A History by Craig B. Leman, Sep. 2000
In 1958 Oregon State College was still in the A. and M. mode; her perceived mission was to educate farmers, foresters, engineers, and technicians to civilize the frontier, leaving to her sister institution in Eugene the task of pursuing cultural advances in the humanities and social sciences.
The faculty in the Lower Division Liberal Arts in particular felt deprived and out of it with no majors in their fields and no graduate students. Some who had come from metropolitan areas sorely missed live performances of concerts, plays, and operas by world class artists. KOAC-FM, the classical music station then based in Corvallis, helped fill the gap; its classical music programming at that time was excellent, rivaling Eugene's present-day KWAX-FM classical music station. The Corvallis Music Association, active since the end of World War II, brought outstanding soloists and occasional major orchestras to Gill Coliseum. But there was little for chamber music aficionados except the long drive to and from Portland for the occasional chamber music concert there.
Thomas Kranidas, a young Oregon State English instructor from the University of Washington in Seattle, conceived the idea of persuading the College to sponsor a concert series that would bring world-class chamber music ensembles to Corvallis. He mentioned this to his English department colleagues, Faith Norris and Bernard Malamud, who immediately sparked on the idea. Malamud came from New York, and Norris from Berkeley. Although neither were musicians, they appreciated chamber music. Other key players were Ernst Dornfeld and John Decius. Dornfeld, Professor of Zoology, was a superb amateur pianist and profound scholar of music. Decius, Professor of Chemistry, was an enthusiastic amateur cellist.
Kranidas, an amateur violist, joined Decius, Dornfeld, and other local players in sessions to play through the masterpieces of the chamber music repertoire. The results only whetted their appetites for professional performances. They approached the Chairman of the Music Department, Robert Walls, whose primary interest was voice; he was supportive, as were the Dean of Liberal Arts, Ralph Colby, and the College President, A. L. Strand, an entomologist.
Colby was Principal Violist in the OSC Symphony, where Kranidas also played the viola. Colby appointed Kranidas, Malamud, Norris, John OConnor of the Music Department, Robert Wayne Smith of the History Department, and Walls to the Liberal Arts Program Committee to organize the concert series.
Walls and his staff negotiated with the artists management. The committee publicized the venture, raised funds from music lovers in the community, and staged the first concert at the Home Economics Auditorium on the O.S.C. campus at 8 P.M. on October 19, 1959, featuring the Hungarian Quartet. This was a distinguished group trained in Budapest, as good as any quartet in the world. The program: Haydn's Lark Quartet, Beethoven's Opus 132, and Smetana's From My Life. In November, the Claremont Quartet played Mozart, Bloch, and Schubert. Bloch, who lived at Agate Beach near Newport, had died in Portland four months earlier. The final concert of the first season in March 1960 presented the Amadeus Quartet, a group from England that stayed together for thirty years and dissolved with the death of their beloved violist. They played late works by Mozart, Bartok, and Brahms.
All three concerts were well received. From the outset, the Committee favored selling season tickets, to seek financial stability. Initial charge for a season ticket for all three concerts was $7.50; $3 for students. Patrons were asked to give $25; nearly thirty responded. Overhead was minimal, absorbed by the College. Budget for the first year was $1500. There were 290 subscribers.
Over the next few years the founders worked to keep the series afloat. Kranidas and Malamud moved on to other institutions. Other campus music lovers agreed to serve on the Committee. In 1963 Jack Decius asked me to serve on the board, explaining that it was desirable to have some non-OSU people in the act to avoid town-gown divisiveness and to encourage more participation by other townies. Starting as a token townie I have been on the board ever since.
Always we faced budget constraints. I remember a crisis in the sixties when we failed to meet budget. Our Chairman, John OConnor, a Professor in the Music Department, went to the new President of Oregon State University James Jensen to describe our predicament and ask for assistance. He told me that President Jensen sympathetically heard him out and politely agreed to find money to make up the deficit. Jensen then fixed him with a steely blue eye and explained it would be the last time we could count on this, and we would have to sink or swim without another bail-out.
Since then, the Associated Students of Oregon State University (ASOSU) have generously given us funds in return for student body card admission privileges, and our group has always given all students a break on ticket fees. We appealed to women in the community to raise money with a yearly drive to sell tickets, coax donations from music lovers, and solicit business patrons. The Gazette-Times assisted us with news stories about these fund-raising efforts, biographies and photographs of the artists, and criticisms of our concerts.
We shopped carefully for quality groups at bargain prices, since we were a classic example of champagne-tastes-but-beer-money. Our leadership established cordial but wary relations with agents for the various groups, working with similar chamber-music series in Eugene and Ashland to cut costs by block-booking ensembles who could cut their own transportation expenses by playing consecutive engagements on tours in our area, passing along these savings to us by cutting their performance fees. We tried to achieve balance between expensive, high-rolling, established stars and less costly, unheralded newcomers of top quality.
