NEW ORLEANS FRIENDS OF MUSIC
For the
2008-2009 season, its 54th, the New Orleans Friends of Music continues the tradition of bringing internationally acclaimed musicians to the community. A stellar series of artists will perform at Tulane University’s Dixon Hall, some new to our audiences and others returning by popular demand. We are excited to be able to offer seven outstanding chamber concerts of considerable variety, including quartets, trios, duos, and solo piano.
New Orleans Friends of Music is an all-volunteer, non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the performance and appreciation of fine chamber music. It owes its success to loyal subscribers, the dedication of board members, contributions of friends, grant support from the City of New Orleans and the Louisiana Division of the Arts, and a 54-year association with Tulane University. Subscription prices average $14 per concert, $98 for the 7-concert series.
Friends of Music has a responsibility to the community to bring music to the youth of the city and to cultivate the appreciation of classical music. This season we will continue an outreach program in which some of the performing ensembles give master classes or lecture demonstrations at local schools and universities.
For the benefit of our audiences, before each concert Dr. John Joyce of the Newcomb Department of Music faculty will give a free lecture about the music at 7 p.m.
2008-2009 Board of
Directors
John
H. Baron, President
Ranney Mize, Vice-President/Website, Subscriptions
Coordinator
Marjorie Weiner, Secretary
John S. Batson, Treasurer/Finance
Co-Chair, Development Chair
Lizbeth
A. Turner, Treasurer/Finance Co-Chair,
Endowment Chair
O. Harvey Green, Program Chair
Barbara Jazwinski, Program Associate Chair
Herman Kohlmeyer, Publicity Chair
Julianne Nice, Immediate Past President,
Publicity Co-Chair
Barbara Knill, Hospitality Co-Chair
Alice Sherman, Hospitality Co-Chair
Martha Beveridge, Printed Program Coordinator
Anne Bradburn, Archivist
John Joyce, Music Counselor
Frederick G. Kushner, Nominating Chair
Lawrence M. Lehmann, Long-Range Planning Chair
Courtney Wilson (2009), Education Outreach Co-Chair
Barbara MacPhee, Education Outreach Co-Chair
Guillermo Náñez-Falcón, Subscription Manager
Margie Scheuermann, Subscriptions Co-Chair
Endowment Chair
Associate Board Members
Lizzie Berger
Kay Brief
Stu Farber
Charles Foster
Rob Nathan
Members
George Bernstein
Gillian Brown
Tedda Cohen
Anne Favrot
Lee Hampton
Richard D. Harrison
Stewart
Manshel
Vernon Palmer
David Rebeck
George Riess
Liliana Schor
Lorraine Thien
Joan Zaslow
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History
World-Class Music . . . for a Song
A cultured city without chamber music? Unthinkable, said Dr. Ernest Bueding when he arrived in New Orleans in 1954.
He had begun a chamber society in Cleveland, his previous home, and exacted a promise from his friend and colleague, Dr. Joe Meyer, that if he accepted a job at Louisiana State University Medical School as head of the Pharmacology Department, Meyer would help him start a similar series.
“Ernest was the brains behind the whole thing, and I was a front man,” said Meyer who became the first president in 1955. “He was also an excellent musician and knew practically all the chamber music in existence.”
They brought together a group of friends and colleagues who gathered their friends and spouses who loved fine music.
“This was a time of energy, vision and enthusiasm,” said Dr. Emmanuel Farber, a founder and early president. “We believed we were making an enduring contribution to the community, and we were determined to accept only the finest performances.”
Attorney René Lehmann drew up the legal papers and then housed the Friends office for 20 years. The late Ruth Farber was treasurer and carefully monitored the money to insure high-quality performers within budget. Irving
Paley, a founding board member who now resides in Chicago, directed public relations, and Dr. Morris
Weisler, a New Orleans internist, headed subscriptions. Dr. Peter Hansen, chair of Newcomb College’s Department of Music, began the group’s 45-year association with Tulane University.
Then with a grant from the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation of the U.S. Library of Congress, the city’s first chamber-music series began.
Fittingly, the series was born on the 200th anniversary of Mozart’s birth, January 27, 1956. The first concert was pure Mozart, of course, performed by the Budapest String Quartet.
“People everywhere were marking Mozart’s birth, but New Orleans may have had the world’s best concert that night – the ultimate in expressing appreciation for Mozart’s music,” Meyer said. “The Budapest was in its prime, and they were playing all Mozart.”
