PRESIDENT’S MESSAGEMaggie Stehman

Greetings, Fellow VC Members.

It’s hard to believe summer is winding down and the fall season is about to begin! Our Volunteer Council members have been busy with a variety of activities. First and foremost was our work with the NSO’s Summer Music Institute (SMI) where our driving of young musicians is an annual tradition. This issue of Noteworthy focuses on the month-long SMI from differing perspectives. We are fortunate to have articles by our members that recount memorable experiences, a series of short anecdotes and an interview with the SMI Orchestra Conductor. So, read on and be inspired by the young musical artists many of us were fortunate to meet while driving to lessons.

Beyond SMI, we’ve supported the NSO at a variety of diverse events. A contingent of loyal Instrument Petting Zoo (IPZ) volunteers gathered at the Hirshhorn Museum for our third appearance at the Hirshhorn’s Annual Sound Scene. Next up was a trip to Wolf Trap to help young children with art projects before watching the NSO perform “Disney Pixar’s Coco in Concert Live to Film.” Also at Wolf Trap many of you enjoyed attending the NSO open rehearsal for “ET,” The Extra-Terrestrial. Nestled among all this activity, the VC had a Summer Party. It was a casual event that gave us a chance to reconnect and enjoy each other’s company while nibbling on delicious food. It was wonderful seeing old and new friends. Given the response we hope to have more informal get-togethers.

It’s September and the beginning of a new NSO Season. As I write this, we are about to celebrate the long-anticipated opening of the Kennedy Center REACH. During the Opening Festival, September 7-22, the Volunteer Council will be holding three Instrument Petting Zoos and greeting and welcoming patrons before two NSO performances. In addition, In Your Neighborhood moves from January to September, taking place from September 12-16 in East DC. Two IPZs and three greeting/surveying events are scheduled, requiring lots of volunteer support and, while we still have some slots, I’m confident our members will rise to challenge and I look forward to our successful participation. October is on the horizon. The Welcome Center, led by Bonnie Brose, is again greeting patrons before concerts. The NSO Coffee Concert Series kicks off on Friday, October 11. Victoria Cordova will again be leading our volunteer assistants at the pre-concert breakfast in the KC Café. Saturday, October 12 we’re off to Capitol Hill for an IPZ, being planned by Bill Brose our Education VP, as part of HillFest at Garfield Park. And, finally, the wildly popular Haunted Hall IPZ will precede NSO’s Halloween Spooktacular on Sunday, October 20. Notices for these events will be sent soon. In the meantime, if you want to sign up early, please contact me (mstehman1@verizon.net) or the contact person listed with the event on the calendar.

Planning for our Fall/Winter meeting is underway and we hope to share the date soon. We’re planning a weekday and format change in hopes of attracting new and working members as well as retaining longstanding members. It will be a great opportunity to share your thoughts and suggestions. I hope you will come and be part of this important meeting.

Finally, last but certainly not least, a HUGE thank you to all for your generous contributions in support of the NSO. It is you who make all these activities possible. Kudos for a job continually well done. I look forward to seeing you again soon!

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VOLUNTEER COUNCIL FOR THE NATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA SEPTEMBER 2019

ONE OBSERVER OF THE SUMMER MUSIC INSTITUTEJane White

Each year during the month of July, the Kennedy Center hosts the Summer Music Institute (SMI), a four-week music camp for students from the United States and abroad. The winning students study privately with a master musician and teacher from the National Symphony Orchestra twice a week for 90-minute lessons, thus allowing them to experiment with different ideas and methods. They play in chamber groups and full orchestra under various directors with different personalities and teaching styles, completely immersed in music for four weeks. They meet other students from a variety of backgrounds with various levels of experience and abilities, which requires adaptability and flexibility. Of course they enjoy the option of sightseeing in the Nation’s Capital and, on occasion, invitations for dinner at the homes of Kennedy Center Board members. These are all wonderful opportunities for the students to enhance their “networking skills.”

In addition to driving the students and talking to them one on one, I was invited to observe a lesson. The teacher, rather than tell the student the goal for the lesson, in a very Socratic manner asked the student what he would like to accomplish during the lesson, thus, allowing him to help plan it. The student responded, “I would like to play this piece for you so that you can help me with phrasing and dynamics.” As the student played, the teacher listened, and then suggested, “Relax, the violin is the voice, make it sing.... Make it softer and happy.” He recommended changing the arm and shoulder position while emphasizing “this is my idea of how the piece should be interpreted.” What impressed me was their rapport. The student listened as the teacher explained what he wanted, demonstrating this on the violin to achieve better sound. The student followed the suggestions and beamed after successfully achieving the sound and expression he sought.

