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Summer The Orchestra has programmed lively summer concerts since the late 1960s -- Cabaret Pops, Leonard Slatkin's innovative and entertaining Rug Concerts, Symphony for the Cities, and the long-lasting Sommerfest. This poster is exemplary of the colorful graphics created for summer festivals.






Clifford Johnson was a bass player with the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra/Minnesota Orchestra for 47 seasons from 1948-1995. He played under five music directors and was involved with such notable tours as the Goethe Bicentennial Music Festival in Aspen in 1949 and the Middle East tour in 1957. In 1993 he compiled a short collection of "Memories" that are a charming selection of vignettes about musicians and conductors and their activities on and off stage. Cliff has given permission to share a few of his memories below, illustrated with photographs from the Orchestra's archives.  

Mischa "During Mitropoulos' last season, we traveled across Canada from Niagara to Detroit. The train stopped early in the morning, part way across. Mischa Bregmann (violinist, percussionist & librarian), an early riser, went into the cafe, saw breakfast for 90 waiting for us. He ate, and never told them that he was the only one awake...."
[Photograph by Robert Gubbins] .


Poker

This photograph shows Frank Winsor, Arthur Freiwald, Bernard Fishman, Paul Reichenbach, Louis Fallick, Carl Nyberg (with Jane Thompson in the rear) playing poker between concerts on a Sunday afternoon (1950s) in the Instrument Storage Room in Northrop Auditorium where the Orchestra performed for forty years.
[Photograph by Andre Speyer]



"Andre Speyer started to be late on stage during concerts on tour. One afternoon Dorati became a "co-conspirator" and came on stage very quickly. Andre had to hurry, and when he put his hand in the bell of the horn, found it to be full of shaving cream!!!"



"During Dorati's early years, the Orchestra programmed oratorios using the University of Minnesota 300-voice chorus. Since they were amateur singers, there were problems. In one performance they sang a section in A Major, alone. We would then join them the second time through. The pitch started to sag. We winked at each other and came in in the key of A-FLAT Major -- in perfect pitch with the chorus!!! We easily transposed the part one half step lower.
Dorati gave a grateful smile, and wiped his brow..."
[Photgraph: Don Berg Photography]

Antal



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The Minnesota Orchestra Archives are located within the Manuscripts Division at the University of Minnesota Libraries.

Please contact mssref@umn.edu about this site.

URL: http://special.lib.umn.edu/manuscripts/orchestra/history/history.html
Last updated: 14-December-2004