By RANDY NOLES

Let’s listen to a podcast about classical music, shall we? Oh, you say you don’t know anything about classical music — and aren’t even sure that you like it? 

Then you’ll feel welcome at Tenor and Toneless, produced by Boris Douglas Garbe, founder of Mills Gallery in the Mills 50 area of Orlando and one of the local arts scene’s most outspoken and entertaining personalities.

The German-born Garbe hosts the podcast, made in cooperation with the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra, alongside Peruvian-born (and Orlando-based) operatic tenor Rafael Cavero. If Cavero is the “tenor” in Tenor and Toneless, then you can easily deduce who “toneless” must be.

It’s Garbe, the colorful iconoclast who hatched the idea for a show that he believed would make classical music seem more accessible — and demonstrate that its practitioners had a sense of humor — by presenting sometimes off-the-wall interviews with artists and executives from OPO.

“I also don’t particularly like art, but I started a gallery,” says Garbe, a former teacher of sign language whose goal as a gallerist has been to attract younger patrons and to provide gender equity for creators. “But I do like artists. Most of them don’t know anything about marketing and social media. That’s where I can help.”

The seed for Tenor and Toneless was planted in 2020, when Cavero hosted an internet radio show called The World of Music on Romantica 84. He asked Garbe to be his co-host, which was an unlikely choice given Garbe’s admitted lack of knowledge (or interest) in the music played on the show.

The formula, as Garbe describes it, was “Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. Rafael was the leading straight man — literally — and I was the monkey throwing bombs. I quickly found my voice. I was fearless.”

Perhaps a little too fearless. “They fired me,” says Garbe, who still contends that The World of Music’s unique approach softened the image of a genre with a reputation for rigidity and stuffiness. “They felt that I was making fun of the institution.” Hidebound corporate naysayers aside, he adds, guests loved the show’s quirky vibe, which combined knowledgeable questions from Cavero, a classical music professional, with irreverent everyman observations from Garbe. “We had honest conversations,” he adds.

If the higher-ups didn’t get what he was trying to do at Romantica 84, Garbe thought, perhaps they would be more receptive at OPO. Why not introduce a podcast that employed the same Martin-and-Lewis (or Garbe-and-Cavero) dynamic to promote the more-adventurous orchestra?

Already an experienced podcaster, Garbe had co-hosted several arts-related shows with Marla E (that’s her legal name), a painter, sculptor and instructor who in 2016 was named Artist of the Year by the Seminole County Commission and the Seminole Cultural Arts Council.

In addition, he had produced a podcast with a young musician named Chris Fioravantti, who interviewed guests ranging from artists to political figures. The Experience with Chris Fio had been voted one of the top podcasts in Central Florida by readers of the Orlando Weekly before the host was tragically killed in a bicycling accident last summer.

With Cavero on board, Garbe pitched his most recent inspiration to Jennifer Coolidge, OPO’s director of philanthropy, who also works as a curator for Mills Gallery.

Coolidge was intrigued, so Garbe and Cavero taped an inaugural episode with OPO’s principal violist, Bolivian-born Mauricio Céspedes Rivero. “What the hell is a viola?” was among Garbe’s first questions, which Céspedes answered with good humor before describing the instrument’s role in an orchestra.

The half-hour conversation also included an analysis of ways to interest more young people in classical music performances — a pressing issue as audiences for orchestras grow older. The half-hour back-and-forth was frank, entertaining and educa[1]tional. Said Garbe to Céspedes: “You’re not a snob and you’re not stuck up.”

“Two days after the first episode came out,” recalls Garbe, “OPO approached us about being their official podcast.”

The second Tenor and Toneless guest was the personable Eric Jacobsen, OPO’s artistic director, who good-naturedly explained the evolution of modern conducting and discussed his own storied career in classical music.

But Garbe couldn’t resist asking Jacobsen if he believed that a conductor’s baton was a phallic symbol. (No, Jacobsen answered, but he could understand why it might have been saddled with that connotation in a male-dominated field.)

Garbe also wondered if Jacobsen had ever gotten in trouble for a public utterance. (Jacobsen thought not, but volunteered that he harbored a secret desire “to do a five-minute standup routine where I say really bad things.”)

And so, the highly unscripted episodes go, veering from the serious to the silly to the surprising as guests let their hair down in ways they wouldn’t in more run-of-the-mill interviews.

Others who’ve sat down with Garbe and Cavero have included Paul Helfrich, OPO executive director, and Mary Palmer, former OPO board president. There’ll be a total of 10 episodes in the season, Garbe says.

“I think it’s important to note that this podcast provides access to the OPO to a new and different audience,” says Cristina Venturi, the orchestra’s director of sales and marketing. “Boris does a great job pulling questions or thoughts that the average person might have about the orchestral world.”

You can listen to Tenor and Toneless on any podcast platform. If you don’t have a podcast app on your smart device, then simply do an internet search for Tenor and Toneless and multiple listening opportunities will appear.