Scott Gendel
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scottgendel.bsky.social
Scott Gendel
@scottgendel.bsky.social
Composer, pianist, vocal coach, rock musician, tenor, general music nerd. Obsessed with cooking, exploring all kinds of music, my family, my cats, dumb jokes, compassion. He/Him.
Today I feel like I’ve MADE IT as a “real composer” because someone far away who I’ve never met is performing one of my pieces with ABSOLUTE DISREGARD for the meaning & style of both the music & the poetry it sets, and I’m just like…

Awwwww look at my baby all grown up and making bad decisions! 🥰
October 20, 2025 at 6:15 PM
Currently composing the most over-the-top arrangement of “O Holy Night” you’ve ever heard, for soprano Lexi LoBianco, bass-baritone Kyle Ketelsen, the Madison Symphony Orchestra & the MSO chorus! This is going to be A DELIGHT. It has not one but TWO key changes!! Who needs subtlety?!?!
September 30, 2025 at 4:50 PM
Single tickets are now on sale for Madison Opera's world premiere production of "Everlasting Faint"!!! Come see this huge, intense, beautiful opera that Sandra Flores-Strand and I have been working on for 4 years or so! Let's sell this theatre OUT, woooooooo!!!

www.overture.org/tickets-even...
Redirecting
www.overture.org
September 2, 2025 at 5:43 PM
As far as I can tell as an out-of-touch middle-aged GenXer, the appeal of the “labubu” is that it’s a cute bunny but also mean AF, and therefore I think I can pass on this trend because BEEN THERE DONE THAT 30-SOME YEARS AGO (in the early days of Hot Topic)
July 23, 2025 at 11:55 PM
This month’s record purchases: The Keening, “Little Bird,” Ratboys, “The Window,” Willi Carlisle, “Critterland,” and Symphony X, “Underworld.” Okay okay I might have a little record-buying problem, but these albums are all SO DAMN GOOOOOOOOD I can’t help myself
July 12, 2025 at 5:07 PM
Will never ever EVER EVERRRRRR get over how super cool it is to see things like this in PR materials! Oh, you know, Tchaikovsky, Gendel, Bizet, et cetera.

(Let this serve as another reminder to come to Madison Opera’s “Opera in the Park” at Garner Park, Madison, WI, on July 19th!)
June 23, 2025 at 8:22 PM
Reposted by Scott Gendel
oh so we should dissent peacefully?? through legitimate channels?? like by being elected to the united states senate and asking questions at a DHS press conference???
June 12, 2025 at 8:44 PM
Reposted by Scott Gendel
noem saying thery're going to "liberate" california from its leaders seconds before federal law enforcement restrains and removes one of the state's senators from the room—like what else needs to be said
June 12, 2025 at 9:15 PM
Reposted by Scott Gendel
If this is how this administration responds to a Senator with a question, you can only imagine what they're doing to farmworkers, to cooks, and to day laborers throughout California and across the country.

We will hold this administration accountable.
June 12, 2025 at 10:19 PM
Hot take: “in theatre, we’re a FAMILY!” and “in band, kids find a family” and similar statements made by arts educators are EXACTLY as cringy & misguided as bosses in the business world insisting that the workplace is actually a family. Jussayin’.
June 7, 2025 at 3:38 PM
I’m always kinda bummed out when someone brings their own pianist to auditions I’m playing & I have to leave & listen in from the other room… but when it turns out it’s because they’re presenting an aria from LULU… I’m maybe not so bummed out after all 😂😂😂
May 23, 2025 at 12:49 AM
insert hastily made cartoon with stock drawing of St. Peter at the gates of heaven, and a chorus of voices shouting from offstage, "NOOOOOORMMM!!"

(may his memory be a blessing)
May 20, 2025 at 9:04 PM
I will never forgive them for what they did to “Big Yellow Taxi,” but… I think I’m enjoying the new Counting Crows album???
May 16, 2025 at 1:12 AM
Not that I want to put myself out of a job, but MAN wouldn’t it be cool to do a production of Don Giovanni where the recitatives are done on mandolin, since there’s already a mandolin player on hand for “deh vieni alla finestra”?!?! I’m convinced it would sound SO AWESOME.
April 30, 2025 at 1:35 AM
We open our production of Don Giovanni here at Madison Opera this Friday (with the most wonderful cast) & ALSO the new Propagandhi album comes out this Friday (& the singles fuckin' RULE) so if you're a weirdo like me who loves many many kinds of things, it's going to be AN EXTREMELY GREAT MUSIC DAY
April 29, 2025 at 3:28 PM
Currently fighting for “music stuck in my head” dominance:

1) the new Ghost album, especially “Lachryma” (delightfully cheesy 80s-style power ballads about the devil)

2) le poisson Steve (il est orange)

3) ALL of Don Giovanni (we open a week from today)
April 25, 2025 at 10:56 PM
Pro tip: I already love tofu, but eating it is 198% more fun if you call it Toad Food.

“What’s for dinner?”

“Stir-fried tofu.” (grade: C+)

“Stir-fried toad food.” (grade: A, all it needs is Frog to bring it up to an A+)
April 24, 2025 at 7:31 PM
Reposted by Scott Gendel
Letter from Dem Senator Chris Van Hollen (MD) requesting a meeting with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele
To discuss MD father Kilmar Abrego Garcia's return

"If Kilmar is not home by midweek – I plan to travel to El Salvador this week to check on his condition and discuss his release."
April 14, 2025 at 2:45 PM
EXTREMELY PLEASED to learn this morning that, in the same way that I stick my tongue out a little when I’m focusing really hard on a task, Ham sticks his tongue out when long-distance stalking a robin out on the lawn
April 13, 2025 at 7:14 PM
Best Passover songs:

1) Dayenu
2) Creeping Death (Metallica)
April 12, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Reposted by Scott Gendel
This is Utah in case anyone’s wondering how pissed off people are. I have never seen anything like this.
April 5, 2025 at 7:06 PM
Reposted by Scott Gendel
what booker is doing right now is an example of what i mean when i say things like “we need more ambition right now.” there is room in american politics right now for people with ambition to take big stands and reap the rewards. he’s doing it!
April 1, 2025 at 8:24 PM
I grew up in New Jersey and I live in Wisconsin. Both places have their problems, and I know this feeling will be short-lived, but today I COULD NOT BE PROUDER OF MY TWO HOME STATES
April 2, 2025 at 12:05 PM
Reposted by Scott Gendel
Musk: Losing this judge race has good chance of causing Republicans to lose control of the house. You lose control of the house, there will be nonstop impeachment hearings and subpoenas
April 1, 2025 at 9:20 PM