Douglas Quint can’t remember which came first in life, ice cream or music. But he’s made both into professional pursuits.

As a bassoonist he’s got an active freelance career across the northeast and a fine pedigree, having studied at Tanglewood and earned a bachelors from the Manhattan School of Music and a masters from The Juilliard School.  He’s a member of the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston and with his long-time ensemble, the Zephyros Winds, he’ll go on an Asian tour next month.

But with last summer’s launch of the Big Gay Ice Cream Truck on the streets of Manhattan, he and his partner Bryan Petroff have become famous.  They’ve received tons of press, were finalists in the 2009 Vendy Awards and have more than 5,000 followers on Twitter, eager to know on where they can find the truck on any given day.

As for Quint’s culintary training, the Pittsfield Maine native recalls, “I worked in the hot dog shack at our little-league field.”

Besides the catchy big gay name, the truck is known for innovative flavors.  “The ice cream itself is actually only in simple flavors – vanilla, chocolate, and twist,” explains Quint.  “What makes our truck different is how we dress it up. We add interesting things like crushed wasabi peas, pumpkin butter, dulce de leche, olive oil and sea salt, and berries with Saba, a sweet grape syrup that was first produced by the Romans.”

Gerald Busby (photo by Mia Hanson)

Gerald Busby, a native of Texas, graduate of Yale, and protégé of Virgil Thomson, made his professional debut as a composer with a commission from Paul Taylor for the dance RUNES. The work has had nearly 1,000 performances around the world since its Paris premiere and was featured on the PBS series, Great Performances, Dance in America, and recorded on Nonesuch. Other significant collaborations include operas with librettist Craig Lucas and the score to Robert Altman’s film 3 WOMEN. In addition to his more than two hundred concert works in all genres, Busby has portrayed himself and others in films, and been awarded numerous grants, commissions and fellowships from the NEA, the Rockefeller and Guggenheim Foundations among others, as well as residencies at  Macdowell, Yaddo, and Bellagio. Recent Busby held a composer residency at the Dartington International Summer School in Devon that resulted in five concerts and six world premiers.

What are you working on these days?
I’m organizing a concert for my 75th birthday in 2010, all new large ensemble pieces including a piano concerto with a second movement entitled Hommage to Stan Kenton; learning lines for an acting role in a movie called Cafe du diable to be shot in New York in February, 2010; and writing a large choral and orchestral piece commissioned by Ex Cathedra in Birmingham, England for their 2011 season.

Have you ever gotten any advantages because of your sexuality?
When I was in my 30’s and 40’s and giving piano lessons to rich women whose husbands were philanderers and to children of famous musicians and theater people, I would arrive at the Dakota in full cowboy drag, boots to hat.  That got me my first commission and international success.

Are most of your friends from the music world?
No, most of my close friends are writers, choreographers, painters, musicology Ph.D. dropouts, and business men and women.

Do you have a spiritual life?
Yes, I practice Reiki at least two hours each day. I also meditate and chant.

Do you have a mentor?
I had two, Virgil Thomson and Robert Altman.

Do you like to collaborate or be the boss?
Both.  I like to collaborate with geniuses who don’t look over my shoulder.

Do you cook?
Yes, I’m an improvisatory cook and, as with music composition, I like to put things together and turn them into something else.

With what historical figure would you like to have an affair?
Alexander the Great or Kierkegaard.

Like many of Hoiby’s other theatrical works, “Bon Appetit!” was created in collaboration with his companion Mark Shulgasser.  The couple have long lived in a far western nook of the Catskills, the little town of Callicoon, Sullivan County, New York, where Shulgasser also writes about astrology and runs a used bookstore.

Composer Lee Hoiby and his partner/collaborator Mark Shulgasser at The Falls, Long Eddy, New York.

“Bon Appetit!” the opera runs about as long as an episode of “Bon Appetit!” the TV show (less than half an hour).  For the libretto, Shulgasser

went directly to the source and used Child’s own words, taken from two 1971 broadcasts.

Richard Strauss once said that he could set a knife and fork to music, but Hoiby seems to go one better, since the opera is about the making of a chocolate cake.  All of Child’s lovable foibles and self-deprecating humor come through. She puts egg yolks into a pan and then drops it on the kitchen floor and carries on undaunted.  She also sets up a race between an electric mixer and a hand-cranked one.  Hoiby wisely doesn’t interfere with the chef’s magic. There’s no additional jokes or layers of irony in the tuneful score, which includes a light and colorful orchestration.

“Bon Appetit!” was released last year on CD by Albany Records in a fine performance by soprano Kathryn Cowdrick. It’s one of a spate of recent recordings drawing on the vast catalog of 11 operas and dozens of art songs from the composer who turned 83 years old earlier this year.

Hoiby’s knack for selecting good texts is evident in two new discs of his songs. “A Pocket of Time” (Naxos) is a particularly radiant recording, with the composer at the piano accompanying soprano Julia Faulkner and baritone Andrew Garland. The generous recital features 22 songs that date from 1950 to 2007, when the recordings sessions took place. Hoiby’s exquisite craftsmanship and elegant yet unadorned American style is always present.

The range of poets includes Elizabeth Bishop, William Blake, Wallace Stevens and Thornton Wilder, among others.  “Lady of the Harbor” sets the Emma Lazarus text inscribed on the Statue of Liberty (“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses…”) to a noble and dignified melody, yet infuses it with an accompaniment that’s syncopated and jaunty, perhaps in imitation of the waves of the New York harbor.  The fantastical “Jabberwocky” (Lewis Carroll) goes against the expected and makes the text into an ominous warning.

