Major: Today is December 16, 2008. I’m Jean Major, and I’m talking with Fran Pederson about her experiences with the Virginia Symphony and the Symphony League. Tell me, how did your involvement with the symphony begin?
Pedersen: I was a high school senior at Maury High School, and I auditioned for the orchestra at the home of the then conductor…
Major: Edgar Schenkman?
Pedersen: Edgar Schenkman, yes. As a matter of fact, I auditioned for him in his living room. I was scared to death, but I played for him, and he gave me kind of a rough audition, but he said, “Okay, you can play in the orchestra.” So, I started playing in the orchestra, and I went to the Norfolk Division for a couple of years. Then I went to—I had a music scholarship at the University of Miami at Coral Gables. And I was there playing with the orchestra there and had wonderful experiences with the guest artists that played there and that conducted there. And then I came back to Norfolk and—well actually, I went to Texas first, then came back and played again with the Norfolk Symphony – played the whole time that Russell was conducting – 66 until… I think it was—was it 80?
Major: 1980--mm-hmm.
Pedersen: And I played for Richard Williams, and I was employed by the Virginia Beach School System. I was a guidance director at a junior high school at the time. I was on the team that converted it to a middle school, and my job was—I loved it. It was stressful, but I loved it, and it kept me very busy. And at the time, the orchestra was getting more and more and more busy, and we were doing a lot of concerts in the middle of the week, etc. And finally, by then I was in my mid-fifties, and I had to make a choice because playing with the orchestra was very demanding at the time, and my job was very demanding. And it got to the point where I had to make a choice between the two of them. Financially, there was no contest. I had to retire from the orchestra.
Major: Sure, and do you remember what year you retired from the orchestra?
Pedersen: I believe it was the end of the 84-85 season.
Major: And you started sometime in the sixties?
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Pedersen: I started in 1950.
Major: 1950?
Pedersen: I was with the orchestra for about 35 years.
Major: Mmmm. And you’re a bass player.
Pedersen: I played bass, yes.
Major: Right. Do you still play?
Pedersen: Well, yes. Right now I hurt my shoulder, and I’m going to physical therapy. I can’t play right now because of my shoulder, but as soon as my shoulder gets better, which I hope will be soon, I can play. I’ll go play with the Virginia Beach Orchestra which is not nearly as demanding.
Major: No, they don’t play nearly as…
Pedersen: No, and I am retired now from the school system…
Major: Sure.
Pedersen: …so, now I will have time. The Symphonicity is the name of the Virginia Beach group now. Also, Dora Mullen has started a string group, and she asked me to play with them.
Major: Oh really, how nice!
Pedersen: I have opportunities to play. I just need to get my arm in playing condition.
Major: Sure, right. And at some point you also became involved with the Symphony League.
Pedersen: Well, after I retired from the school system, and I had more time, I did become involved with the Symphony League, and I wrote a newsletter for the Symphony League for ten years until a couple of years after Carla was here, and then I stopped doing that.
Major: One of the questions I’ve asked each of the musicians is this question; because you started with the symphony when you were in high school, it probably will be an amusing question to you. As a musician, what was your professional experience before coming to the Virginia Symphony?
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Pedersen: Well… [Laughter] At the age that I came to the orchestra, I didn’t have any professional experience…
Major: No.
Pedersen: …but I could play, so…
Major: Sure.
Pedersen: But I had a lot of professional experience afterward as the years went by.
Major: That was going to be my next question. What kind of performing did you do in addition to the Symphony?
Pedersen: I’ve played with many, many of the churches in the area.
Major: Really?
Pedersen: Oh yeah, for years I—they use chamber groups, and I was usually hired to do that, and for a couple of the churches I played for 25 years for Dr. Vogan at Royster.
Major: Oh boy!
Pedersen: And then I played for Jim Steele at Calvin Presbyterian. I did every Easter, every Christmas and in between when they needed it. Musicians I played for them. I played in many of these churches actually, and then I also played popular music. I played with dance bands in town to make extra money.
Major: Sure.
Pedersen: A lot of the musicians did that, and I was one of them that did that.
Major: Sure, yeah, yeah.
Pedersen: So, we played a lot—I played a lot.
Major: Yeah. In the work that you did with the Symphony League, what did you regard as your particular expertise?
Pedersen: Well, I did the newsletter. I wrote, I edited the newsletter.
Major: Okay.
