The Prometheus Symphony Orchestra

05/11/2023

Orchestra Member Profile: Amy DeMane, Viola

Amy grew up in up-up-Upstate New York, about an hour south of Montreal (sheesh, she’s practically Canadian!). Her older sister played violin, so of course Amy picked one up too, when she was about five. She had violin lessons through elementary school. Then came middle school—and the universal search for violas. “My school orchestra needed a viola so I switched. And I loved it from the moment I picked it up; the pitch and the sound. Plus, it’s a more unusual instrument than violin.” She formed a quartet with friends and played weddings and community events. Oh, and Amy also just picked up a flute and played that through high school as well.

While attending Cornell University, Amy majored in Industrial and Labor Relations and Employment Law while playing in the orchestra and getting the chance to tour with the orchestra to Ireland. After graduation she got a job at a Bay Area tech company, thinking she’d maybe stay here a couple of years. Six years later, she loves it here.

Amy works in human resources for Off the Grid, which manages food trucks at events throughout the Bay. During the Covid shut down she had a chance to play more and realized she was missing an orchestra. “I found Prometheus online and I just emailed Eric out of the blue in the summer of 2022. It’s so much fun! It’s my artistic outlet. We’re all playing for fun, but we want to put on great performances.” And, by golly, you’re in the middle of a great one today!

~ Joyce Vollmer

08/10/2023

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17/09/2023

ORCHESTRA MEMBER PROFILE: Katherine Hammond, Bassoon (retired)

“It’s been a wonderful ride,” Kathie says of her 27 years as Prometheus’ principal bassoonist. She retired at the end of last season and we’d thought you’d like to know more about her.

Did you know you can’t smoke (and don’t have to breathe secondhand smoke) on airplanes because of Kathie’s research? At the request of then-Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, Kathie did breakthrough research into the effects of secondhand smoke. It showed conclusively that it was indeed very harmful. The FAA banned smoking on
airplanes, which eventually led to banning it virtually everywhere indoors.

And what about music? Kathie was born in Philadelphia and moved around a bit to Kansas City and then Lima, Ohio. She started to play clarinet in second grade in Lima because a door-to-door salesman sold her mom on lessons. But then her front teeth fell out and that was the end of that.

Kathie tried clarinet again in fourth grade, with a full set of teeth. In eighth grade, her band teacher asked her to switch to bassoon because the bassoonist was graduating. “I thought bassoon was a horrible instrument that made horrible noises,” she says. But she kind of had a crush on the music teacher so she agreed. “After about 3 weeks I just fell in love with the bassoon.” She realized that the previous student just wasn’t very good. Hence the horrible noises.

“Bassoonists just get drunk on the low notes,” Kathie says. “They reverberate through your body and it’s a wonderful feeling.”

When Kathie went to Oberlin for college, she had to decide: music or science. Science won. But she continued playing. After graduating from Oberlin with a degree in chemistry, she went to Brandeis University in Boston where she got a PhD in Chemistry, along with a Masters from the Harvard School of Public Health. She then taught (Boston University, Wheaton College, Harvard, University of Massachusetts Medical School) for 20 years. At the same time, Kathie also belonged to the musicians union, playing with “lower echelon” orchestras in Boston. Clearly that bassoon just kept Kathie drunk the whole time!

Then UC Berkeley recruited her, she moved West and found Prometheus. Kathie was a Professor of Environmental Health Sciences at the School of Public Health, specializing in evaluating exposures to airborne contaminants. She’s now “retired,” Professor Emeritus—which, for her, really means only teaching three courses and working with graduate students (one project involves monitoring the remediation of abandoned uranium mines on the Navajo Nation).

While Kathie is leaving Prometheus, she’s not leaving music. She’ll be playing with the Berkeley Bach Cantata Group and various chamber groups and ensembles. “Plus I’ve been catching up on years of missed sleep, reading and home projects (both here and at a family home on the Island of Rhodes).

“Playing with Prometheus is the one thing I have done more than anything else in my musical life. I’ve enjoyed every year of it.”

