
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.
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