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Pedersen: And for ten years, I did that; it was an eight-page newsletter. I got a lot of compliments on it.
Major: Yeah.
Pedersen: And I did all the layout, you know, took the pictures, put everything in there, and I really thoroughly enjoyed that.
Major: Yeah, what are some of the high points of your—the time when you’ve been involved with the Symphony?
Pedersen: Well, one of the greatest high points of my life happened when I was at the University of Miami. Leopold Stokowski came and conducted…
Major: How nice.
Pedersen: …and I will never forget that; that was a tremendous thrill. We did his… We did his transcription of the Bach…my mind is ____ I’m having a senior moment…his great organ piece – Toccata and Fugue in D Minor. We did his transcription of that for orchestra, and the orchestra sounded like a huge organ, and the second half of that program, we did the Tchaikovsky Fourth Symphony, and I will never forget Leopold Stokowski standing there. He reminded me of a great white eagle; you know his hair was white and…
Major: Right.
Pedersen: …he was just magnificent. I just—I’ll never forget that, and of course, one of my highlights with the Virginia Symphony was when we opened Chrysler Hall, the first concert we ever played there.
Major: Oh, tell me more about that.
Pedersen: I wish I had the program now. We did a Mahler symphony. I think it was the Mahler Second, but I can’t remember which one it was. It was wonderful. And I remember when they were building Chrysler Hall, my husband, Pete Pedersen, at the time was personnel manager for the orchestra, and Pete and myself and Russell Stanger were standing out there. There was a big hole in the ground where they were putting in the footings, you know, for Chrysler Hall, and we were laughing and saying that we were the sidewalk superintendents. [Laughter] And Russell was very excited about Chrysler Hall because he thought it, with the wood that they were putting in, that it there was going to be like playing on the inside of a violin. And he talked a lot about how the sound was going to be so magnificent. We were all very excited about having a new home at the Chrysler.
Major: Was that the concert where Leonard Pennario was the guest soloist?
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Pedersen: Yes, yes, Leonard Pennario, that’s right.
Major: And Russell had a connection with him, didn’t he?
Pedersen: Yes, he did. He did. He brought him here, you know, a couple of times to perform with us. I really can’t remember all the people, you know, that played with us because I gave all my programs to the library.
Major: Right, right. Other than high points, are there other memorable moments?
Pedersen: Well, you know, just playing different pieces of music is a—I mean playing music is not the same as being in an audience.
Major: It certainly isn’t.
Pedersen: When you are up on the stage, and you’re performing, and you’re playing music, you are inside the music. You become a part of the music, and it’s not like just receiving out in the audience. When you are in the audience, you are receiving the music. You are taking it in, but when you’re performing—when you’re a musician, it’s inside of you, and you’re putting it out, and it’s a completely different feeling, and it’s the most wonderful feeling in the whole world.
Major: I agree.
Pedersen: And I miss it… right now.
Major: I would think so.
Pedersen: Yes, I miss it terribly.
Major: Can you tell me something about how the league organization was structured?
Pedersen: When I came in to the league?
Major: Yeah, how was it structured, and how did it operate?
Pedersen: Ann Robin was the incoming president the year that I came in.
Major: Oh really, we’ve talked to her.
Pedersen: Yes, and we did fundraisers. We did a fashion show at the Waterside Marriott and a luncheon, and we raised quite a bit of money for the orchestra back then, and she did a wonderful job. She was one of the best presidents, I think, that we had in the league. A lot of those older women that
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were in the league when I came in… some of them have passed away. Some of them are still semi-active, but they’re older. Ann Daughtrey died last year, and she was very active in the league. We did a lot of things, and I started the newsletter, I think just about the first year that I was there, and that kept—I think that helped to keep the league together because it let everybody know exactly what was going on. There were a lot of—and I put a lot of human interest things in there, too, different people that came to play with us, things about music. For instance, the last season that I did the newsletter was the anniversary of Mozart’s—I think it was—what was it?
Major: It was two or three years ago anyway.
Pedersen: Yeah, it was one of his big anniversaries, and I did a four-part series on his life and put it in, you know, each time, and people enjoyed it, and a lot of the symphony board would call me and tell me—you know they enjoyed that.
Major: Did the people on the executive board do most of the work in the league?
Pedersen: Well, we had committees, and, you know, that did things and they didn’t do most of the work. They helped to coordinate it, of course, but I think there was a lot more volunteer work.
