Author: Pamela Roberts

by Stephen R. Ricketts, Orchestra Historian

September 2019

It was February of 1987. An article in the Port Townsend Leader proclaimed, “Cellist Launches Solo Effort to Create County Orchestra”. Michael Ann Burnett, organizer and director of a new Port Townsend amateur orchestra said, “I really want to hear from people who are using the barrels of their clarinets as match holders”. The call went out to closet musicians to bring your instrument to the Port Townsend High School orchestra room on Thursday evening, February 19. It was off the ground. The orchestra was put together as a non-profit organization, with tuition from participants and a promise that concerts would always be free.

The first concert of the Port Townsend Community Orchestra was during the Port Townsend Rhododendron Festival on May 14, 1987, at the Fort Worden Theater. The orchestra was composed of 46 performers being directed by Michael-Ann Burnett. The music was high school level arrangements.

To be honest, we did sound like some of us had been using our instruments for match holders over the years. Some of us had last played 20 years before in school. A few had started learning an instrument as an adult and had never played in a concert, and the timpanist had never played one before. We were held together by a few much more accomplished musicians, including local band teachers and retired and professional musicians. We also didn’t have a very balanced instrumentation as our 9 flutes could attest. Much of the first audience was made up of our families and friends…but we had an orchestra.

by Carl Hanson July 2019

The Port Townsend Community Orchestra began when an Advertisement was placed in the local Port Townsend Leader urging area musicians to pull their instruments out of the attic, dust them off, and come together on Tuesday evenings to begin rehearsing music to be shared with the community. To support the orchestra, players were asked to pay a tuition fee of $25 per concert. The continued generous support of our area communities has eliminated the tuition though members are still encouraged to donate. The original board members behind this effort were Sandy Barker, Helen Bonny, Janel Carlson, Kathy Hill, Dott Kelly, and Bob Marriott. The orchestra began in the Spring of 1987 under the direction of Michael-Ann Burnett — a cello player who offered cello lessons at her local music studio — with the premiere performance held at the Wheeler Theater at Fort Worden State Park, May 24, 1987.

Once rehearsals began preparatory to the premier performance, I was asked to serve on the board as a representative for the playing members. Among the first to respond to my request for volunteers to assist with various tasks was Joanie Hendricks who began serving for many years as Orchestra Librarian and Historian. By the time we entered our first full season, I began serving as Vice President of the board.

With rehearsals held at Port Townsend High School, performances continued at the Wheeler Theater at Fort Worden State Park until the audience seating was surpassed in 1991. Performances then moved to Port Townsend High School and then eventually to Chimacum High School with some alternating between the two schools.