We went along in this mode with three concerts a year, mostly string quartets with an occasional piano trio, piano quartet, sonata recital, or wind ensemble, gradually acquiring more patrons and business patrons. In 1970 I suggested to the Board that Program Notes would enhance audience appreciation of our concerts. I recalled the extensive commentary in programs of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra by a local musician named Felix Borowski (called The Fourth B by the Chicago Tribune). The Board agreed. Since no one else volunteered, I started writing notes, relying initially on the OSU Library, record jackets, and borrowed books as sources.
Tharald Borgir, an accomplished pianist and scholar devoted to the baroque era, joined the board in the late sixties, bringing an enthusiasm for diverse instrumental groups and for baroque music. As chairman of the OSU Department of Music, he assisted the chamber music series in many ways. By 1971 we were up to four concerts a year and were including small chamber orchestras and vocal ensembles on our programs.
Violinist Marlan Carlson, later successor to Borgir as Chairman of the Music Department, replaced Borgir on our board, bringing with him a devotion to classic instrumental combinations and a drive to bring to our series groups of the highest quality. In 1980 within one month we heard the Guarneri and Juilliard Quartets, at that time the two leading quartets in the world. Carlson served as Chairman from 1977 to 1982, and again for the 1984-85 season when for the first time we presented six concerts. Along the way the group incorporated to confirm its status as a nonprofit educational entity eligible for tax-deductible gifts, established its independence from Oregon State University while retaining a friendly and mutually beneficial relationship, changed the location of the concerts from Home Economics Auditorium (Milam) to LaSells Stewart Center in 1981, and renamed ourselves as Chamber Music Corvallis in 1997.
Ze'ev Orzech and Joann Anselone each served as Chairman for years. Many people have served on the Board, generously sharing such tasks as booking, ticketing, ushering, hosting and assisting artists, group and program selection, publicity, and fund-raising. It seems unfair to mention individuals as I have done above, without also recognizing Sue Dornfeld, John Morris, Dorothy Miller, Kenneth Hedberg, Shirley Byrne, Fred Horne, and others who have contributed countless hours and efforts to keep superb music ensembles coming to Corvallis. Since 1990 Carole Orloff has been Chairman. With her leadership CMC has extended outreach activities to include workshops by our artists for young students. CMC has cooperated with the Corvallis-OSU Music Association in presenting programs sponsored jointly. For the last two years, CMC sponsored the splendid Piano Music Series begun by Rachelle McCabe. This stretched our resources too far. We hope that this outstanding keyboard series will resume soon. John Morris and Carole Orloff have been extraordinarily ingenious and productive in finding grants, getting contributions from businesses, and finding other sources of funds. A series of astute and industrious treasurers--Stefan Bloomfield, Robert Clark, and Steven Esbensen--have handled our accounting and disbursing. So far we have got by without paid administrative personnel. As this is written, we commence our 42nd season, anticipating six concerts.
The faculty in the Lower Division Liberal Arts in particular felt deprived and out of it with no majors in their fields and no graduate students. Some who had come from metropolitan areas sorely missed live performances of concerts, plays, and operas by world class artists. KOAC-FM, the classical music station then based in Corvallis, helped fill the gap; its classical music programming at that time was excellent, rivaling Eugene's present-day KWAX-FM classical music station. The Corvallis Music Association, active since the end of World War II, brought outstanding soloists and occasional major orchestras to Gill Coliseum. But there was little for chamber music aficionados except the long drive to and from Portland for the occasional chamber music concert there.
Thomas Kranidas, a young Oregon State English instructor from the University of Washington in Seattle, conceived the idea of persuading the College to sponsor a concert series that would bring world-class chamber music ensembles to Corvallis. He mentioned this to his English department colleagues, Faith Norris and Bernard Malamud, who immediately sparked on the idea. Malamud came from New York, and Norris from Berkeley. Although neither were musicians, they appreciated chamber music. Other key players were Ernst Dornfeld and John Decius. Dornfeld, Professor of Zoology, was a superb amateur pianist and profound scholar of music. Decius, Professor of Chemistry, was an enthusiastic amateur cellist.
Kranidas, an amateur violist, joined Decius, Dornfeld, and other local players in sessions to play through the masterpieces of the chamber music repertoire. The results only whetted their appetites for professional performances. They approached the Chairman of the Music Department, Robert Walls, whose primary interest was voice; he was supportive, as were the Dean of Liberal Arts, Ralph Colby, and the College President, A. L. Strand, an entomologist.
Colby was Principal Violist in the OSC Symphony, where Kranidas also played the viola. Colby appointed Kranidas, Malamud, Norris, John OConnor of the Music Department, Robert Wayne Smith of the History Department, and Walls to the Liberal Arts Program Committee to organize the concert series.
Walls and his staff negotiated with the artists management. The committee publicized the venture, raised funds from music lovers in the community, and staged the first concert at the Home Economics Auditorium on the O.S.C. campus at 8 P.M. on October 19, 1959, featuring the Hungarian Quartet. This was a distinguished group trained in Budapest, as good as any quartet in the world. The program: Haydn's Lark Quartet, Beethoven's Opus 132, and Smetana's From My Life. In November, the Claremont Quartet played Mozart, Bloch, and Schubert. Bloch, who lived at Agate Beach near Newport, had died in Portland four months earlier. The final concert of the first season in March 1960 presented the Amadeus Quartet, a group from England that stayed together for thirty years and dissolved with the death of their beloved violist. They played late works by Mozart, Bartok, and Brahms.