Major: Really?
Pedersen: Then there is right now. I might be wrong.
Major: Were there, other than the executive committee, what were the really active committees?
Pedersen: In the…
Major: In the league.
Pedersen: In the league? Well, we had the membership committee, and of course, I was writing the newsletter, so that was my main contribution… But we had fund-raising committee, you know, we did that. We had a lot of different activities that we did then that we don’t do now. For instance, we had Symphony 101, which everybody enjoyed so much.
Major: We went to that sometimes.
Pedersen: Yes and the musicians took part in it, you know, and performed and explained about the instruments. JoAnn helped with that, too. She came and did some things with that. [Sneeze] And I was sorry to see that go. It didn’t make any money, but at least it broke even; it didn’t cost us a lot of money; it didn’t, and we had it at WHRO. We always had at least 50 people come [Sneeze] to
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those classes, so—and then we had Talk Back, you know, after the concerts. That was another very popular thing.
Major: Right.
Pedersen: But 101 was through the education department, and I had a regular column—education column for the newsletter which Ernestine would give me the information, and I would put that in -- keep people up on what was going on. And of course now we—we the symphony has an education and outreach—community outreach committee which I’m still on—I’m still on that committee.
Major: How important have the various executive directors been in your ability to be effective--either effective in the league or effective as a musician?
Pedersen: Well, I think Dan Hart was a very good executive director. He was there when I came in…
Major: I remember him.
Pedersen: When John Morison came in and took over, you know, he was really there temporarily until they could find another executive director. I think he did such an excellent job, and he helped to balance the budget. We did, you know—I think the Symphony did very well under his management.
Major: So, in the case of some of the executive directors, they’ve been very important to the effectiveness.
Pedersen: Well, you know when I first came into the orchestra in the 60s, my husband would—his memory would serve you much better than mine, unfortunately he’s passed over three years ago. But he knew, he worked with the executive directors, and he could tell you their names and everything they did, but my mind is not as good as his was, but I remember Francis Crociata was an executive director back in the 60s. I can see his face, but I can’t remember the name of the man that was the executive director before he was.
Major: Was that Matt Werth?
Pedersen: No, well Matt Werth—that’s right, Matt Werth was before Francis, but before Matt Werth, there was an executive director, but I can’t remember his name. No, and Matt Werth is still in Norfolk; he’s still around.
Major: We’ve met him.
Pedersen: Yes. He’s a very nice person.
Major: Yes, he is.
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Pedersen: A very sweet person. [Pause] After Francis left, I don’t remember who the executive director was; actually, I remember the more recent ones, now.
Major: What about other staff members? Are there other staff members of the symphony who have been important to your effectiveness?
Pedersen: The general manager when I retired—do you remember what her name was?
Major: No.
Pedersen: I can’t remember her name. It was a woman… I really can’t, but she was there the year that I retired. She was—I thought that she did a good job. I wish my memory would serve me better, but right now it, it just—it’s been a while. It’s been years.
Major: Well, it has been.
Pedersen: And unfortunately because I haven’t had—I gave away all of my programs to the library, I can’t—I haven’t been able to look and see who these people were back then, you know.
Major: That’s right.
Pedersen: It’s all in the programs.
Major: Well, I know. Can you characterize the Edgar Schenkman period?
Pedersen: Well, now, I came in when Edgar Schenkman was the conductor. His wife played in the orchestra, and his son played the cello. His son was amazing. I remember his son would sit with a funny book on the floor, but when it was time for the cellos to come in, he always came right in. He was amazing.
Major: His name is Peter Schenkman, isn’t it?
Pedersen: Peter, I believe so. Edgar Schenkman—you see, Russell was very warm, very loving, and very emotional when he conducted. To me, Edgar Schenkman was rather cold and distant. He was a good technician; he was a technician, but I was 18, and I was happy that he allowed me to come in and play in the orchestra. But by the time Russell got there — of course, I went away. I went to Miami while Edgar Schenkman was still conducting, and then I was gone; I was in Texas doing graduate work there. I came back to ODU in—after I married Pete Pedersen, I came back and got my master’s and my CAS here, but that’s been a while.
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Major: Right.
Pedersen: I’m dating myself. [Laughter]
Major: Well, not so much.
Pedersen: Well, actually, I’m 76 now; I was 18 when I started with the orchestra, so most of my life, I’ve been involved in one way or the other…
Major: Yeah, it’s incredible.
