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BY JAMES D. WATTS JR.
World Scene Writer
 Carol
Reynolds’ mother had a simple wish
for her daughter. “I hope,”
Reynolds’ mother told her loquacious
child one day, “that you find a way
to make your living by talking.”
That wasn’t necessarily Reynolds’
motivation for going into teaching,
but in a sense, that maternal wish
has come true.
Reynolds has been talking about the
arts — classical music, mostly, but
also about Russian art and history,
among other topics — for more than
two decades. Until recently, her
primary venue was the classrooms of
Southern Methodist University’s
Meadows School of the Arts, where
Reynolds was an associate professor
of music history. She also led tours
to cities in Russia and Austria, as
well as the United States, that
focused on the art and history of a
given place.
These days, Reynolds continues to
share her abiding love and
wide-ranging knowledge about music
through her Web site,
www.professorcarol.com. The site
contains the special podcasts she
had created for a variety of
performing arts organizations,
including the Tulsa Symphony
Orchestra. The most recent of her
TSO podcasts is “The Essential
Tchaikovsky,” which examines the
composer’s life and work, focusing
on his Symphony No. 5, in a concise
and entertaining 15 minutes. It was
created in conjunction with the
Tulsa Symphony’s final concert of
its inaugural season, which will
feature the Symphony No. 5 in E
Minor, Op. 64.
Also on this all-orchestral program,
to be conducted by guest Alastair
Willis, is the arrangement by
Ottorino Respighi of the Passacaglia
by J.S. Bach, Respighi’s own “Church
Windows,” and the Adagio for Strings
by Samuel Barber.
 “I
had met (Tulsa Symphony founder and
president) Frank Letcher a number of
years ago,” Reynolds said, speaking
by phone from her home on a farm
north of Dallas. “We both share a
deep-rooted interest in Russian
culture, and we immediately
connected on a heart-to-heart level
because of that.” As plans for what
would become the Tulsa Symphony
Orchestra took shape, Letcher
approached Reynolds about doing
pre-concert talks via the Internet
about the music the orchestra would
perform. “What the Tulsa Symphony is
doing is so fresh and innovative and
inspired,” Reynolds said. “It’s
really been a pleasure doing these
talks — watching this wonderful
thing happen from afar.”
Reynolds created talks for four of
the orchestra’s five concerts this
season, and said she will likely
continue the practice for TSO’s
2007-08 season (see story, above).
“I find it intriguing that I can sit
here in Texas, talk about subjects I
love and have spent decades
learning, and then these talks go
out all over the world (through the
Internet),” she said. “It’s been
amazing, the sort of response I’ve
received from these talks. The ones
that I especially get a kick out of
are from people who simply have a
love of the arts and are looking for
ways to learn more about them.”
Because of this, Reynolds said she
works to keep her talks free of more
arcane facts and technical talk. “I
try to give these talks substance
without getting bogged down in a lot
of details,” she said. “I usually
end up taking out half the stuff I
originally wanted to use — I
realized I don’t really need all
that stuff like opus numbers and the
like.”
She’s also discovered that music
teachers have been using her
podcasts as part of their classes.
“I know teachers are always looking
for something that will help connect
their students to what’s being
taught,” Reynolds said. “And the
fact that people can download my
talks onto things like iPods — well,
that automatically makes things
‘cooler,’ having it on your iPod.”
James D. Watts Jr. 581-8478
james.watts@tulsaworld.com
Professor Carol's Website
Subscription Link to her Tulsa
Symphony Podcast's:
http://www.professorcarol.com/podcaststs.asp
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