Let’s all now take a full, clean, deep breath and say, “Kathie, thanks for making us drunk too!” Cheers to Kathie, our now bassoonist emeritus!

~ Joyce Vollmer

17/05/2023

In anticipation of The Prometheus Symphony Orchestra's concert this Sunday, here is some background about Mussorgsky’s ‘Pictures at an Exhibition.’ Text and images are from the Abstracted Reality website (https://abstractedreality.com/pictures-exhibition-symbiosis-art-music/) by Jane Trotter.

We hope you will join us for our performance of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition this Sunday, 5/21/23, at 3:00. Click on the Event (https://fb.me/e/3lyQ5YMiu) to get more information about location and how to get free tickets (https://givebutter.com/ER9kcj?fbclid=IwAR1_3CSeW48pHVrycTGNAIggUGdIXQzVg-7OzAr4ynALqUuh-lNkQm35TfA)!

“Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky (1839 – 1881) wrote this famous suite of 10 piano pieces (plus a recurring and varied Promenade) in response to the death of his friend Viktor Hartmann (1834–1873). An artist, designer and architect, Hartmann died suddenly and unexpectedly of a cerebral aneurysm at just 39 years of age. Shocked, dismayed and deeply moved by his friend’s untimely demise, Mussorgsky set about composing a piece in his honour, in fact, the complete title of the work is ‘Pictures at an Exhibition – A Remembrance of Viktor Hartmann’.”

“A memorial exhibition of over 400 of Hartmann’s artworks was organised and shown in the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg in February and March 1874. Mussorgsky attended and contributed to the exhibition, providing two pictures which Hartmann had previously given him. Later that year in June, Mussorgsky completed his score in a matter of weeks.

“‘Pictures at an Exhibition’ encapsulates the idea of the viewer walking through a gallery. A ‘Promenade’ reflects the movement from artwork to artwork, and Mussorgsky structures the suite’s ten movements in a way which represents the viewer’s progress through the exhibition of Hartmann’s work. Just as the paintings are varied and contrasting, so too is Mussorgsky’s music in which he reflects upon and depicts the scenes in each artwork.”

“While ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’ was originally written for piano, it has also been arranged and transcribed for orchestra, notably by Maurice Ravel, whose 1922 version has been the most widely performed and recorded [and which Prometheus Symphony will be playing on 5/21/23].”

Some of my favorite pictures (and movements) are posted here.

15/05/2023

Prometheus Member Profile: Bonnie Bogue, Bassoon, Vice President, Cat-Herder, Voice of reason, Longest-Playing-Orchestra-Member, and all-around Great Person!

Bonnie Bogue began her symphonic career at age 14, playing bassoon in Pictures at an Exhibition by Modest Mussorgsky. Today, yes, today, Bonnie ends her symphonic career at age 82, playing bassoon in Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition again....Fitting bookends. Bonnie’s roots are in what was then the small village of Steamboat Springs, population 2,000, in northwestern Colorado (where her mother founded Colorado Mountain College). Called “Ski Town USA,” Steamboat Springs was always a venue for Olympic ski jumping and later became a ritzy ski resort. Her small high school at the time had a total enrollment of 175 students—and a concert band with 50 players! Clearly, music was an important aspect of life in Steamboat Springs; even the jocks played.

Bonnie took up the bassoon when her high school’s bassoon player graduated. She realized that she liked the bassoon so much that she went to the University of Colorado, Boulder, as a music major. But foreseeing the slim prospects for supporting herself playing bassoon, she changed majors. Then the problem was that she had no bassoon, having played on bassoons owned by her high school and the university.

Bonnie moved to California and worked as a secretary on the UC Berkeley Campus. A friend there learned of her bassoon-less plight and volunteered her husband’s bassoon since he wasn’t using it. She gladly accepted, resumed playing—and went to Boalt Hall Law School at the same time, figuring she ought to be sensible and pursue a career.