Pedersen: …with the orchestra.
Major: Can you tell me more about the Russell Stanger period?
Pedersen: Well, that was the period when the orchestra really got its start in its growth. It was truly a community orchestra when Edgar Schenkman was here. When Russell came, I remember what he said, and I put it in the newsletter, when the orchestra became a major orchestra. I said in an article, “Russell Stanger said when he was here—when he first came, ‘Norfolk is a sleeping giant, and I’m going to awaken it,’” and awaken it he did. Russell contributed so much to the growth of the orchestra that I really believe that if it hadn’t been for Russell, that JoAnn would not have been interested in coming here.
Major: Interesting, very interesting. What caused the Stanger period to end?
Pedersen: Well… Russell retired from the orchestra, and I don’t know all the details with that; maybe you do.
Major: I really don’t.
Pedersen: I’ve heard the details, but I’m not going to go into them. The Virginia Orchestra Group was formed. The orchestra that Walter had in Virginia Beach and the orchestra that we had in Norfolk and the orchestra that – what was his name.
Major: Cary…
Pedersen: Cary McMurran had in Newport News. I played for Cary; I played for Walter, and I played for Russell. They were all consolidated into one orchestra. I think it was a good move at the time. Walter had the pops orchestra. I played in the pops orchestra as well as the, the regular orchestra. They used two basses in the pops orchestra, and I was one of them, and Carroll Bailey and I were always the two basses that played in the pit for the Nutcracker every year.
Major: We talked to Carroll.
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Pedersen: He’s wonderful.
Major: Yeah.
Pedersen: And Carroll is playing for David Kunkel.
Major: I saw that.
Pedersen: Yeah, and they would like for me to play, but right now, like I said, I can’t do it.
Major: No, because of your shoulder.
Pedersen: My shoulder is not fit; I can’t do the—I can’t even do that right now with my arm.
Major: That’s basic.
Pedersen: Yes, it is.
Major: You said that you played under the direction of Richard Williams.
Pedersen: Yes, I did.
Major: Tell me about his period.
Pedersen: Well, Richard Williams was a good rehearsal conductor. Need I say more?
Major: What caused his period to end?
Pedersen: Richard Williams was here for five years, I believe, or six years. I left just before he did. I kept threatening to leave while he was there, and the executive director at that time was… Jerry…
Major: Jerry Haynie?
Pedersen: Jerry Haynie, I kept telling Jerry I was going to leave. He kept saying, “Things will change, you don’t won’t to leave.” But I will say I was very happy when I left that they didn’t want me to leave.
Major: Right. [Laughs]
Pedersen: They had a big party. [Laughs] We had a big party.
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Major: Nice! Yeah.
Pedersen: They were wonderful. They gave me a beautiful plaque, yeah. And the same year that I retired, John Haley retired, and so did Carolyn ______, she was a violinist – the three of us had a big party. They called us up to the front of the stage and gave us all these wonderful standing ovations and plaques, you know, and flowers. It was very nice.
Major: Yeah.
Pedersen: But the first year that I didn’t play, it was very difficult.
Major: Of course.
Pedersen: My husband had to bring the handkerchief just for me every time because sitting out in the audience was like being on the wrong side of the stage after all those years.
Major: Of course, of course. Can you characterize the JoAnn Falletta period with the orchestra?
Pedersen: Because of my work in the league and because of my newsletter editorship, I became close to JoAnn, and I really would have loved to have played for JoAnn. She’s not only beautiful outside, but she’s a beautiful person inside, and she’s a very, very warm, very loving spirit and extremely talented, as everybody knows. I mean, look at all the awards that she’s won.
Major: I know.
Pedersen: What Russell started, JoAnn has brought to completion. She has brought the orchestra forward from the foundation that it was given by Russell’s work, and she has brought it to an apex. I mean, if it weren’t for Russell, she wouldn’t be here, and if it weren’t for her, we wouldn’t have a major orchestra. And I just pray that nothing happens to the orchestra because they’re in trouble right now.
Major: They certainly are. I agree. What do you think are the strengths of her programming?
Pedersen: I like her programming.
Major: I do, too.
Pedersen: I certainly do; she has emphasized women composers. She’s had a wonderful mixture of contemporary music with traditional. I love her style of conducting, and I just love her.
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Major: I do, too. Are there other areas in which she’s been particularly effective, in your view?
