“Chester Pitts is sizing up to be the Houston Texans’ Renaissance lineman,” writes Tara Dooley in Sunday’s (7/5) Houston Chronicle. “At the start of last month, Pitts officially joined the board of directors of the Houston Symphony, the first man on that musical team whose day job requires a helmet and enough physical power to stop speeding football players. He’s rubbed elbows with conductor Hans Graf and symphony musicians, and rapped a few lines with Snoop Dogg at a sports charity event. It’s versatility of the kind unthinkable to anyone who ever attended high school. But Pitts believes in reaching across the lines that have long divided jock and artist, pop and classical. … The chance to relate to a new crowd was one of the main reasons that Pitts was asked to join the board of directors of the Houston Symphony, said Bobby Tudor, president of the Houston Symphony’s board of directors. And it was one of the main reasons Pitts accepted, he said.” Pitts is the first football player ever appointed to the Houston Symphony board. The article quotes Lowell Noteboom, chairman of the League of American Orchestras board of directors, as saying, “I don’t know why a professional football player wouldn’t be as passionate as a lawyer, doctor, and banker.”
Posted July 9, 2009