Meanwhile, The Prometheus Symphony Orchestra was being formed by its first conductor, Randy Hunt. It became a class at Merritt College in 1965, mainly to back the Merritt College chorus, which he also conducted. Bonnie joined Prometheus in 1966, while conducting her successful law career and raising a son (the first “Prometheus baby” and an occasional trumpet player) who now has four kids of his own. In the early days, the orchestra not only played classical music but also did light opera and dance accompaniment (LampLighters, Oakland Ballet Company). Prometheus even produced a full opera, “Dialogues of the Carmelites” by Poulenc, that went on tour to Marin and Monterey Counties.

After working for 30 years as a lawyer with the Institute of Industrial Relations on the Berkeley Campus, Bonnie became a labor arbitrator. And, finally, she bought her own bassoon. Bonnie first joined the Prometheus Board in 1977 at a critical time, when it officially left Merritt College as a class, incorporated, and received non-profit status. Her legal mind was of immense importance as she helped write the Board Book of Bylaws and Policies, which we still follow today. She took a brief 30-year leave, and rejoined the Board in 2008 as Vice President. She developed our outreach to senior centers and facilities. She was chair of the Khuner Youth Concerto Competition Committee. She wrangled the team that sets up our concerts. Whenever there was a need, Bonnie filled it.

Bonnie is, by far, the most tenured member of the orchestra. She’s played with all seven Prometheus conductors in (we think) eight concert locations. She says all the conductors have been different and terrific, although “Eric is the most fun! And the most patient.”

~ Joyce Vollmer

15/05/2023

Soloist Profile: Ava Pakiam, Violin

Ava is a 12-year-old violinist studying at the Pre–College of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM). Ava was admitted into the Pre–College program at age 7 and is currently a student of violin professor Simon James.

In her first year at the Conservatory, Ava was selected as the youngest first-prize winner of the 2018 Pacific Musical Society Competition and had the honor of performing at the Green Room in San Francisco. She was also a featured soloist on the St. Francis Concert Series, giving her first full public recital that same year in San Francisco.

Ava made her solo debut with a full orchestra at age 8, performing the Mozart Concerto No. 2 with the Fremont Symphony. Later that summer, she performed Vivaldi’s Winter Concerto with the Sempre Musik Orchestra and New York Sinfonietta in Boston and New York City, making her solo debut at Carnegie Hall.

During the pandemic, Ava had the privilege of performing in master classes for violinists Hilary Hahn, Nathan Cole, Noah Geller and Ariel Horowitz. She attended the 2020 Sounding Point Academy, virtually, and was selected to play in its final recital, performing Paganini Caprice No. 5 at age 10.

Ava competed in the Seattle Young Artists Auditions, where she was awarded the opportunity to perform as soloist with the Seattle Symphony in its 2021–2022 season, playing Saint Saens Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso. She was also selected as one of the young artists to perform for a series of master classes and events with violinist James Ehnes, hosted by the Seattle Chamber Music Society.

In the winter of 2022, SFCM held a special donors event in the newly built award –winning Bowes Center. Ava was chosen as the only student to represent SFCM and performed Vecsey’s Caprice No. 1, “Le Vent”, to a standing ovation.

Last summer, Ava attended the Sounding Point Academy in Los Angeles at the Colburn School, where she was the youngest student chosen to perform in an evening recital, streamed live by the Violin Channel. And just this past April, Ava was invited to compete at the prestigious Arthur Grumiaux International Violin Competition in Brussels, where she was a finalist.

You can see Ava perform with Sergei Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 2, Opus 63 with Prometheus at our last concert of the season, Sunday, 5/21, at 3:00 pm.

~ Joyce Vollmer

16/01/2023

Celebrating 25 Years with Maestro Eric Hansen!
Piano + trumpet + Violin = An amazing conductor!
Eric grew up in Kensington in a very musical family. His father was a conductor, his mother a pianist. So no surprise that all four kids are also musical, each playing three instruments. “I started playing piano when I was 3, trumpet when I was 5 and violin when I was 8,” he says, pointing out that he learned before “the Suzuki method” became popular. (Ask a string player what that is.) He played both classical and jazz on all three instruments.

