TUSCUMBIA-Did you know we were being brain washed into loving classical music as children
while watching cartoons? Was it a grand conspiracy? Here we were paying full attention to our Looney Tunes and not noticing the background music, but it was getting in our heads. Each cartoon had a different classic playing in the background. As one who watched a lot of cartoons such as Bugs Bunny and Mighty Mouse while young, I was exposed to a lot of classics.
Those that the music rolled around and around inside our heads before going out of the other side were the ones who fell victim. I was one of those victims. Every time I hear Swan Lake I can see the Loony Tune cartoon with the Mom and babies zigging and zagging across the lake to the beat of the music until one of the babies is abducted. Another piece I see the couple in fine attire walking down a long winding stairs before the late night movie started.
When I went to Auburn I was exposed to Jazz and the blues 
when I attended a Count Basie concert. Another concert was a Big Band and rock and roll. As a result, my tastes in music are a mixed bag of classics, jazz, blues to rock and roll. No rap or country music for me. Even though I grew up having to watch Dolly on the Porter Wagner Show saying ‘bright shiny stripes in boxes of Breeze, and the Grand Ole Opry I do not like country. Maybe that is why I’m not a fan.
After moving back home I started attending the Shoals Symphony concerts at Grace Episcopal Church in Sheffield. The orchestra was the brain child of Betty Dardess and the Tennessee Valley Art Center. Jesse Joiner was its first conductor. In 1985 the Shoals Symphony Orchestra was incorporated as a 501C entity. Over the years the quality of the music has become better and better. Current Director Viljar P. Weimann has taken the symphony from a community based to part of the faculty at the University of North Alabama as of 2002.
Last December, International composer and conductor Roger Briggs, a native of Florence, was commissioned by the Symphony to compose a piece celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Shoals Symphony at UNA. The world premiere of Symphony No. 2 “The Shoals” was presented at the concert.
The next concert by the Shoals Symphony at UNA will be on Sunday March 10 at 2 PM at 
Norton Auditorium. They will be joined by the Florence High School Orchestra. The symphony will perform Gershwin’s “Cuban Overture” which will feature traditional Cuban percussion instruments. I think of Ricky Ricardo on his congo drum when I hear traditional Cuban percussion instruments. Ian McCollum and Andrew Mills, winners of the UNA Collegiate Artist Solo Competition will also perform. The press release had the pieces that they will play, but my fingers had trouble typing all those fancy words.
Come Sunday, I’ll be there trying to remember which cartoon each piece goes with.