All three concerts were well received. From the outset, the Committee favored selling season tickets, to seek financial stability. Initial charge for a season ticket for all three concerts was $7.50; $3 for students. Patrons were asked to give $25; nearly thirty responded. Overhead was minimal, absorbed by the College. Budget for the first year was $1500. There were 290 subscribers.
Over the next few years the founders worked to keep the series afloat. Kranidas and Malamud moved on to other institutions. Other campus music lovers agreed to serve on the Committee. In 1963 Jack Decius asked me to serve on the board, explaining that it was desirable to have some non-OSU people in the act to avoid town-gown divisiveness and to encourage more participation by other townies. Starting as a token townie I have been on the board ever since.
Always we faced budget constraints. I remember a crisis in the sixties when we failed to meet budget. Our Chairman, John OConnor, a Professor in the Music Department, went to the new President of Oregon State University James Jensen to describe our predicament and ask for assistance. He told me that President Jensen sympathetically heard him out and politely agreed to find money to make up the deficit. Jensen then fixed him with a steely blue eye and explained it would be the last time we could count on this, and we would have to sink or swim without another bail-out.
Since then, the Associated Students of Oregon State University (ASOSU) have generously given us funds in return for student body card admission privileges, and our group has always given all students a break on ticket fees. We appealed to women in the community to raise money with a yearly drive to sell tickets, coax donations from music lovers, and solicit business patrons. The Gazette-Times assisted us with news stories about these fund-raising efforts, biographies and photographs of the artists, and criticisms of our concerts.
We shopped carefully for quality groups at bargain prices, since we were a classic example of champagne-tastes-but-beer-money. Our leadership established cordial but wary relations with agents for the various groups, working with similar chamber-music series in Eugene and Ashland to cut costs by block-booking ensembles who could cut their own transportation expenses by playing consecutive engagements on tours in our area, passing along these savings to us by cutting their performance fees. We tried to achieve balance between expensive, high-rolling, established stars and less costly, unheralded newcomers of top quality.
We went along in this mode with three concerts a year, mostly string quartets with an occasional piano trio, piano quartet, sonata recital, or wind ensemble, gradually acquiring more patrons and business patrons. In 1970 I suggested to the Board that Program Notes would enhance audience appreciation of our concerts. I recalled the extensive commentary in programs of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra by a local musician named Felix Borowski (called The Fourth B by the Chicago Tribune). The Board agreed. Since no one else volunteered, I started writing notes, relying initially on the OSU Library, record jackets, and borrowed books as sources.
Tharald Borgir, an accomplished pianist and scholar devoted to the baroque era, joined the board in the late sixties, bringing an enthusiasm for diverse instrumental groups and for baroque music. As chairman of the OSU Department of Music, he assisted the chamber music series in many ways. By 1971 we were up to four concerts a year and were including small chamber orchestras and vocal ensembles on our programs.
Violinist Marlan Carlson, later successor to Borgir as Chairman of the Music Department, replaced Borgir on our board, bringing with him a devotion to classic instrumental combinations and a drive to bring to our series groups of the highest quality. In 1980 within one month we heard the Guarneri and Juilliard Quartets, at that time the two leading quartets in the world. Carlson served as Chairman from 1977 to 1982, and again for the 1984-85 season when for the first time we presented six concerts. Along the way the group incorporated to confirm its status as a nonprofit educational entity eligible for tax-deductible gifts, established its independence from Oregon State University while retaining a friendly and mutually beneficial relationship, changed the location of the concerts from Home Economics Auditorium (Milam) to LaSells Stewart Center in 1981, and renamed ourselves as Chamber Music Corvallis in 1997.
Ze'ev Orzech and Joann Anselone each served as Chairman for years. Many people have served on the Board, generously sharing such tasks as booking, ticketing, ushering, hosting and assisting artists, group and program selection, publicity, and fund-raising. It seems unfair to mention individuals as I have done above, without also recognizing Sue Dornfeld, John Morris, Dorothy Miller, Kenneth Hedberg, Shirley Byrne, Fred Horne, and others who have contributed countless hours and efforts to keep superb music ensembles coming to Corvallis. Since 1990 Carole Orloff has been Chairman. With her leadership CMC has extended outreach activities to include workshops by our artists for young students. CMC has cooperated with the Corvallis-OSU Music Association in presenting programs sponsored jointly. For the last two years, CMC sponsored the splendid Piano Music Series begun by Rachelle McCabe. This stretched our resources too far. We hope that this outstanding keyboard series will resume soon. John Morris and Carole Orloff have been extraordinarily ingenious and productive in finding grants, getting contributions from businesses, and finding other sources of funds. A series of astute and industrious treasurers--Stefan Bloomfield, Robert Clark, and Steven Esbensen--have handled our accounting and disbursing. So far we have got by without paid administrative personnel. As this is written, we commence our 42nd season, anticipating six concerts.