Gordon Peters, a school chum of Harry’s and a percussionist who followed him into the Chicago Symphony Orchestra a few years later, shared these interesting observations about the ethnicity of some CSO musicians over the years.
Remembrances by Gordon Peters
“When Harry came into the orchestra in the fifties,” Peters remembers, “I would estimate that there were at least twenty players of Slavic origin, mostly Czech. The largest group, however, was still German. In 1891 when the Orchestra was put together by Theodore Thomas (1835-1905), he filled it with mostly Germans, and the German language was used at rehearsals through the beginning of World War I. Frederic Stock was almost asked to resign.”
According to Peters, Ed Metzenger, the Symphony’s timpanist from 1930 to 1963, changed his Polish name when he came into the Orchestra because the CSO was so Gemanic-dominated at that time. (Metzenger died in 1987 at age 85. See articles about him on this site by James Ross and Duane Thamm.)
“When I came into the orchestra in 1959, ” Peters continues, “there were still fifteen Czechs. I was with the orchestra for 41-1/2 years, and was the penultimate Czech to retire, leaving only Otokar Sroubek who played violin.
“By 2009,” Peters concludes, “the CSO was a totally mixed bag, “with only a couple of men of Czech descent, less Jews and Italians, more women, and a large Oriental contingent.”
SIDENOTE: A search for Otakar Sroubek (1923-2008) on the Web revealed an interesting article that has now vanished. It stated that he held two violins and a suitcase over his head to get across an icy river when he fled Communist Czechoslovakia in the late 1940s. He played with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for 48 years. He played with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for 48 years. Intermezzo, the online magazine of the Chicago Federation of Musicians), published a fine obituary article about this “Fiddling Fisherman” in its July 2008 issue. Read it here.
GORDON PETERS has made a name for himself as an orchestra player, conductor, teacher, administrator, author, and composer. He began his music studies at the age of six, and, like Harry, performed with the famous J. Sterling Morton High School Orchestra and Band programs under Louis M. Blaha. Prior to joining the Chicago Symphony, he played with the Rochester Philharmonic under Erich Leinsdorft and with Chicago’s Grant Park Symphony. His complete bio appears here.
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Tags: Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Czech history, Edward Metzenger, Gordon Peters
