Vanessa Finney: [Orchestra organizers] gave James a mission if he chose to accept it, and that was to elevate the orchestra from the status of regional to national, which involved jumping through a lot of hoops for the American League of Orchestras.
Ginette DePreist: Well, a regional orchestra consists of local budgeting, whether it's the state government, the city or the good heart of supporters. That doesn't go any further than that, because there's no such ranking that will force musicians, who are professional in their own right, to have a steady job. It's part-time. Being a national symphony or an orchestra requires the standard base for paying your musician according to the rates of the American Association of Musicians, or something like that. So that was a big step, and also it required those who had a regular job, to let go of that, because it meant rehearsing during the day. And also it meant that by increasing a budget, you would attract better musicians, and you would attract better soloists as well. So all of those hurdles were to be met, and that was a big challenge.
VF: It caused some soul searching among the musicians, because they had to give a higher level of commitment. And it also raised just the day-to-day process, because prior to becoming national, the rehearsal space itself had terrible acoustics - which any musician knows you want to rehearse where you're performing.
GD: Although there's still a lot of that kind of system going on around around the world, but usually those rehearsal rooms are designed for those orchestras, which was not the case in Portland, right? It was a facility that housed pretty much all the road shows and everything else. So it was not meant to be rehearsed there. So when the musician would get on stage before performing, whether it was the dress rehearsal or what, they had to reinvent the wheel, because the sound around them was different. So it meant a big challenge.
VF: So he was a driving force behind it - I know you helped as well - to get into the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Was that an easy path?
GD: No, Portland loves its comfort. They are not necessarily always aiming at something bigger. They always think that's good enough for us. And Jimmy was determined to have a better situation with the Oregon Symphony. So he presented that project to the city council. Some Commissioners were for it, some were not, and with a very strong group of supporters with the symphony and the powers that be at the time they gather and they were able to pass an ordinance that provided the Oregon Symphony and the city funding to occur so that Schnitzer Hall, which was aimed to be demolished at the time, was a Paramount Theater and the hotel next to it as well. So that revived this whole section of the city and it became what it is today.
VF: The new building is near the Oregon Historical Society.
GD: Exactly. It's now named the Arts District, so that's that's really wonderful to see how it has evolved and and remained alive in spite of all the hurdles that we had,
VF: Thanks to some visionary individuals. So James led the Oregon Symphony for 23 years, and in that time, they did a number of tours, and you were usually at his side. So what are some memories that stand out as highlights, especially ones that you've written about in the book?
"I like to tell my friends that I was the bright light in the shadow."Ginette DePreist
GD: Well, there was one in particular that I just kept in my mind all those years. We were touring, and one of the cities was Klamath Falls, and we ended up in this auditorium in a college somewhere. I was sitting in a seat close to the end of a row. And just before the concert started, there was a mother who showed up with her two girls. One was very young, I would say, three or four, and the other was five or six, but the five- or six-year-old was mentally and physically handicapped, and as soon as the orchestra started tuning, she hummed the way those young patients do. Her mother said “She loves music.” And I said, “Okay, that's great.” So the orchestra was just tuning. There was no comprehensible sound, really. But she was really happy, and she got agitated. So the mother said, “Maybe I should go.’ I said, “No, why should you?” And in the same moment, a couple in the back of us commented on the fact that it was horrible that this woman would bring her children to a concert, especially with a crippled one. At that time the mother got up, and I said, “You sit down. You give me that lovely little girl of yours. I'm gonna sit her on my lap, and we're going to listen to a lovely concert together. There's no intermission. It's gonna be short and sweet and we're gonna have a good time.” And sure enough, as soon as Jimmy started, she just calmed down. She was singing a little bit, but she fell asleep, and the concert went on, and at the end, obviously people were clapping, so she woke up immediately, and she was agitated, and I put her little two hands between mine, and we clapped together. And I turned around and looked at the mother, and she was crying. She said to me, “It is the best time I’ve had ever since that child was born.”
So I took that upon myself, because I have a niece in that same situation. My brother's first child was profoundly handicapped, and all that time, I was just thinking of Genevieve - that's her name. I was just profoundly touched by that. So at the end of the concert, we were backstage, and Jimmy was asking, “What was this little racket at the beginning of the performance?” And I told him the story, and he said, “Honey, this made my day. So that was a very memorable day for me.
VF: You stood up for basically, disability rights before they became mainstream. Nowadays, big venues in have dedicated special needs concerts, where kids like that can run around or make noise. It's more inclusive now.
GD: It's true, true. Hopefully it will stay that way.
VF: You write that one of his signature pieces was Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2 in E minor. It's romantic music at its best. Does [that piece] bring anything up for you? What kind of memories come up for you when you hear this piece that he conducted so often?
GD: I have a little secret for you. I have a hard time listening to his music. It swells up in me, because I was there from studying the score at the rehearsal, following all the notes and letting him know everything, to the recording session, where I was in the booth with him. And the fact that the Rachmaninoff Symphony is truly his signature piece, everybody will recognize Jimmy as a Rachmaninoff Master, I guess. So it is always emotional. I'm getting better, but it's still very difficult. I would drive, for example, and listen to a classical station, and I can tell you in a second that it's Jimmy conducting, so I have to park and just listen to it, so I won't be, you know, fogging the windows of my car when I drive.
VF: Is there something distinctive that you can hear, that you recognize?
GD: Yes, yes.
VF: I'm wondering if you were a classical music lover before you met Jimmy. It became the center of your life, along with him. it's such a profound shift.
GD: Yeah, I was a classical lover, but on a totally different sphere. My father was a choirmaster, so most of the music I grew up listening to was music from church choirs and oratorio and things like that, and the period of Bach. But because I work in a radio station, we had incidents of music and recordings and things like that, which got me into that realm of music. And I fell in love with it immediately.
VF: So you were primed. What did this life you shared together, this beautiful life, end up meaning for you - the role that you played in each other's lives?
GD: I like to tell my friends that I was the bright light in the shadow. By profession, I was always in the booth. I never was in front of the microphone. And I loved it. I loved the perspective it gave us - also the sense of focusing on what's coming when the other person, on the other hand, who was in front of the microphone, didn't necessarily see coming. So I always had that sense of following whatever was happening. And in Jimmy's life, I was like that as well. You know, when I was at the rehearsal, he would ask me, “What did you think?” I would say, "The trumpets are a little too loud, or we're losing the cello," or something like that - because of my training as a radio producer. So that was fun. I really always enjoyed being in the shadow of people, because I could see them shine better.
VF: You felt useful.
GD: Yeah, exactly. And my life with Jimmy was basically that, and I loved it. People were saying, “Don't you miss it?” I said, “No, I got promoted.”
VF: That's a good way to put it. Lastly, your book - which is so wonderfully put together, it really is a charming read. It's just a very interesting account, even for the non-music-lover. And one thing that I liked is that you've framed each chapter with a poem of Jimmy's. He was a published poet, and I'd like to have you read a poem or two.
GD: Oh, my goodness, what an honor. Okay, there is something about this poem that always touches me, and you'll understand. I mean, you are right now in my apartment. I'm in downtown Portland, very close to OHSU; therefore, we've been lucky so far that there are no sirens in our conversation. But I'll read you a poem that I love:
"The Distant Siren" by James DePreist
My grandmother brought
the distant sirens, tension among
the peace of our unaffected home
with
words that spoke the compass of
her soul and never let us, untouched,
hear
a
siren’s song
again.
“Poor somebody,” she said.
VF: Wonderful. Ginette, thank you so much for taking time to talk with me, and good luck with your book.
GD: Thank you so much for coming.