Eric joined the musicians’ union when he was 16, playing classical gigs with various orchestras (he was a very good sight reader!) and jazz gigs at the Curran Theater in San Francisco. “My violin teacher (his main instrument at the time) prepped me to go to a place like Julliard or Curtis. But my parents wanted me to get a general ed degree—they figured I would never know anything about history or math if I just studied music.” So, off he went to UC Berkeley, majoring in music of course.

While there he played violin in orchestra and chamber groups. But he had a dual life! He also played trumpet in the marching band for four years without anyone in the band knowing he played violin and anyone in the orchestras Knowing he was in marching band! Amongst his performance and composition courses, Eric also squeezed in a course on conducting with Michael Senturia—and he was hooked for life.

Back in 1997 Prometheus was looking for a new conductor and we asked a few Bay Area conductors to conduct us during rehearsals (well we didn’t ask Michael Tilson Thomas because we thought he’d be too busy). Eric won hands down. Members recall his friendly demeanor, his positive instructions, and his clear beat (very important for community orchestras!).

“There’s practically no piece I’m afraid to do with Prometheus. I mean there are PhD’s, lawyers, engineers, and some really serious musicians.” Heck, we even had a Nobel Laureate. “People in this orchestra are incredibly intelligent and pick up on music and instructions very quickly.”

While, not surprisingly, our most frequent performances are of Beethoven and Brahms (16 times each!), it’s the rather astounding variety of programming that keeps us musicians on our toes and our audiences rapt. Many of us had never heard of Anatoly Lyadov, Vasily Kalinnikov, or Louise Talma until we played their works. Or had only a passing acquaintance with Florence Price, Hugo Alven, Alban Berg, and Witold Lutosławski. Not to mention the incredibly difficult Stravinsky Rite of Spring we’ll be playing next concert. “I enjoy solving puzzles, breaking down how to teach the orchestra very complicated rhythms. And everyone responds and plays very musically.”

For the last few years we’ve been featuring women composers, including Price and Talma, as well as Lili Boulanger and others. “In fact, featuring women composers has changed my attitude toward the shorter pieces we play. They’re not just filler in the program, they’re legitimately great pieces. And we’re playing pieces even I wasn’t familiar with. This is now a mainstay of our repertoire.”

Eric also enjoys the youth concerto competition—you’ll hear one winner at our January 29th concert. “Every year I could pick 4 or 5 kids who are not just amazingly technically competent but also play with great musicality.” Some of our winners have come back to perform with us again, and have gone on to international careers. “It’s fun to see someone launching their career right here, with us.”

Now, about those jokes we all groan about. “I don’t plan to say five stupid jokes at a rehearsal; it just happens. I know that most of my jokes are just terrible and I’m pleasantly surprised when one is actually funny. My take is that there’s a lot of stuff going on in the world so let’s release tension and have fun!”

Eric and Prometheus have performed about 120 fun concerts together during these past 25 years (with a year off for Covid). It might be too much to think that we’ll have another 120 concerts with him. But a musician can hope! From everyone in Prometheus, from everyone in the audience, a huge thank to you, Eric.

~ Joyce Vollmer

16/01/2023

Orchestra Member Profile: Vanessa Li (Violin)

When she was five years old, her dad—who is a self-taught violinist and classical music aficionado—began teaching her violin. Vanessa took to it quickly and soon needed private lessons. By middle school, she had joined the Young People’s Symphony Orchestra and played with them through high school—her last year as concertmaster.

Also while in high school, she started volunteering in assisted living facilities and offering a little music therapy. That continued during her undergraduate studies at the University of Southern California, where she majored in Public Policy and minored in Economics and Global Health. While there, she played with a chamber orchestra, accompanying music students who wanted to perform concertos; some of her free time was also spent playing with Remedy through Music, a group that performs therapeutic music for hospital patients, at-risk children, and senior citizens.