Pedersen: Well, just in her personal contribution, you know, to the community, just her being there. She’s such a wonderful person. I think she’s very charismatic. I know that when she’s not here, every seat is not filled in the theater. When she is here, we have more people in the audience because they want to see her. They want to see her perform. The main thing is, the musicians respect her, and they love her, and that says an awful lot, and many of my friends are still in the orchestra, and we talk, and we visit, and I know they love her.
Major: Mm-hmm, I’ve heard others say that. Let me ask something about – we’re still doing okay for time – let me ask something more about—about the musicians and conditions under in which they worked. The records that I have show that musicians were put on salary in 1985, so it was…
Pedersen: As soon as I left. [Laughter]
Major: …right, so it was a fulltime salaried orchestra for the first time. How did it happen finally after so many years when the musicians were not salaried?
Pedersen: Well…I know that shortly after I left the orchestra, they went on strike. You know, when I was in the orchestra, they were going to go on strike, and I stood up and opened my mouth and yelled at them, and I asked them if they wanted to kill the goose that laid the golden egg? And I mean, I love the orchestra, I would have played for nothing, but I had a good job, you know, a lot of them didn’t, and I didn’t blame them-- the orchestra has never paid the musicians what they are worth. I mean, we never got paid what we should have been paid.
Major: Not even close.
Pedersen: But we were paid what they could afford to pay us, and now they have salaries. They—now they have retirement. I don’t know what kind of benefits they have. I’ve never discussed it, you know, with the musicians.
Major: Insurance?
Pedersen: They have health insurance, but you know, it was a long time in coming. When I was in the orchestra, the musicians wanted more money per service. Now I was--we didn’t have what was called a core orchestra; everyone was paid per service. I just know I played in what we call now the classical orchestra. I also played in the pops. I know that at one point Russell Stanger wanted to write a letter to the superintendent of schools to ask permission for me
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to be gone from my job so that I could play the children’s concerts, and I said, “Don’t you dare; you’ll get me fired.” I said, “Don’t do that,” you know. The only year that I was able to play the children’s concert was the year I—I took off a year to get my masters, and so the year that I wasn’t actually working for the school system, I played all the children’s concerts, and then after that Russell didn’t want to let me off the hook because he used a smaller orchestra, you know, and I always played—well I was never home for two weeks before Christmas. I was gone every night, either playing a church job or a symphony job or something, but the money that I made in the orchestra was extra.
Major: Sure.
Pedersen: The money that other people made in the orchestra, they had students, and they were playing or working at some of the local colleges and universities, but they weren’t making all that much money, and so they were pushing, and this was a long time in growing. It’s like when you plant a seed, and it takes a while for the flower to grow, and, you know, it takes time, and that’s what happened with the orchestra. It took time for musicians to be put on salary, but as we became more and more a professional orchestra, that’s when the money started, you know, growing as far as the musicians were concerned, but you know, look how the musicians are working. They’re working like animals, I mean they are playing more concerts then they have ever played, and they’re not getting paid nearly what they’re worth.
Major: Right.
Pedersen: I know that the last contract I signed with the orchestra, I can’t remember how many services it was, but it was an awful lot. It was a lot, and that’s why I had to retire from the orchestra because I’m out playing on a Tuesday night and a Wednesday night, and I’m having to be in my office at 7:30 in the morning as the guidance director in charge of all these programs, and I’d walk in in the morning, and there would be a line around the corner down the hall – parents, students, community service people, social workers – waiting to jump on me the minute I walked in the door, and I finally had to do something. You know, I couldn’t keep doing that.
Major: No.
Pedersen: And I remember when Richard Williams was here, we had to go play a concert in South Boston in the middle of the week and Jerry Haynie—I called Jerry Haynie and said, “I just can’t do it,” and he said, “I’ll take you before the board, you know. You signed a contract; you have to play with us,” and I said, “Well, go ahead and take me in front of the board; don’t threaten me,” and I hung up on him. And the night before the concert Richard Williams called me-- so sweet, sugar wouldn’t melt in his mouth, “Fran, I really need you to come and play this concert,” and I said, “Richard, there’s a guy in town from New York
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playing with the opera. He’s not playing tomorrow night. Let him play in my place.” “No, I want you.” We were doing a Brahms—the Brahms Symphony so I—and my back was out, and I put on a brace, got my bass, got on the bus—the symphony bus and went to South Boston. I didn’t want to go to South Boston because I found out how far away it was. I got home about one or two o’clock in the morning, had to drag my bass in the house, had to get up and be at work at 7:30, and that’s finally when I said, “Okay, I’m going to have to retire from the orchestra.”