What a wonderfully positive experience for the student, teacher and myself, the observer. It was a perfect example of a willing, enthusiastic student who had obviously practiced and given thought to what he wanted to accomplish during the lesson. This was a win-win situation for all! As the teacher so aptly proved, “He lives to teach”.

BEST BUSKING IN WASHINGTONRon Stehman

I’ve driven many SMI students to lessons in Northern Virginia, and some are talkative, with interesting stories, some not so much. But the student I drove several times this year was one of the most interesting. Gabrielle was a viola student from a small town outside Charleston, SC, whose long-term desire is to play in a major orchestra.

It all began with the basic questions “have you been to Washington before?” “Have you seen the monuments?” “Yes, some.” Did she plan to see more if time allowed? “Yes, I did a little sight-seeing when I first arrived.” I’m a transportation planner, so I asked, “How did you get around” (thinking “walking.”) Her immediate response was “Metro.” That took me by surprise. She’s a sophomore at Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY which has no rapid transit; she comes from a small town near Charleston with no such transit, yet she had no trouble

navigating the system around DC, even experiencing a mid-station maintenance delay. She said it was easy to understand the system, its farecards, entrances, exits and station transfers.

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Continuing the conversation, I learned that more important than seeing the sites was her desire to do some busking. She drives 40 miles into Charleston on most weekends to busk because she can earn more money to help with college costs than were she to find a weekend job that would take more time and pay less. Wow! Some of her “hauls” for a few hours really caught me off guard. Furthermore, she came prepared. She brought along a “karaoke machine” (it worked better than a typical amplifier for the viola.) I probed further and she said that playing modern contemporary music that most people might recognize yields more money than playing traditional classical music. As I became more and more interested, I asked what was her success so far here in DC. She said first she went to Georgetown, but found the sidewalks on the main street too narrow and had to contend with too much noise. Moving to a side street near a parking garage she did much better. She also tried some busking at The Kennedy Center after a concert, but that was a complete bust--the concertgoers were in too much of a hurry to get to their cars, cabs or Metro to bother to stop for a moment and give her a tip. Her best location was Foggy Bottom, close to her SMI hotel. She even met someone who composed music and gave her his card--and $50.

All in all Gabrielle was a delightful SMI student and I wished her most success in her career. Who knows, someday the National Symphony Orchestra???? In the meantime, she is off to New York to visit some relatives, and do some busking in Manhattan to help pay for next year’s college expenses.

HAPPY SMI CHAUFFEURS

From Ginni GormanI drove Piper Suk to one of her lessons with NSO cellist Mark Evans. Piper, still in high school, has already studied eight years with NSO musicians, and is an NSO Youth Fellow. She reported that she’d been practicing so hard that the skin on her thumb had cracked, explaining why during our drive she was painting her thumb with Liquid Bandaid. Piper said the thumb survived the hour and a half with Mark. Ginni later learned that despite her injury, Piper won the SMI solo competition.

From Marilyn TaylorMy drives were fun, and a young clarinet player clued me in to his favorite clarinet parts in some of the well-known repertory for symphony orchestra, notably the second movement of Beethoven Sixth. I will be a more informed listener thanks to him!

From Diana PhillipsI drove Jason Pak and his viola one morning to his lesson in Alexandria. Once we introduced ourselves, I started with my nosey questions simply because I can’t help myself. I’m curious! "So, what are you going to do when SMI is over?” I asked. He gave an answer I was not expecting to hear — ever.

Jason has started an orchestra with his music and non-music friends around Centreville, Virginia. It has a name I can’t remember, but I will never forget the goal: they rehearse hours every day so that they can perform for retirement homes and non-profit organizations in the area. And thanks to his "non-music” friends, they are booked throughout Northern Virginia. Jason wants to make sure that any interested non-musicians be a part of things, so they handle booking, publicity and communication.

With passion and candor Jason told how he and his musician friends tried to get the orchestra started the year before, but couldn’t, as schedules fell apart and they lacked the processing glue. This year the orchestra materialized, its first booking is only a few weeks away. Jason may have been happy to get his ride for his lesson, but I was overcome with gratitude for having met and once again been made aware of the joy of driving a fine student for SMI.

From Carol RuppelThe youngest SMI participant this summer was a 15-year-old Venezuelan now sharing one room with her mother in a friend’s Alexandria apartment in a low-income neighborhood. This young woman commutes 90 minutes each way by bus and subway to her weekly lessons with an SMI musician. Her mother, a former business executive is now a waitress. The student will be an NSO Youth Fellow in the fall, and plays with one of the large youth orchestras in the Washington Metropolitan area. She’s a product of El Sistema which, despite Venezuela’s economic collapse, continues to be funded by the Venezuelan government.

