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.
By 1989 the orchestra board was composed of all playing members as we worked together to keep moving forward. This took place during the transition to the orchestra’s second conductor, Dick Ballou, a local trumpet player. David Speck became orchestra president during this transition and I continued as Vice President. Dick Ballou also organized a group he called “The Port Townsend Orchestra Singers” with which I was privileged to be a part as we performed among other pieces with the orchestra, John Rutter’s “For The Beauty of the Earth” in December of 1993.
By the 1991/1992 season I began serving as President, a role in which I was still serving at the time of the orchestra’s next transition. During the 1994/1995 season, four conductors were tried out and Dewey Ehling was chosen to be the conductor from the 1995/1996 season until his passing in the late Summer of 2016. The orchestra and Dewey’s “Peninsula Chamber Singers” joined together for several performances under his leadership. With the 2016/2017 season already planned, Hollie Kaufman (a member of the orchestra who had also served as assistant conductor ) directed the first two concerts and the process of searching for a new conductor began with the final two concerts of that season becoming the tryouts for two conductors from whom Tigran Arakelyan was hired to take on the conducting for the 2017/2018 season.
Though the orchestra originally began by offering three concerts per season, two fund raising concerts were offered (1991/1992 and 1992/1993 concert seasons) which began a transition of four regular concerts per year. After Dewey Ehling had conducted for some time, he also directed some end of season pops concerts and then added a couple extra string performances held at the Washington Inn near Sequim, Washington. Under the current direction of Tigran Arakelyan, extra string chamber orchestra concerts began in the late Spring of 2018.
To this day, the orchestra has become a community drawn from a broad spectrum of abilities and backgrounds, joining in harmony to enjoy music together. As I was quoted in an April 24, 2019 article in the Port Townsend Leader: “To me it has been a thrill to be in something that really carries the spirit of the community that is coming together in harmony,” said Carl Hanson, violinist and founding member. “Though we come from different walks of life and are different ages, we are there enjoying our time and making music together.”
Carl Hanson (orchestra violinist and Port Townsend resident since August 1984)