Then, on to the University of Washington for a Master of Public Health. In addition to her studies, she dabbled in practicums across the country, including in Rochester, Minnesota, at the Mayo Clinic and in Boston with the MITRE Corporation. During her time in Boston working as an epidemiologist, she joined the world’s first symphony orchestra (Me2/) created for individuals with mental illnesses and their allies. Under maestro Ronald Braunstein (a Juilliard graduate and student of Austrian conductor Herbert von Karajan) Vanessa found a community that was passionate about both music and the human condition. “That group is very close to my heart and has blessed me with dear friendships.” Vanessa returned to the Bay Area in mid-2021, continuing her research on the impacts of sociostructural factors on health and disease. Her work spans population factors, mental health and substance use conditions, and homelessness. Her role at MITRE supports government agencies including the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, National Institutes of Health, and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

So what else is she up to? She and her dog Orion are a certified therapy team with the SFSPCA and Anchor Hospice, offering companionship and cuddles in a variety of patient settings. She also plays in the pit orchestra of the Bay Area’s Youth Musical Theater Company (“musical theater is my absolute favorite performing arts genre”), where you can find her in the quintet of “Sunday in the Park with George” this spring.

Vanessa says she’s thrilled to have found Prometheus. “I was looking for a non-competitive community of musicians, and it’s a joy to play among friends and share our music with the community.” “I’m very grateful to my dad for introducing me to the violin at a young age. It’s a gift that’s had a positive impact on my life in so many ways.” Mr. Li, Prometheus thanks you too!

~ Joyce Vollmer

16/01/2023

Hiro Yoshimura, Violin Soloist

Hiro will be performing Glazunov's Violin Concerto in A Minor at Prometheus's upcoming concert on Sunday, January 29, 2003, at 3:00 pm.

Violinist Hiro Yoshimura, 16, is a junior at Cupertino High School. Hiro has been studying violin since the age of 6, and currently studies with Mr. Chen Zhao of San Francisco Symphony and Ms. Tomomi Matsumoto.

His musical journey started as a toddler, fascinated by Disney’s Little Einstein. His elementary school didn’t offer music class, but Hiro eagerly joined an after-school strings program sponsored by the school’s PTA. After noticing that Hiro often returned home in tears because he couldn’t keep up with repertoire, his mom sought out a private violin teacher, Ms. Matsumoto. Under this new tutelage, Hiro made steady progress playing in public school orchestras at Lawson Middle School and Cupertino High School, and he started winning accolades in local competitions. With bolstered confidence, Hiro joined the California Youth Symphony in 2016, and the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra in 2020. Hiro became the Co-Principal second violin in the 2021–2022 season, and now plays as Assistant Concertmaster.

Hiro has won top prizes in numerous competitions: the 2022 Pacific Musical Society & Foundation Competition, 2022 Burlingame Music Club Competition in Strings, 2022 & 2020 Korean-American Music Supporters Association Competition, 2022 & 2021 ENKOR, 2021 Houston International Music Competition, 2020 & 2021 United States International Music Competition, 2021 Silicon Valley Music Competition, and the 2019–22 Junior Bach Festival. As Grand Prize winner of 2022 Diablo Valley College/Holy Names University Young Artist String Competition, Hiro will play the Sibelius Violin Concerto with DVC Philharmonic Orchestra in March 2023.

Hiro attended Meadowmount School of Music in the summers of 2019 and 2021 (on scholarship), the Aspen Music Festival (working with Ms. Naoko Tanaka of Juilliard), and the Music@Menlo program in the summer of 2022. A senior home in Palo Alto was so impressed by his piano trio performance with Music@ Menlo that it has invited the trio for regular concert performances. Hiro enjoys performing yet more chamber music as a member of Pueri Quartet at Young Chamber Musicians, directed by Ms. Susan Bates. He is also one of the founders and directors of the nationally-recognized Back to BACH project, Santa Clara County division, a volunteer community program providing free music education to local schools.

Besides classical music, Hiro is interested in Japanese culture and music, especially modern J-pop. Hiro serves as Treasurer of the Cupertino High School Japanese National Honor Society. Hiro also loves mathematics, physics, and computer science and enjoys working as a tutor for a middle school student and discussing challenging problems with his classmates.

Hiro is grateful and excited for the opportunity to perform the Glazunov Violin Concerto with the Prometheus Symphony. Orchestra. You can see Hiro perform at the upcoming Prometheus concert on Sunday, January 29, 2003, at 3:00 pm!