Newspaper columnist Ewing Poteet wrote that the Friends had obtained “the most widely publicized and most successful quartet now before the public for their opening attraction.” He also said that this concert was the first time in more than a decade that “any quartet playing other than by local ensembles” had taken place in New Orleans.
“This was our most memorable concert, because it was the first,” Weisler said. “The hall was filled.”
That year, the series price was $5 for three concerts. Today, it’s $72 for six concerts with an occasional bonus event, costing not much more than a movie ticket.
YoYo Ma, Jean Pierre Rampal and Julian Bream are among the artists who have played in Dixon Hall for more than two generations in this series, produced entirely by volunteers. Only a handful of groups present a chamber-music series without a single employee. From selecting the artists to taking tickets, most every task is handled by a member of this board of directors.
"A love of music has driven us,” said Hansen, who has been active for
more than 45 years. Today, he continues to write program notes, give
occasional pre-concert lectures and serves as music counselor. In 2000, he won the Classical Arts Lifetime Achievement Award from the Big Easy Entertainment Awards. His late wife, Doris, was an excellent violinist, music teacher and a faithful Friends volunteer and subscriber.
In 49 years, only 17 people have served as president, and several have served multiple terms, including John Batson, Larry Lehmann, Dr. Stuart D. Farber, Dr. Morris Shaffer, Milton G. Scheuermann and Dr. Fred Kushner. Board membership, too, can last for decades.
“This continuity may be one reason for our success,” Batson said.
Liliana Schor has headed hospitality for more than 20 years, making sure that guest artists are delivered, entertained and fed. Anne Bradburn resigned just last year from her position as treasurer, which she had held for 12 years.
Now a Friends’ adviser, Charles Foster served as president and played an important role in managing the group’s mailing list and print advertising and developing strategies for building an audience. Meanwhile, his late wife, Buford, came to virtually every concert.
In fact, Friends has long been a family affair. René Lehmann was the group’s fourth president, and his son, Larry, has been a board member for many years and served as president for four years.
Tedda Cohen has been involved practically since the group’s inception. She followed to the board her former husband, the late Dr. Will Sternberg, who selected the musicians for many years as program chair. Sternberg was a professor in Tulane University’s Department of Pathology.
Sharing her husband’s love of music, Margie Scheuermann has been a board member for nearly 35 years and handled subscriptions for two decades.
The audience is also loyal. Dr. Margaret Shaffer has attended regularly since her husband, the late Dr. Morris Shaffer, served the first of his three terms as president in 1959. Yvonne Schultz, too, has also been a long-time subscriber. Her husband, the late Donald Schultz, was an active board member who handled the Friends’ public relations and advertising.
Two Friends founders went on to launch other chamber societies. After moving to Johns Hopkins University in 1960, Bueding inaugurated the Shriver Hall Concert Series, while Meyer founded the Houston Friends of Music in 1959. Meyer now resides in Silver Spring, Md. Having had a cultural influence in three cities, Bueding died in 1986 at the age of 75.
Through the years, the New Orleans group has dealt with both temperamental and generous musicians, missing instruments, emergency rooms, the Cold War and, yes, dogs.
"The appearances of the Borodin Quartet brought two of our most memorable moments," Cohen recalled. "In the middle of its 1971concert, a small dog wandered on stage. At this time on campus, dogs were almost as numerous as students and it was a warm night, so the doors were open. This severe Russian group totally ignored the dog until someone came to remove it.”
In 1973, the quartet returned. And, in the middle of their performance, a small dog walked on stage. And, once again, the group ignored it. However, the headline in the Times-Picayune read the next day: "Borodin Quartet and Dog Return."
Dogs may come and go, but one thing is constant: Chamber music thrives in New Orleans.
“I sell tickets at every performance and see students and young people coming to our concerts,” said Lizbeth Turner. “I have a sense that there will always be an audience for fine classical music. Our future is bright.”
For generations to come, New Orleans Friends of Music will continue to bring the world’s finest chamber music to the Crescent City for the price of a song.
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Contact
Information
To
contact New Orleans Friends of Music, please see the
following:
New Orleans Friends of Music
5500 Prytania St., PMB#402
New Orleans, LA 70115
Phone: 504-895-0690
E-mail: neworleansfom@aol.com
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