The New York Observer Does Ross

Great promo/PR piece in The New York Observer on New Yorker classical music critic Alex Ross and his first book, The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century (Farrar, Straus & Giroux), set for release on the 16th of this month.

He characterizes his writing as somewhere between “pure, objective, ‘did the soprano sing slightly flat?’ kind of criticism, and something more like music appreciation or writing with a slightly educational aspect to it.”

“The whole point,” he explained over a late dinner at the Empire Diner on 10th Avenue in Chelsea, is “to not be too in-your-face or condescending.”

That would also be an apt way to describe the 39-year-old Mr. Ross. Slightly built, Mr. Ross was wearing a light blue shirt and black jeans, comfortable black shoes and a wedding ring on his right hand, in the European style. (He met his husband, actor and director Jonathan Lisecki, in a bar seven years ago; they got married last year in Canada.) He speaks softly and deliberately, but smiles easily and gets animated when discussing his interests—which, beyond classical music, include Orson Welles, running along the West Side Highway and his two cats, Penelope and Maulina (so named because she’s an Egyptian Mau). Penelope, he said, sometimes acts like a dog, and sometimes like a bird.

We were especially pleased to learn from this article that Mr. Ross is into the network TV show, Ugly Betty. Makes us feel less shamefaced about being into that wacky and endearing network offering ourself.

RTWT here.

(Personal side note to Alex: Hie thee to a photographer's studio posthaste. It's time.)