06/11/2022

Prometheus Symphony Soloist Profile: Raeeka Shehabi-Yaghmai, Soprano Soloist

Persian soprano Raeeka Shehabi–Yaghmai possesses a unique fusion of versatility, strength, and sensitivity in her singing and stage presence—a combination that is earning her the acclaim of audiences and critics alike. Characterized as “entrancing,” she has been described as volcanic and compassionate, visually enticing, instinctual, and totally committed.

Making her foray into the lyric soprano repertoire, her roles have included Cio-Cio San (Madama Butterfly), Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Nedda (Pagliacci), Norina (Don Pasquale), and Violetta (La Traviata), as well as over 20 roles she sang as a mezzo-soprano.

Ms. Shehabi–Yaghmai has performed with San Francisco Opera Center, North Bay Opera, West Bay Opera, West Coast Opera, Livermore Opera, Oakland Opera Theatre, Mendocino Music Festival, Festival del Sol, Ensemble Parallèle, Orchestra Nova, the Redwood Symphony, Oakland East Bay Symphony, and Center Stage Opera, and in solo appearance at Lincoln Theater in Napa.

An interpreter of Persian folksongs and melodies, she founded the Persian Melody Project in 2007 and has sung Persian music with Oakland East Bay Symphony, Redwood Symphony, and in orchestral concerts in Southern California, San Francisco, and New York City.

Ms. Shehabi–Yaghmai was a semifinalist in the New York Lyric Opera Competition and was a finalist in the prestigious San Francisco-based Merola audition, after which she was hired as resident artist with the San Francisco Opera Center. An avid supporter of young artist education, she established the Taneen Opera Summer Opera Workshop in San Francisco in 2005 to train aspiring opera singers.

She frequently appears with the Prometheus Symphony Orchestra having sung in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Wagner’s Prelude and Libestod from Tristan and Isolde, and Strauss’ Four Songs Op. 27.

We hope you will come see Raeeka perform Hector Berlioz’s Les nuits d'été (Summer Nights) at Prometheus’s concert on Sunday, 11/20/22, at 3:00 pm (https://fb.me/e/2dpewZOnx)

06/11/2022

Orchestra Member Profile: Duy Tran, Violin & Clarinet

When he was 6 years old, Duy and his family moved from Saigon, Vietnam to Fort Smith, Arkansas (third largest city in the state). A long journey to an unlikely town—yet in a state that has become home to many Vietnamese. And what you should do there as a kid is… play clarinet of course. Duy started playing clarinet in junior high, in the school’s concert band. But for playing in the high school marching band, he switched to piccolo “because it’s difficult to play a reed instrument outside,” he says, “and, besides, you can’t hear them. Everyone can hear the piccolo!”

Duy went off to Arizona State University where he majored in clarinet performance. And then to make an actual living, switched to the sciences, which had always appealed to him. Off to Columbia University in New York City for a degree in Human Nutrition. While there, he played clarinet in the orchestra and took classes in flute performance.

Next, Temple University in Philadelphia for a Doctorate in Clinical Pharmacology and postdoc work at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. And while there he played clarinet the Philadelphia Wind Symphony and in the Orchestra Society of Philadelphia, a reading orchestra—where he realized that the violins got to play a whole lot more notes than he did. “I got a little jealous while I was counting rests,” he says. Obviously the solution was to play violin! And as luck would have it, he took lessons from Eunice Kim, our 2008 Youth Concerto Competition winner, who was then studying at the Curtis Institute of Music.

Duy was recruited to come to the Bay Area and work as a clinical pharmacologist, focused on liver cancer drugs (his father had died of liver cancer so it’s an especially meaningful effort for him). “There’s so much music here—so many opportunities to play,” Duy says. He joined us on violin when we resumed playing after our pandemic shutdown. In addition to Prometheus, where he mainly plays violin (he played Eb clarinet for Dance of the Seven Veils last season and will play that again in the upcoming Stravinsky Rite of Spring). Duy is principal clarinet for the Chabot Wind Symphony and teaches bamboo flute at the Vietnamese Cultural Center in San Francisco (also arranging folk music for the group to play).

