Brief update from the music critics conference at Lincoln Center

Since arriving in NYC this morning, I've met with Charlie Seidenburg, the PR guy at the Metropolitan Opera, taken a tour (with my MCANA colleagues) of Lincoln Center with Betsy Vorce, the PR lady at Lincoln Center, and the project manager (I didn't get his full name). Alice Tully Hall and a lot of other parts of Lincoln Center have undergone or are still undergoing renovation to the tune of 1.6 billion smackers (if I heard that correctly).

The tour was followed by a facinating lunch conversation with composer John Adams, and that meeting was followed by another interesting discussion with Peter Gelb, general director of the Metropolitan Opera,Ronen Givony, music director of Le Poisson Rouge, Anthony Tommasini,chief music critic of the New York Times,and Alex Ross,classical music critic of the New Yorker.

Now I'm off to experience Adams' new opera "A Flowering Tree."

Tomorrow morning, I'll be part of a panel that will discuss blogging about classical music.

I'll have a more thorough report of the above meetings later.