Dear MSO Retirees,
Hope your new year is off to a wonderful start. It is an especially wonderful way to begin the new year when you have a January birthday. Remember Kay Swartout? She celebrates her birthday on New Year’s Day. I’m trying to find where she might be these days. Anyone have information on her whereabouts? Paul Tervelt celebrates his 75th birthday today, January 3rd. Next comes Dottie Diggs on January 10th, Norma Zehner on the 10th, Dennis Najoom on the 14th, and Wilanna Kahlkof on the 15th. Best wishes to all of you for a most wonderful day and new year!
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Eric Steensrud would be celebrating his 86th this January 17th, but I received sad news from his wife, Margie, that Eric died on October 1, 2018. Eric was a violist with the MSO, coming here from the San Antonio Symphony. We send our deepest sympathy to his family. Here is Margie’s note-
I am writing to let you know that Eric passed away peacefully in his sleep here at our home in Packwood, WA on October 1. We moved here in 1997 and kept this home while we also lived in Olympia while our son Gustav was in school, and Aberdeen where I worked for a number of years. Eric played with the Tacoma orchestra for 2 years which he really enjoyed. We traveled a bit, and enjoyed skiing, hiking, and he golfed while I putted. We have a grandson Nils, who arrived in 2015, and celebrated our 41st anniversary this spring. He had a thoracic aortic aneurysm diagnosed in 2009, and an abdominal aortic aneurysm in 2015, both of which he had surgery for. He was doing quite well until June when he suffered an inoperable complication. He loved life, his family, and always music, and the world is less for his absence. He, being the 19th century guy he was, did not use computers, but he always enjoyed your emails which I would open for him. He, upon hearing some music, would sometimes say ‘I would love to be rehearsing this today!”
All my regards to you and our friends from the MSO – sincerely, Margie Steensrud
114 Timber Trail, Packwood, WA 98361 360-494-9220
Eric in the 1960’s.
Eric and Margie at Mt. Rainier.
Eric with Gus, Cassie, and Nils Steensrud.
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For a quick view of the new MSO Music Director, please watch
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For the latest on the new hall, go to
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I was quite surprised to see the Marcus Center now plans major renovations to Uihlein Hall and the facility itself. It is quite a major overhaul and for more on this, see
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Fred Snyder, retired MSO contrabassonist posted an announcement of his marriage to Leng Xiong on July 2, 2018, in San Diego.
. They will be moving to Oaxaca, Mexico so Leng can begin his nursing studies.
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David Taggart posted: Team Chemo-Sabe was recognized Thursday at the LLS Wisconsin Chapter awards dinner, for our hugely successful 2018 Scenic Shore 150 campaign. Almost 20 of our $1000+ riders got to enjoy the moment, celebrating our accomplishment of raising over $101,400 for the LLS mission to cure blood cancers. The team will have our name attached to a research project focusing on non-Hodgkins lymphoma, the cancer I have. My team is the BEST.
What an astounding achievement for David and his riders. Congratulations!!!
You may remember that David plays with the Milwaukee Mandolin Orchestra. They will be giving a program at the South Milwaukee Performing Arts Center on January 26th at 7:30PM. Keep it in mind- should be fun!
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Past MSO Associate Conductor Franceso Lecce-Chong has been named the Music Director of the Santa Rosa Symphony. John Lounsbery sent this photo and writes that the orchestra sounds better than ever and it seems to be a very good match.
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On the subject of Associate Conductors, Woody and I had the opportunity to visit with past Associate Conductor Andrews Sill and MSO violist Joana Miranda recently in New York. Andy was Acting Music Director while the New York City Ballet Orchestra searched for a new MD. Now that Andrew Litton has the position, Andy is back to his regular post as Associate Conductor. Joanna is busy freelancing and when we were with them, was about to begin her 29th Nutcracker of the season with five more remaining. She will have a bit of time to herself and then will be subbing as the only violist in the The Wiz for a time. They were able to enjoy a visit to Portugal, Joana’s home country, in November, before the Nutcracker run began. It was a delight to see them again.
