What's the difference between a symphonic classics concert and a symphonic pops concert? Not a heckuva lot, according to conductor Robert Moody. Moody's view of the subject echoes Duke Ellington's famous dictum that there are "only two kinds of music: good and bad."
"I have a vision of concerts that pairs works from the standard repertoire with music from the pops repertoire," says Moody, the longtime associate conductor of the Phoenix Symphony and newly named music director of Desert Foothills Musicfest.

"We've broken down the barrier between conductor and audience by having the conductor talk. It's time we broke down the barriers that categorize music."

Moody will lead the Phoenix Symphony Thursday at the Scottsdale Center for the Arts in a concert comprising Wagner, Debussy, Britten, Richard Rodgers and Gilbert and Sullivan. It's certainly not your usual lineup.

But there is a plan behind the eclecticism.

"The theme is music that has to do with the sea. We have Rodgers' music for 'Victory at Sea' and the overture to Gilbert and Sullivan's 'Pirates of Penzance.' We also have Debussy's 'La Mer' (The Sea), the Four Sea Interludes from Britten's 'Peter Grimes' and the overture to Wagner's 'Flying Dutchman.' (The Dutchman "flies" in a ghost ship over the sea.)

"I think it will be artistically inspiring and fun at the same time."

Thursday's concert will be the last Moody conducts as Phoenix Symphony's associate conductor. After that, and a few scattered pops concerts at Symphony Hall in downtown Phoenix, Moody will leave the Valley of the Sun to become the music director of the orchestra in Winston Salem, N.C.

Well, not quite. It's true he's leaving, but Moody will be back each winter to lead the concerts of his newest gig, Desert Foothills Musicfest. He spoke March 12 following the final concert of this year's festival, and gave some hints about next year's events. For Musicfest 2007, Moody will lead a new, larger festival orchestra in five concerts, including one featuring superstar violinist Nadja Salerno Sonnenberg. There'll also be a consuming new piece of music by composer Mason Bates called "Omnivorous Furniture." Take a seat if you dare.

Finally-and here's the real surprise-Moody will put down the baton for one event and sing. Yes, here is a conductor who can sing. Moody will join with Broadway star Jan Horvath in a performance of the off Broadway musical, "The Last Five Years."

For tickets to Thursday's concert of the Phoenix Symphony, "Musical Seascapes," call (602) 495 1117 or go to www.phoenixsymphony.org. For more information on Desert Foothills Musicfest, go to www.azmusicfest.org.

Contrasting musicals

If the difference between a classics concert and a pops concert is nil, what's the difference between a musical and another musical? A great deal, it would seem, if you stop to contrast "Forever Plaid," now at Desert Foothills Theater, with "Floyd Collins," playing this weekend and next in downtown Phoenix at the Herberger Theatre. The former is a spin through fifties nostalgia by way of ready made songs such as "Sixteen Tons" and "Three Coins in the Fountain." The songs are pinned to a thin story about four college students on the way to their first big concert. It's feel good entertainment that has won enduring popularity.

Then there's "Floyd Collins," a musical with original songs by Adam Guettel that portrays the final days in the life of the title character after he is trapped in a cave. Based on a true story, the musical contrasts the public life of the media circus that surrounded the character's fate with the inner, private life of the victim.

"I'm doing this 'cause I'm crazy," says Jeff Kennedy, who is producing and directing "Floyd Collins" for iTheatre Collaborative.
"It's the hardest thing I've ever attempted. Floyd Collins features the simplest characters I've ever worked with, speaking the deepest human truths I've ever heard on a stage."

Kennedy says he is attracted to the sort of musical where the music conveys rich subtext, where the real content is in the music and not in the surface meaning of the words.

"I like shows where the message, should you choose to get it, is between humans. That's something only live theater can do. Not many musicals trust the audience enough to do that, but when I find them, that's the work I'm attracted to."

Guettel, whom Kennedy knew and worked with in New York, wrote the show as his first musical. Last year he won the Tony Award for his latest, "The Light in the Piazza."

For tickets to Forever Plaid at Cactus Shadows Fine Arts Center, call (480) 488 1981. For information about Floyd Collins, call (602) 347 1071.