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ABEL PEREIRACarol Ruppel

Abel Pereira is the principal horn player at the NSO. He’s also the conductor of the Summer Music Institute. The following is our interview at the Kennedy Center on September 3.

R: Abel, so much is written about you—your origins, development as a prodigy, high level of education, professorships, coaching; your solo, chamber and orchestral careers, your countless prizes and your internationalism. Even Anne Midgette has unabashed praise for your artistry. Though it would be impossible not to concentrate on all of that, for the purposes of the NSO Volunteer Council and its educational mission I’m going to attempt to focus on your educational mission. But first, how many languages to you speak in addition to Portuguese?

P: Six in total: Portuguese, of course, my first; Spanish, English, French, Italian and German.

R: Let’s talk about the Summer Music Institute. What do you look for when auditioning student musicians?

P: First, a panel of NSO musicians hears all the recordings that were sent in the student applications and recommends what they think are best. Then we choose from amongst those. The recordings are much more important than the resumes.

R: You went to high school in your home country of Portugal at Porto’s Professional High School of Music. Are you glad you did? Are there great advantages to attending schools for the performing arts?

P: Yes, I’m very glad, as there are great advantages, starting with exposure to many professionals. Another benefit, of course, of attending a music school is that you spend so much time with your instrument.

R: And your postgraduate studies in music industry marketing, Master’s in conducting and performance and Ph.D. in coaching and performance, how did they impact your career? Do you recommend this path?

P: I did not choose this path in order to get degrees. Like other musicians, I followed my favorite teachers to the schools where they taught. I’d always admired the horn professor who taught in Frankfurt. Having gotten a Master’s there, I was invited back to Porto University to teach and direct the winds department. While doing so I found that we needed to learn marketing, and thus those studies. Then Porto offered me the opportunity to earn my Ph.D. I cut my studies short in order to finish my Master’s in conducting in London and play with the London Philharmonic, and returned again to Porto to finish my Ph.D.

R: How did your membership in the Portuguese, the Ibero-American, the Mediterranean and the European Youth Orchestras (!) help shape you?

P: Youth orchestras, especially six years with the European Youth Orchestra, shaped me, helping me to become a professional. I attended summer camps in Paris, Berlin, Munich, London, Prague, Budapest, Vienna, Salzburg, South America and China. We travelled so extensively that I missed a year of high school.

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R: How do you feel about music competitions for young people?

P: They’re necessary. That’s what one does in earning performance opportunities.

R: What are your goals for SMI as a whole and for individual students?

P: As a whole, I would like to expose this program to wider audiences for it to become better known. That’s important for funders. We need to constantly maintain and even raise the level. For the individual student the goal is that they learn—to play in orchestras and chamber groups, practicing their sound, rhythm, intonation and section play.

R: I thought the first SMI orchestra concert this summer, with Holst’s “Mars” from The Planets, and Mahler’s Fourth, was just outstanding, and unfortunately was away for the second. How could the first have been better?

P: They were both outstanding, but any performance can always be better. You seek but never achieve perfection.

R: How has your conducting informed your playing; your playing, your conducting?

P: Knowing what’s expected while someone is on the podium helps me be a better player and vice versa.

R: What do you seek in a conductor?

P: I seek respect and consideration—that (s)he respects the way we think and that there’s an exchange of ideas with the musicians. And a conductor must be a knowledgeable leader. We don’t always have to agree, but knowledgable.

R: As far as I can tell, you’re not only the principal horn for the NSO but you’re the music director and conductor for the Eclipse Chamber Orchestra, were a guest principal for the Berlin and London Philharmonics, and continue to guest for the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia and Dallas Orchestras. You’re also a soloist, active member of the International Horn Society, and a participant and conductor of many international festivals. How do you balance all your musical commitments and your life?

P: My priority is always the NSO. That’s my main job. Then I’m prioritizing my conducting. I need to feel active as a musician outside of the NSO.

R: Thank you so much for your time. It was a pleasure.

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VCNSO CALENDARSEPTEMBER 2019 TO MY 2020

  Arrival times may vary slightly. Linked names allow direct email access to member responsible for the activity.