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Judy Ormond just returned from a trip to Cuba- her second, perhaps, after our tour there in 1999? Hope she will send some information and photos from this recent adventure.
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Anne Sczygiel sent an update on the activities on her family.
Mark moved to St. Paul, Minnesota from Minneapolis in September. He works at Thomson Reuters as a Computer Software Engineer. He likes that he can work some days from his apartment. He is also working on a Master of Computer Science Degree through a completely on-line program with Georgia Tech. This program was featured on a PBS News Hour segment several months ago – a new approach to education! He will travel with some friends to Iceland this coming April.
Angela is working as a Histology Technologist for the Aurora Heath System at their main lab at West Allis Memorial Hospital. She works 3rd shift. She is getting married February 16, 2019 at a lovely venue in downtown Kenosha. I will be walking her down the aisle! She and her fiance sing with the Master Singers. They were both Music Majors at Carthage College in Kenosha. She lives in an apartment 1 block away from me which is really wonderful.
Fred should just see these two!….or perhaps he does….
Linda Siegel and Sara Harmelink and I had a fun trip to Santa Barbara in November with others from the Friendship Force of Greater Milwaukee.
We are so happy to have some of Fred’s great MSO friends at the wedding. It means a lot to both of us. You have all had quite an impact on our family and we so appreciate it.
Angela Fuller and her fiance, Joe Pettit.
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Bill Barnewitz kindly sent his wonderful Christmas letter to me. Here are portions of the letter-
Happy Saturnukkahwanzamas!
2018 was quite a year! On the plus side of the ledger, we began the year with a fairly easy winter, a beautiful spring day, followed by a gorgeous summer and fall. We are fully settled into our new home, and it accommodates visitors beautifully (hint, hint). This fall, instead of raking, we often found ourselves at Barthel’s apple orchard eating caramel apples, pears, apple cider donuts, and of course apples of many different stripes. We also had time to enjoy the changing colors of the leaves instead of cursing the falling bastards from our usual station bent crookedly over a rake. As for shoveling snow, with eggnog in hand and from the warmth of our home, we toasted the nice men with their plows and salters.
Juliette continues to love her job proof reading at MPS, and Kate, Molly, and their respective partners, Nathan and Emma, and Kate’s fur baby, Addie-the-wonder-dog, are all making the world a better place with kindness, hard work, conscious living, and limited growling. Life is rich, and I am so lucky to be surrounded by such comfort and love.
This winter’s solstice will mark my 60th birthday. Wait, what? Yep, the big six-oh. It is the birthday that Iris Murdock described as “the youth of old age,” versus 59, which she said is “the old age of youth.” Clever girl. My health, other than its continual seismic qualities, is good. Juliette and I plan on many more trips to the apple orchard and glasses of eggnog with which to enjoy the snow. Hanging flower baskets will still need displaying in the spring, new places need visiting, my daughters’ victories will need celebrating, friends still add richness to our days, my golf game still needs much improvement, and ridiculousness still needs crafting. What a life!
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As you know, Linda Unkefer’s father died recently. I received a note from her that I would like to share with you.
As you know, he had dementia and this past year was a trial for both Mom and Dad. He almost reached his 100th birthday but by the time he went, we were grateful that his time of suffering had passed. And now my mother has to learn to live without her spouse of 71 years. This will be the challenge.
I have received some cards from MSO retirees and I am so grateful. As always, what a wonderful bunch of people. Friends.
Because of the holidays, we are not having the service for Dad until next week, the day after New Year’s. I wish for Mom’s sake, it could have happened sooner, but it simply couldn’t be.
I received no information from the MSO regarding this service. Perhaps some of you may have heard about it from current musicians.
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That is it for now. Best wishes to all of you.
Andrea
OLOMA65 