Major: Right, right.
Pedersen: And that’s when I told—I can’t remember her name—she was the general manager, and I told her, I said, “I’m going to have to quit,” and they had this big beautiful party, and it was awful. I didn’t want to quit, but I had to. I was too close to retirement with the symph—with the Virginia Beach School system to give up my retirement.
Major: Of course.
Pedersen: And you know, I was making so much more money with the school system than I was with the orchestra, and I just… It was just common sense.
Major: That’s right, that’s right. After that strike in 1985, were there other notable incidents in the area of labor relations that you can think of?
Pedersen: Well, there were always incidents in labor relations. I mean, they were always having meetings, and I left the union because—I joined the union because I was playing in the orchestra, and, of course, I was in the union because I was playing all these gigs and stuff, but I didn’t have to be in the union to play in the churches—to do chamber music, and I love to play chamber music, so I was playing in the churches. I never stopped doing that until recent years, but I mean even after I quit—actually when I got out of the orchestra, word got around that I wasn’t playing in the orchestra, and everybody was calling me to come play for them, and I remember Regent University did something at the Pavilion and wanted me to play, and I did play for them, and the First Baptist Church was just getting their orchestra started, and they wanted me to come, and I played for a week for them – this big Christmas extravaganza that they did at the Pavilion – oh my lord, you know, and then I was getting worn out just doing that, and I had to stop doing that, too. But…What was your question?
Major: The question was, can you think of other notable incidents in the area of labor relations after that…
Pedersen: Well, I know that there were things going on where they were trying—I know that the musicians went a whole season without…
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Major: Without a contract?
Pedersen: ...I don’t remember what it was because I wasn’t playing in the orchestra, but, you know, they were telling me about it. I can’t remember what the details were--maybe some of the others—you ought to get Janet Kriner in here. She’s still playing in the orchestra. She goes way back, too.
Major: I know.
Pedersen: And Janet could give you a lot of information that I can’t remember.
Major: Let’s talk about the merger with the…
Pedersen: With Cary McMurran’s group?
Major: Yeah, and…
Pedersen: And Walter’s group?
Major: Right, right. What made it finally a successful merger?
Pedersen: Well, Walter became our pops conductor, and he was our pops conductor, and Russell was conducting the orchestra, and when Russell left, Walter really wanted to be the director, and we auditioned a lot of different people that came and, you know, guest conducted, and actually Isaiah Jackson came and guest conducted, and we loved him. He was a wonderful conductor; he should have gotten the job, and he didn’t get the job. Richard Williams got it instead. And Isaiah Jackson was African American, but you’ve got to remember what the date was back then, and he had a Caucasian wife and what I heard was that there were people on the board that didn’t want to do that, and so Mr. Jackson didn’t get the job. He was a wonderful conductor, and it was a real tragedy, I think, that he didn’t get that job. Anyway, Richard Williams got the job. He was there for about five or six years, and I think that they were glad to see him go, and then of course after Williams left then… What was his name?
Major: Winston Dan Vogel.
Pedersen: Winston Dan Vogel came, and I was still going backstage having coffee and cookies with the musicians during the break at the concerts, and I would go back there, and the morale of the musicians was down in the basement, and they were all saying to me, “He’s going to kick me out at the end of the season, I know he is, I know he is.” Well, actually at the end of the season, I don’t remember what the count was, but it was like—he fired like 17 or 18 people, uh huh, yeah. And he was just as cold and just as—he was cold like Richard Williams, and he was technical, you know, and the orchestra—the orchestra was playing like he was conducting, and it just broke my heart, and I’ll
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never forget… when he left JoAnn came. The very first concert she ever conducted, I sat up in the dress circle. and I cried and cried and cried, and there was a reception afterwards, and I went up to her, and I took her hand, and I said, “I just want you to know,” I said, “I was in the orchestra” and I said, “The orchestra hasn’t sounded like this since Russell Stanger left.” I meant it, and the feeling was back. I still cry when I think of it.
Major: Did you ever work with the youth orchestra?
Pedersen: No, I didn’t. I know Linda Althoff worked with them. She was Linda Decker. Gregory Barnes worked with them, but I think Russell is the one that really started the youth orchestra.