I’m particularly drawn to Hoiby’s settings of Walt Whitman in “I Was There,” a cycle of five songs for baritone and piano written in 1988.  There’s Whitman’s adulation of masculine heroes (“O Captain! My Captain!”), his spiritual introspection (“A Clear Midnight”), and his exalted embrace of comrades (“Joy, Shipmate, Joy!”).  Unfortunately the melodic range of these songs seems a little high for Andrew Garland, or perhaps he’s just pushing too much and the strain comes through. I remain partial to the original recording by the lighter voiced baritone Peter Stewart (released on CRI in 1994), for whom Hoiby composed the cycle.

The other new disc, “Songs of Lee Hoiby,” comes from soprano Ursula Kleinecke-Boyer with pianist Maria Perez-Goodman (Albany Records).   The album features some of the same material, but there are also selections with texts by Wilfred Own, Ezra Pound, John Donne and e.e. cummings.  But despite the thoughtful program, the recording itself is not very satisfying. Kleinecke-Boyer has a large voice, probably better suited to opera, and fudges on much of the English diction.  The piano accompaniment, often so magical with Hoiby, is too recessive in the audio mix.

Since both of these new discs and the Stewart recording from the ‘90s all cover some of the same ground, it’s obvious that Hoiby has entered the repertoire of American singers. His biggest hit, appearing on all three discs, may be “Where the Music Comes From.” It’s a setting of Hoiby’s own poetry and might be considered a statement of the composer’s artistic mission. It reads in part:

I want to be where the music comes from,

Where the clock stops, where it’s now…

And to be one with the river flowing,

Breezes blowing, sky above,

And oh, I want to love.

Jock Soto was a mere 16 years old in 1981 when Peter Martins, director of the New York City Ballet, plucked him out of the company’s school. Just four years later Soto was promoted to the troupe’s top tier of dancers.

“At that time I was the youngest principal. I was in shock. It was hard to live up to,” says the openly gay Soto, who is half Navajo Indian and half Puerto Rican. “But I never call myself a star, I’m just a dancer.”

After a career that’s included more than 100 new ballets made specifically on him, Soto retires this month at age 40. His final performance, June 19 at Lincoln Center’s New York State Theatre, sold out almost two months in advance.

On stage virtually the entire night, Soto will dance an unprecedented line-up of five ballets including classic pieces by George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins.  “I’ve never done five ballets in a row,” says Soto, his handsome face filling with a mix of fear and excitement. “I may have to have a wheelchair at the side of the stage.”

Soto’s resilient body has already born the brunt of his long career, and he speaks of his injuries like a jock.

“The cartilage in this knee is deteriorating. I’ve had many back problems, I have neck problems, I tore a ligament in my wrist… it’s nonstop,” says Soto, who’s regular support team includes a chiropractor, a physical therapist, a trainer and an acupuncturist. “I think I’ve been lucky – I’ve never broken anything,” he adds.

Soto will be missed by more than just his many fans. He’s known as a consummate partner to ballerinas.

“There’s a certain trust level with Jock,” says City Ballet star Wendy Whalen. “He’s incredibly sensitive but he’s got brute strength.”

Male dancers count on him as well. “Jock always knows his stuff,” says fellow principal dancer Nikolaj Hubbe, who is also gay. “In hard ballets with counts and millions of steps, there was always Jock… He’s a leader on stage.”

Soto is quick to dispel the myth that all ballet dancers are gay, estimating that at City Ballet there’s a 50/50 gay/straight mix among the men. Whatever the persuasion of his colleagues, Soto helps keep the atmosphere in the rehearsal studios and dressing rooms friendly, even playful.  “Straight guys always like to joke and flirt with me. I’ll say ‘Oh would you come out already?’ But it’s easier for us to tease them because we can always come back with a dishy remark.”

Throughout the 1980s Soto was a regularly performer at AIDS benefits, but remarkably he never came out in the gay press. He claims that he simply wansn’t asked, and adds, “I think everybody just knew.”

Since 1996, Soto has been on the faculty of the School of American Ballet and he plans to continue. “Teaching comes so naturally to me.” But he’s setting his sights on the food business, a passion that’s fed by his boyfriend, Luis Fuentes, 30, a wine importer. They met two years ago at Park, a Manhattan club.

“I was single and hanging out. I saw this man wearing a suit and tie… went up and said ‘What’s with the tie?’ ” A few nights later, after attending a ballet performance for the first time, Luis took Jock out for a late supper that included some fine red wine. Only later did Soto learn that is cost $300 a bottle.

“I can say that I drink very very good wines from then on,” says Soto, who likes to stay home on the nights he’s not dancing. “We have a tiny studio and our kitchen is tiny but I’ve had 10 or 20 people for dinner.” Festive food for large groups is the theme of “Our Meals,” Soto’s 1997 cookbook. It was co-written with Heather Watts, who was his regular ballet partner throughout the 1980s.

For about a decade Soto and Watts, along with Watt’s husband Damien Woetzel, also a principal dancer with City Ballet, have shared a country house in Connecticut. “We still share a dog,” says Soto, “but I haven’t been there in a while, because I’m so busy… getting my life together to move on.”

For Soto, retirement is just the curtain going up on the next phase of his life. “I’ve never felt more secure than I do now about where I am, about leaving my life and that box of a theater and moving on. There are so many other options out there, I’m ready,” he says. “Five years from now I will hopefully have a very successful show on the Food Network – an openly gay chef that people remember sometimes used to dance.”

A version of this story originally appeared in The Advocate.