A Grand History II
Concord Chamber Orchestra - A Grand History
Looking Back
1976-1977 - The Early Days
1977-1982 - Growth &
Expansion
1982-1984 - The Vision Widens
The
Success-Builders
1977-1982 - Growth &
Expansion
The next several seasons saw the group move its performances off
the Concordia campus. Those first concerts were in Concordia's old
chapel, a room with over-live acoustics and tiny performing space.
So as the orchestra's repertoire expanded to include Beethoven,
Schubert and Brahms, there was a need for more physical and
acoustic space.
Since we operated on a zero budget, we were limited to spaces willing to let us in for little or no cost. Fortunately, through Concordia, we had a built-in Lutheran network which provided entrée into some of the most interesting performing spaces in the city, including old Trinity Lutheran on Wells St, Sherman Park Lutheran in Wauwatosa, and Redeemer on Wisconsin Avenue among others.
When the budget went from nothing to not-too-much (!), the orchestra began to stage many of its performances at the War Memorial Art Center's great hall. With the War Memorial's added performance space and somewhat better acoustics the group could expand both its membership and repertoire. That still didn't keep us from wandering around the city with a devoted audience, experimenting with a wide variety of performing venues. When else could you hear Helen Ceci sing Bach's Cantata #51 in a converted bowling alley (Century Hall), Walton's Façade at Villa Terrace (complete with tea and scones), or Mozart's Turkish Concerto at the (newly restored) Grain Exchange room?
The 1977-82 seasons saw a maturing begin to take place. Some ventures were more successful than others, but throughout this period a few important things began to happen. First, membership retention - always a challenge for any community group - began to solidify. A small solid core of musicians which had stayed from concert to concert, began to increase. And along with this growth, the replacing musicians were generally more skilled than those whose places they took.
This growth also attracted the attention of Milwaukee's professional music community. Members of the Milwaukee Symphony, and faculty from the Wisconsin College-Conservatory and USM Music Department all took an active interest in the group, performing as soloists (always for free), sending their students to perform in and in front of the group, and - on many occasions - performing as members of the orchestra themselves. The fiendishly difficult horn parts of Haydn's Hornsignal Symphony (#31) would have made that work out of our range without UWM's horn instructor Barry Benjamin and a trio of his best students there to scale the heights of those parts, and (Fine Arts Quartet cellist) Wolfgang Laufer to play the soaring cello solos. Wayne Cook and Pat Badger took turns at making the virtuoso trumpet part of Bach's 2nd Brandenburg Concerto sound like effortlessly joyful music-making. (Barry Benjamin even substituted for Wayne at a rehearsal one week, flawlessly playing the clarino trumpet part on a French horn! Weeks of begging couldn't coax him to ever attempt it in public, though.) Cellist Stephen Doane (New Arts Trio) spent hours at my home carefully marking all the bowings into the score of the Haydn C Major Concerto for his performances later that fall. Wolfgang Laufer perform a Stamitz concerto and then took the stage with his brilliant young son, Daniel (now Associate Principal Cellist of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra) in his debut to perform a Vivaldi concerto for two cellos.
The involvement of these local personalities would never have happened without a solid core of fine, dedicated musicians who did far more than just show up. After all, in the life of any group, amateur or professional, music needs to be bowed and marked, posters needed to be folded, stapled and mailed, chairs needed setting up, equipment needed to be moved, program notes need to be written, tickets need to be sold, and - through this whole process - financial support is needed to pay the bills. (In those days, the College would occasionally advance money, but it always needed to be repaid.)
As the group grew in number and in its reach, there was a need to identify individual sources of financial support. Surely, many fine soloists waiving their fees formed the first important body contributions. Then direct financial support came from some philanthropists from within the orchestra, and even some from relatives of orchestra musicians. Eventually, support would begin to come from foundation grants (Goethe House, Lutheran Brotherhood).
1982-1984 - The Vision
Widens
During this time The Society of Music Chamber Orchestra became the
Concord Chamber Orchestra. In a contest amongst members of the
orchestra and board, Ray Shekoski, our concertmaster at the time,
came up with the winning entry.
It soon became apparent that as Concord grew in stature and scope, there was a great need for governance (a board of directors) to provide leadership and to pursue formal incorporation.
The original members of the first Concord Board of Directors included David K. Nelson, President, Audrey Baird, Honorary Chairperson, Richard Zanoni, Treasurer, David Berger, College Representative, Carolyn Ceronnes, General Manager, Sal Ceraso, Gary Ciepluch, James Dean, Kathy Gellert, Betty James, Dorothey & Robert Keune, Norma Martz, Rene Miller, Lynne Parrish, Dorothy Pralle and Ann Siverling.
[Note: I am convinced that the board's creation and its subsequent firm leadership did more than anything else to assure a continued future for the orchestra.]
No sooner did the board convene than did we engage the services of Carolyn Cerrones as general manager. She brought with her a seemingly impossible and over-the-top vision of matching this fine community orchestra with world-class artists. When the board adopted her plan we soon found ourselves sharing the stage with the likes of pianists Lukas Foss, Leonard Pennario and violinist Charles Treger in addition to attracting top artists from the local scene. Also, as part of this new direction, we began performing in the best venues the city then had to offer, including the newly refurbished Pabst Theater and Vogel Hall across the street.
Those heady days had us with Foss performing Bach (D Minor Concerto), Pennario performing Chopin (E Minor Concerto) and Treger performing the Beethoven D Major. The orchestra during that time performed symphonies by Mozart (36th), Vaughan-Williams' (5th), Schubert (5th & 9th), Suites by Bach (3 & 4), Walton's Façade, Mozart & Dvorak Wind Serenades and much more.
All of this brought artistic and fiscal challenges that had never before been imagined. However the (at the time) enormous cost of this venture was entirely met. And while this bold experiment didn't prove to be a lasting part of its legacy, the orchestra grew from it immeasurably both musically and administratively.
My days at Concordia came to an end at the end of the 1983-84 season. I had accepted a teaching post in California and so, along with Concordia, I had to say farewell to Concord.