Major: We haven’t talked to Linda. I do know her.
Pedersen: You should call her.
Major: Yeah, right. How about the community music school?
Pedersen: How about what?
Major: The community music school; did you ever work with that?
Pedersen: No, you got to remember, I was busy working with the Virginia Beach School System.
Major: Your day job.
Pedersen: I was a teacher, then I was a counselor, then I was a guidance director, and I had my hands full between doing that—I would work all day, come home, put dinner on the table for my kids and my husband, throw the bass in the car and put the car on autopilot and come down to Chrysler Hall. I mean, that was my life.
Major: Right, right.
Pedersen: And the reason why my husband went to work with the symphony—he was stage manager; he did their payroll, and he was personnel manager. He was doing three jobs. When he first started, he didn’t even charge them, and the reason he did it was in self-defense so that he could see me once in a while. [Laughter]
Major: How strong has the symphony been in the last ten years or so?
Pedersen: Since--since JoAnn has been here, the symphony has just continued to get stronger and stronger. The playing—well, the orchestra is now a major
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orchestra. I am so proud of the orchestra. It sounds so wonderful. The caliber—the quality of the musicians is outstanding. I would put our orchestra up against any orchestra. The only problem with our orchestra is that they don’t have enough money. We need to get them more support.
Major: What additional things need to happen to increase the financial stability?
Pedersen: I need to win the lottery so I can give them five million dollars. [Laughter]
Major: It would help if several of us did that.
Pedersen: Yes well, we need to get more donors. We need to have, I think, better management. [Pause] We need to get someone to come in that really knows how to fund-raise, someone who really knows how to bring in the money. We haven’t had that, and we still don’t. I don’t know how we are going to do it. I don’t know whom we can get. I just know that we have people there now who—Carla’s been pushing the orchestra; they’re playing at five different venues where before we played at one or two. Those venues all have audiences, but the audiences haven’t caught up with the expense of playing at all those five different places, and that’s part of the problem. That’s a big part of the problem. The musicians, I think, are being overworked and underpaid. They’re working like dogs, they are. I couldn’t keep up with them. I mean I’d be so exhausted, and I know they’re tired. At the beginning of the season, they played like six concerts in a row – six nights in a row. It’s too much. They’re being pushed too fast, too far and the money hasn’t caught up, and I think that’s what the big trouble is, the problem is. A couple of years ago they received a two million dollar gift. I think you know that.
Major: I think so.
Pedersen: Uh huh and now they’re right back in the hole again. They’re in trouble. Why is that? [Pause] I don’t want to put it on tape.
Major: Okay.
Pedersen: But you know what I am saying, and I resent it, and I’m frustrated and upset. I don’t know what to do. I’ve given them as much money as I can afford.
Major: Yes, so have we. What, over the long term, what has the Symphony League contributed to the viability of the Symphony?
Pedersen: I think the Symphony League has been a strong arm of the orchestra. I think that the group has a done a lot of things good. I know that the year—the years that Ann was the president – I remember one year we raised
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80,000 dollars for the orchestra, but it has gone down every year, and it’s just not because of the economy. It’s more than that, it’s up here. Okay, it has to do with some of the leadership that we’ve had. [Pause] I’m not happy about it. I don’t know what to do about it. [Pause]
Major: Mm-hmm. Are there things that you would like to comment on that I haven’t asked about—things that you wanted to bring out that I haven’t asked about?
Pedersen: Well, I think that I’m just praying that by some miracle, we can get someone here through the board, and you know it’s up to the board. They need to do this—they need to hire someone who knows how to manage an orchestra. They need to hire someone who knows how to raise money. They haven’t done that, and I’m going to blame them and some other people, but what good is that going to do if the orchestra goes under. At this point, the orchestra is at the peak of almost a hundred year career; they’re playing beautifully. The musicians are wonderful. They’re playing, and they know that they can make more money somewhere else, but they’re here – God bless them. This city--this area has a wonderful world-class orchestra and with all of the corporate minds and all of the smart people in this region, why can’t they find someone to take over the management of this orchestra who knows how to raise money and knows how to run an orchestra so that they can be put on firm ground? They don’t have to be a musician.
Major: No.
Pedersen: They need to be a manager. What can we do?
Major: Well, a wonderful conversation--very enjoyable, thank you very much.
Pedersen: Thank you, Jean.
END OF INTERVIEW
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