Joe Truskot & Steven E. Popp

Joe Truskot is host of three programs on KSQD Santa Cruz: Saturday morning’s classical music program “Music of the Masters” 6-9 a.m.; Saturday’s weekly garden show “In The Garden” 9-9:30 a.m.; and Monday Night at the Opera, 7-10 p.m.Truskot has spent more than thirty years involved with classical music; twenty as the executive director of the Monterey Symphony, nine as Director of Training for the League of American Orchestras and seven years as host and producer of classical music radio programs. For five years, he was the features editor and senior reporter at The Salinas Californian, part of the USAToday Network.He is a Master Rosarian and the author of The Central Coast Rose Manual, a guide to growing roses along California’s Central Coast. In 2006, he was named Consulting Rosarian of the Year by the Northern California, Nevada and Hawaii District of the American Rose Society. He is an avid gardener growing more than 250 different varieties of roses in his garden in Salinas, California since 1993. He has lectured throughout Northern California on gardening and rose-related topics.He is a dedicated supporter of the arts having run the Monterey Symphony for 20 years and served as a classical music announcer and producer for KUSP, a public radio station that once served California’s Central Coast. His personal music library contains more than 3,000 CDs with a digital library that lists more than 12,000 titles. He is committed to creating an ever-increasing audience for classical music radio programs and selects complete works performed at the highest level possible. The selections are chosen not only for their substance but for the dialogue they have with the other titles on the show.