''A musical feast with Sting... Sting did not need any embellishments on stage. The audience were won from the opening notes of the first song. Sting began strongly. The first sounds of one of his biggest hits "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" provoked a storm of applause with the audience singing loudly at the first chorus. With a standing ovation in the first rows of after the song, Sting for a moment gestured for fans to sit down. But he soon had to get used to such a reception, because the audience responded enthusiastically to almost every song throughout the two and a half hour concert...''

A decade into her career as a conductor, Sarah Hicks '93 had ''the first of two turning points.'' She was conducting a Minnesota Orchestra program featuring the group Pink Martini, the first pops show she'd ever done. Some classical musicians look at such work as slumming, but Hicks found it a revelation: ''I thought, ‘Wait a second. This is legitimate, well written, evocative. I'm having fun, the orchestra's having fun. What's not to like?''' Sarah Hicks interviewed in Harvard magazine