He enjoys the mix of two instruments. “I love clarinet, but violin exposes me to music that I can’t play on clarinet, like Baroque. And in Prometheus we really get a chance to take a deep dive into the music.” Duy recently bought a house and he now calls the Bay Area home. Welcome home Duy!

~ Joyce Vollmer

06/11/2022

Remembering Craig Kronman, Viola (1955–2022)

A lot of adjectives come to Craig’s fellow orchestra members’ minds when they talk about him: Kind, smart, interesting, nice, quirky, a true gentleman.

Craig was born and raised in Long Island, New York. He started college at Bowdoin College in Maine, then transferred to Stanford University to complete a degree in English Literature. It was during college that Craig decided to pick up a viola—his wife, Anna Lisa, says Craig told her he waited because his mother didn’t want to hear the sound of practicing! He decided on viola, she says, because he knew that violas would always be needed in an orchestra and he wouldn’t have to compete with all those dang violinists! And once he picked it up, he never let it go.

Craig did go on to UC Davis Law School where he earned a JD degree. He was an attorney in a single practitioner office (meaning he was also the secretary, file clerk, researcher and light bulb changer!) in San Francisco, specializing in estates and taxes.

Craig loved learning and talking about all sorts of arcane topics—from car mechanics to beekeeping. He was an avid sailor—a member of the Berkeley Sailing Club—an enthusiastic cyclist, a diligent gardener, an intrepid traveler (he and Anna Lisa just returned from a 20th anniversary road–bike–hike trip in Northern California and Oregon), and he was a genuine Francophile, trying to speak French whenever and with whomever
he could.

And laid on top of all that, Craig always loved viola, playing duets, quartets, chamber groups and with Prometheus. He played with us for over 25 years, always catching Anna Lisa’s eye before a concert’s first downbeat. Craig was 68. Prometheans will always remember him fondly.

~ Joyce Vollmer

08/09/2022

Orchestra Member Profile: Remembering J.P. Young, Violin (1924–2022)

J.P. Young was the oldest person ever to play with Prometheus—and he’s probably been on more airplane rides than all the rest of us combined. It all began in 1924 when John Peter was born in Schenectady, New York. “There was always music in the house,” JP said. His grandmother studied music in Leipzig in the 1800s, his mother played violin and piano, his uncle piano—and his father worked for RCA, then in Philadelphia. “Mom said I was to play violin and my brother cello, so that’s what we did.” He took lessons from students at the Curtis Institute “because they needed to make some money.”

For a brief time JP took up flute and played in the marching band. “But it was 10 degrees in the wind and I decided playing violin inside was much warmer!” JP started a degree in Government (now called Political Science) at Harvard, but was interrupted by military service. “I was a medic for three years in the Infantry, captured in the Battle of the Bulge and spent some time as a POW.” But then it was back to Harvard to complete a double major in International Relations and Economics. And two years studying and bicycling through France, enjoying la bonne vie.

In 1950, JP went to work for Smith Kline (now GlaxoSmithKline) healthcare. His main job was to go with scientists to meet other scientists all over the world—even a few Nobel prize winners— looking for promising drugs to bring to the United States. He went to Europe about 250 times and Japan about 50 times (had there only been frequent flyer miles). The most well-known drugs that came out of his work were the replacements for penicillin, the cephalosporins.

JP started violin lessons again with a member of the Curtis Quartet, played with the Mainline Symphony Orchestra, played chamber music in the summers and Mozart Quintets in Japan, all while raising a family of four with his wife. He retired in 1989 and he and his wife moved to California to be near his children, while he continued to play violin.

JP joined Prometheus in 1994, when we were playing Hindemith. “It was hard and I loved it!”

JP played with us for over 20 years. Orchestra members fondly remember him for his wit, the twinkle in his eye (as he leaned in to his stand partner and whispered, “You know, there is a speed limit after one is 60 years old—I play at a metronome of 120 and no more”), and his encyclopedic knowledge about the music we played (this set he surely would have told us we’re playing a piece by Joe Green).

JP was 98. More later, JP…

~ Joyce Vollmer