Editor, Gazette-Journal:

On Sunday afternoon Oct. 7, the Chesapeake Bay Wind Ensemble (CBWE) performed a concert at Mathews High School. Sadly, for every occupied seat there appeared to be six to eight empty. Several audience members suggested more advance publicity might have helped.

The concert was a hugely pleasant surprise. In a wind ensemble there are no strings (other than a harp and a string bass), but clarinets replace violins more than adequately. There was nothing condescending about the program, which included several (perish the word) "modern" pieces (i.e., music requiring an intellectual as well as an emotional response of the listener).

One star of the performance was WHRO’s Raymond Jones, who not only emceed the whole program but also served as narrator in the musical/spoken presentation of "Casey at the Bat." Jones appeared in a baseball uniform and swinging a bat. He coyly turned his back to the audience to display his uniform number: 90.3. The audience w...