I’m the music man. Our B.F.A. musical theatre students come to me in their senior year, and I’m their singing and acting teacher. Our kids get work because they’re actors who know how to sing.

I was writing super titles [projected lyrics above the stage] for Opera Pacific and John Mauceri was conducting there. I was conducting “West Side Story” at the Orange County High School of the Arts and knew he was a protégé of Leonard Bernstein. I wanted his input, and he very graciously agreed to go to lunch.

At the same time, there was the announcement of the creation of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and the naming of John as conductor.

A month later, he called, because they were scheduled to record their first CD before the Bowl season began. His assistant in New York couldn’t come out, so all of a sudden I’m teaching high school and taking a few days off to do this project.

I eventually became associate producer of that series. The Hollywood Bowl didn’t have the funds for an assistant for John, so I was hired as a member of the orchestra, but my job was to be John’s assistant.

The duties are so varied. We restore a lot of scores, things that are played for the very first time. Because I sit next to John and we’ve studied the soundtrack, when we go into rehearsal and the French horn parts aren’t right he asks me to figure it out. The players come to me if there are note errors, because they know that John’s busy, and sometimes I can do it by ear.

When it comes to Movie Night, we make up the program. At the beginning of the summer we rent a lot of movies, and then start talking to the studios.

I’m a vocal coach – working with special guests like Kristen Chenowith and John Lithgow last summer. I played piano for Julie Andrews for “The King and I.”

The first time I was entrusted as a vocal coach was with “The King and I.” Ben Kingsley had never sung before and was performing the role of the king. He was a little nervous, but he trusted me because I’d been teaching musical theater for so long and was used to talking to actors. Patrick Stewart was the same way. He had never sung in public and wouldn’t agree to “Camelot” until he met with me and had my okay in saying this would work.

I thought last summer’s “My Fair Lady” was a lot of fun.

It was. John Lithgow had such a big part, as Henry Higgins, but had never done the musical, only “Pygmalion.” When I told him I was from Cal State Fullerton, he told everyone in the room – the director and choreographer – about this wonderful evening he had at Front & Center with his wife.

Roger Daltrey was great as Alfred Doolittle. I didn’t have much to do with his singing, because he said, “I know how to sing it. We’ve been singing these songs since I was a lad.” And his Cockney was absolutely real because he said his father was that character.

The variety, because that’s what keeps me happy. We’ll do an opera, a musical, Tchaikovsky and movies. Our orchestra loves the variety of all of this stuff.

They’ve just torn down the Bowl, and I was recently there for the first time. It’s 50 percent completed. There is a lot more stage space for us, which is good. It’s on schedule and people are going to love it.

As a person who works there, I was surprised that every fireworks show didn’t destroy the old shell. It’s basically asbestos and hanger wire [laughs] – this little paper mâche covering over some metallic structure that we were always pasting new technology into it, over it, on top of it. The venue itself is what’s historic – the magic of being outdoors in Southern California and the natural acoustics are wonderful. We kept the look of the shell. It will look a little bit more high tech.

It wasn’t even. Sections closer to the back, like percussion – their sound bounced very hard on the shell, and the violin section could barely hear themselves play. Now we’ve got a new sound design. That’s probably the real difference – that the Bowl now can incorporate more of the current technology, lighting and sound, and will finally have backstage facilities that we don’t have to apologize for.

Sharing with people who care about what I care about, which is musical theater. They have a passion for performing and they understand that I’m a link. Even though I take summers off I start thinking about my next year’s seniors around June. I think about them all summer, looking forward to what project we’ll be working on.