tying the orchestral sound to digital gaming so a whole new generation of listeners can experience the emotional power of orchestral music...while learning math & science...and saving the world, lol.

The mission of the Austin Symphony Orchestra Society, Inc. is to enhance the cultural quality of life for the adults and young people of Austin and Central Texas by providing excellence in music performance and educational programming.

Jim Reagan and his team are fulfilling this mission with innovative programs that are creating quite a soundtrack for all kinds of lives here in Central Texas. And I'm glad that they are.

rg