Weber State Conductor Follow Up

Again, this seems to be a somewhat popular blog posting with over 106 page views and counting.  As I mentioned, this is different than what I typically write about and how I write about experiences.  Normally everything I write is first hand information, however, this was written from information obtained by talking to a friend who was in the audience.

The Weber State conductor (Michael Palumbo) was thoughtful enough to respond to the blog post and provide his side of the story.  I think it is important to consider both sides before passing any judgment as nobody knows what they would have done in the situation.

Here is Michael Palumbo's response:  (edited only to change name to (Brand Interaction)).

Hello (Brand Interaction).

Thanks for taking the time to send me your thoughts. My question to you is "what did I do?" To answer my own question, I asked that a noisy child be removed from the concert so the other 1200 people in the audience could enjoy the music, and so the 160 performers on stage could concentrate on a very difficult piece of music.

I had no idea when I asked that the child be removed that I was dealing with a mentally handicapped child. If I had I might have phrased my request differently, but the end result would be that I would still have asked to have the child removed. It seems to me that the parents should have been responsible enough to realize the child would not be able to be quiet during the concert, or at the very least, have voluntarily removed the child when the child began to be noisy. I listened to the noise for 3 movements of the symphony before it finally got too loud for me, and the performers, to ignore.

(Brand Interaction), I read your blog, and you have attributed comments and attributes to me that I didn't make. I don't like that. It's one thing to get a quote wrong, but I never said anything even approaching "I don't care, get him out of here." If you knew me you would know I would never say anything like that. Also, I never said anything to anyone about being proud, or not proud of what I did. I point of fact I am neither. I did what I felt had to be done.

I also don't know where you got the idea that I invited Ogden area special needs groups. If they were invited it was not by me.

By the way, the Deseret News article is highly inaccurate, but I think you know that. Where did the "handicapped man" title come from. It came from an audience member who was completely incorrect. I never addressed anything to anyone about a handicapped man.

Come on (Brand Interaction), don't go off on someone without getting both sides of the story. You are supposed to be writing a responsible blog, not sensationalism for the sake of sensationalism at the expense of accuracy. Surely your blog must be more responsible than this when you are commenting about goods and services in the private sector.

By the way, my email is running in my favor by a considerable margin…

Sincerely,


Michael Palumbo