Transcript of Osgood Files

The Osgood File. Sponsored in part by Walgreen’s and Merck. Charles Osgood on the CBS Radio Network. Here is a symphony orchestra with a rather unusual repertoire.

SFX: Punk music

SOT: Gluck: It's the perfect blend between orchestral color, orchestral dynamics and punk rock music.

Stradivarius meets Sid Vicious. after this for Walgreen’s.

Lots of communities have community orchestras, but only San Francisco has one that plays music by the punk band Fear.

SFX:Music:" Let's have a war, So you can go and die!" :05

The Punk Rock Orchestra is the brainchild of David Ferguson, Director of the Institute for Unpopular Culture. His online ad for classically trained musicians got a huge response.

SOT: Ferguson: "Hundreds of people-bassoon players, tympani players, violin, cello-it was astonishing: they wanted to play punk rock."

SFX: Music

The orchestra performs in traditional black, punctuated by pink wigs and slashed T-shirts. Music Director John Gluck, in the do-it-yourself punk spirit, is a self-taught arranger and conductor. Which explains a lot, I think.

SOT: Gluck: My style of conducting is, like, I learned from Bugs bunny."

But the musicians in the orchestra are top drawer. Many of them, like flute and piccolo player Susanne Rublein have day jobs with professional orchestras, but they still hold on to music they grew up with.

SOT:Rublein: "I started on piano when I was about 5, and flute when I was 9, but I always considered myself to be one of those punk rock chicks even though I played classical music."

SFX:Music: " I'm governor Jerry Brown, My aura smiles and never frowns, Soon I will be Pres - i - dent,

The orchestra's repertoire includes classics from the Dead Kennedys, Black Flagg, the Sex Pistols, the Ramones, and more. Not every song is right for orchestral treatment, says Gluck. But when it works, says David Ferguson, it's a revelation.

SOT: Ferguson: "It really comes alive with orchestral color, and when you have opera trained singers being your lead singers, you have a sound that's more like Stravinsky than Johnny Rotten.

Now.you've herd everything.

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The Osgood File. I'm Charles Osgood for the CBS Radio Network.

The Osgood File. November 3, 2003