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The La Jolla Symphony at 50 - An Informal History
In 1954 a Bulgarian conductor who had spent most of his career in China had an idea. Peter Nicoloff had been chased out of China by the Communist Revolution, and now he found himself in La Jolla. He was a conductor without an orchestra, and he wondered if it would be possible to put together an orchestra of non-professional musicians from La Jolla who would play just for fun. Nicoloff assembled those players, and on November 11, 1954 he led them in what was modestly called "an open rehearsal."
No one at that rehearsal could have foreseen the growth potential in that tiny band of amateur musicians. Over the next half-century, that orchestra (which eventually became the La Jolla Symphony) would give over 700 concerts, grow in size to a hundred players, make recordings, commission new music, give premieres, and play concerts throughout San Diego County. But in those early years, the La Jolla Civic Orchestra (as it was first known) remained small, and Nicoloff--a gifted painter and gourmet cook--struggled to make it succeed. He resigned after eleven seasons, and the orchestra--which was struggling financially at that point--might easily have drifted into oblivion and been forgotten.
Help arrived from an unexpected source. The University of California was establishing a campus in San Diego, and its new Music Department wished to sponsor an orchestra. The proposal was made for the department to join forces with the existing community orchestra, and out of that partnership a new ensemble was born, eventually re-named the La Jolla Civic-University Symphony Orchestra. The orchestra's new conductor came from the Midwest. Thomas Nee was born in Illinois and trained in Minneapolis, and he had been assistant conductor of the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra. Demanding, inspiring (and often very funny), Tom Nee set out to transform the orchestra--he increased the number of players, raised standards, and championed new music. The character of the orchestra changed in these years, as well: now its ranks included UCSD students, its concerts moved from Sherwood Auditorium to Mandeville Auditorium, and it was re-named once again--now it became the La Jolla Symphony Orchestra. During the 1960s, the orchestra acquired a sister organization, the La Jolla Symphony Chorus, and the union created one of the few orchestra-and-chorus associations in the nation. In 1973 David Chase took over that chorus and began to develop it into the ensemble we know today.
After 31 years as music director Tom stepped down, and his replacement also had roots in the Midwest. Born in Iowa, Harvey Sollberger was a man of many talents: composer, conductor, new-music specialist, and virtuoso flutist. He took the La Jolla Symphony in directions of his own. He brought in a number of new players, set high standards, and explored repertory that even this adventurous orchestra had never played--it is typical of Harvey that his first concert as music director should have included both The Rite of Spring and music by Ravi Shankar. Harvey will complete his tenure as music director in 2005, and already the orchestra is searching for the conductor who will lead the way into its second half-century.
But whoever that conductor is, our identity will remain the same--this is an organization willing to take risks, ready to do things differently, anxious to explore fresh territory rather than just repeating experiences that the performers and audience have already had too many times. As such, it has carved out a unique place for itself in the San Diego musical community. This is a fun orchestra to be a part of. It is talented, disciplined, and humane, and the orchestra is willing to be adventurous in its programing precisely because it is full of players who are ready to share those adventures and to explore. Every season sees new faces in the orchestra, and many students pass through during their four years at UCSD, but there are also performers who have been members of this orchestra for thirty and forty years--the orchestra inspires that kind of loyalty.
Our performers remember many distinctive moments over that span--some of them moving, some funny, some sweet, some not so sweet. But it has been a memorable half-century, and there are many memories. Like the time a violent storm knocked out all the power to Mandeville Auditorium on a concert night, and players and audience waited outside in steady cold rain until there was no hope and the concert had to be canceled. Or our performance of Carmina Burana at the Cultural Center in Tijuana, before a super-enthusiastic audience in a terrific hall. The time we played Scriabin's Prometheus, complete with piano soloist, "color organ," and scented mists wafting through Mandeville. The time Tom began conducting a performance of Stravinsky's Vom Himmel Hoch Variations without realizing that the chorus had not yet come on stage. The inauguration of Robert Dynes as UCSD chancellor, when the orchestra performed in front of the assembled presidents of all the University of California campuses. The concert during the chorus' 1988 tour of Europe when we performed on the rough planks of the stage of Haydn's own concert hall in Eisenstadt, outside Vienna. The first of the Nee commissions, Jeff Nevin's Mariachi Concerto, which featured as soloists a fourteen-member mariachi, resplendently decked out in handsome costumes. Our performance of Holst's The Planets that was accompanied by a galactic slide show provided by the San Diego Science Museum. Or the performance of William Schuman's Casey at the Bat, when orchestra and chorus all wore baseball uniforms and David Chase walked onstage to conduct carrying a bag of popcorn. Every member of the orchestra and chorus (and of our audience) will have their own favorite moments--it's been that kind of half-century.
What will the future bring? More of the same, I hope. Let's hope that at our centennial concerts in 2054, the La Jolla Symphony and Chorus will have flourished and will continue to be adventurous organizations. Let's hope that they will provide a home for performers and audiences interested in good music--new and old, familiar and unfamiliar--and that they will continue to serve musical life in San Diego in many different ways. Let's hope that the orchestra and chorus will have a good new concert hall by that time, and--if all goes well--that they will be serving audiences and performers who are still unborn as we celebrate our first half-century.
Eric Bromberger
Violinist, La Jolla Symphony Orchestra
1980-present