SEPTEMBER 2019 7-21 REACH OPENING FESTIVAL (Mostly Sold Out) 12-16 IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD IPZs and Greeting/Surveying (East, DC) IPZs Contact: Bill Brose wmbrose@comcast.net Greeting/Surveying Contact: Dulce Obias-Manno d.obiasmanno@gmail.com OCTOBER 2019 9 VCNSO Executive Committee/Board Meeting 11:15 AM Israeli Lounge 11 COFFEE CONCERT 9:00 AM, Pre-Concert KC Cafe Contact: Victoria Cordova victoriarcordova@gmail.com

TBD VCNSO ANNUAL FALL MEETING

12 HILLFEST - IPZ (Garfield Park, 10:00-Noon) Contact: Bill Brose wmbrose@comcast.net 20 FAMILY CONCERT SPOOKTACULAR IPZ ~ 12:00 PM-5:00 PM KC Atrium IPZ Contact: Bill Brose wmbrose@comcast.net Additional Contact: Maggie Stehman mstehman1@verizon.net

REMEMBERING MARY MUNROEGinni Gorman

 The National Symphony Orchestra lost a stalwart supporter when Mary Munroe passed away on June 30. Mary was president of the Women’s Committee for the National Symphony Orchestra from 1963 to 1965. She continued to serve on the orchestra’s Board of Directors from then until her death.

When I represented what is now the Volunteer Council on the NSO Board in 2007 to 2009, Mary was kind and welcoming. She told me that during her presidency members worked hard to sell tickets to NSO performances, even going door-to-door and selling from tables set up at shopping malls. That was their biggest project.They sponsored lecture-luncheons before matinee performances. They entertained orchestra musicians at members’ homes, far more elegantly than we do at our annual, popular orchestra luncheons in the multi-purpose room under the Opera House.

Our condolences to Mary's family and friends.

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NOVEMBER 2019 1 COFFEE CONCERT 9:00 AM, Pre-Concert KC Cafe Contact: Victoria Cordova victoriarcordova@gmail.com

13 VCNSO Executive Committee/Board Meeting 11:15 AM Israeli Lounge 22-24 MUSIC FOR YOUNG AUDIENCES IPZ Peter and Friends Contact: Bill Brose wmbrose@comcast.net

DECEMBER 2019 11 COFFEE CONCERT 9:00 AM, Pre-Concert KC Cafe Contact: Victoria Cordova victoriarcordova@gmail.com

JANUARY 2020 8 VCNSO Executive Committee/Board Meeting 11:15 AM Bird Room 18 MUSIC FOR YOUNG AUDIENCES IPZ Beauty and the Beat 26 MUSIC FOR YOUNG AUDIENCES IPZ Beauty and the Beat Contact: Bill Brose wmbrose@comcast.net 31 COFFEE CONCERT 9:00 AM, Pre-Concert KC Cafe Contact: Victoria Cordova victoriarcordova@gmail.com

FEBRUARY 2020 12 VCNSO Executive Committee/Board Meeting 11:15 AM Bird Room

22-24 MUSIC FOR YOUNG AUDIENCES IPZ The Mozart Project Contact: Bill Brose wmbrose@comcast.net

16 FAMILY CONCERT Girl Power! IPZ ~12:00 PM-5:00 PM KC Atrium Contact: Bill Brose wmbrose@comcast.net

28 COFFEE CONCERT 9:00 AM, Pre-Concert KC Cafe Contact: Victoria Cordova victoriarcordova@gmail.com

MARCH 2020 11 VCNSO Executive Committee/Board Meeting 11:15 AM Bird Room

APRIL 2020 3 COFFEE CONCERT 9:00 AM, Pre-Concert KC Cafe Contact: Victoria Cordova victoriarcordova@gmail.com

8 VCNSO Executive Committee/Board Meeting 11:15 AM Bird Room

TBD ORCHESTRA LUNCHEON

TBD GUEST CONDUCTOR RECEPTION

MAY 2020 13 VCNSO Executive Committee/Board Meeting 11:15 AM Israeli Lounge

TBD VCNSO ANNUAL SPRING MEETING

    29 COFFEE CONCERT  9:00 AM, Pre-Concert KC Cafe Contact: Victoria Cordova victoriarcordova@gmail.com

NOTEWORTHY September 2019

ABOUT THE VOLUNTEER COUNCIL

The Volunteer Council was founded in 1941 as The Women’s Committee for the National Symphony Orchestra to provide educational and financial support to the orchestra and offer anyone with an interest in symphonic music a networking group.

Today, the VC/NSO is open to women and men and is one of the leading orchestra volunteer organizations in the United States. The VC/NSO is associated with the American Symphony Orchestra League and the Association of Major Symphony Orchestra Volunteers.

Membership is open to anyone who shares a love of music, music education, and an interest in the National Symphony Orchestra.

TheVolunteerCouncilfortheNationalSymphonyOrchestraTheJohnF.KennedyCenterforthePerformingArtsP.O.Box101510Arlington,VA22210