Dear MSO Retirees,
Hope your new year is off to a great start. It has been a while since the last newsletter so let’s get reading.
John Lounsbery is still sharing his talent with several groups in the Santa Rosa area. John has been busy playing with the ECHO Chamber Orchestra in San Rafael, Symphony of the Redwoods, the Lakeville Symphony, and at the Sonoma State University Horn Gathering.
John is making sure grandson Teddy has an early start with the horn.
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Dennis Najoom has successfully passed his bartending legal test! While Dennis says it didn’t teach how to concoct various drinks, he was taught all the state laws and best practices in the field. Here is Dennis, on the other side of the bar, with David Lussier, Gregory Vajda, Debbie Steidl, Pat McGinn, and Tom Wetzel in 2006.
Tom Wetzel has been doing a bit of travel, enjoying time in Salt Lake City, Greenville, SC, and Las Vegas. When not at the tables in Las Vegas, Tom also drove his first super car at SPEEDVEGAS, a 2019 Corvette! He didn’t include too many details but at the SPEEDVEGAS website I did see that their 2019 Corvette is a Z51 with a top speed of 190 mph, 460 HP and 0-60mph in 3.0 seconds and 0-100mph in 3.9 seconds. Not too shabby.
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Angela Fuller and husband, Joe Pettit, welcomed their first child into the world!! You know Fred is beaming. Second photo is his first outing.
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MSO Concertmaster Frank Almond will be stepping down at the end of the current season. Frank will then resume duties as an Artistic Director for the MSO. For the full story, go to
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Sara Harmelink spent the holidays enjoying family time. Here she is with daughter Nicole, attending Hamilton, and with son Neal and grandson Crue, Nicole’s son.
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Steve Colburn and Marlee Sabo enjoyed a clan gathering on Christmas Day in Apple Valley, Minnesota. Second photo is of their daughter, Sarah, and her daughter, Packer fans forever.
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Les and Wilanna Kalkhof shared their Christmas newsletter with us. They celebrated their 45th anniversary this year and are now into their second year of retirement. They write:
Wilanna is still active at Bay Shore Lutheran Church, serving on the church council, on the music committee, participating in and soloing with the church choir, playing the piano when needed, and lately as one of a small group of assisting lay ministers, a role the church’s new lady pastor has created to encourage greater involvement. Wilanna also has her book clubs, and many good friends and former MSO colleagues with whom she lunches periodically.
Les, who is by nature and preference far less social, is enjoying photography more and more each passing year. He still works in both film and digital media, and is blissfully not “up to date” in either. He continues to relish the outdoors and he gets out far more often than he was able to during his working years.
Les and Wilanna have plans in place for a trip to the Tetons 2020. Side excursions to Yellowstone are also in the works.
Dr. Tasha is still practicing veterinary medicine at Companion Clinic in Kenosha. Like any other line of work, hers is a mixture of the rewarding, the mundane, and occasionally the frustrating. We get to see her once a week for lunch or supper and a pleasant visit. Ever the globetrotter, Tasha has recently returned from a trip to the Canary Islands where she went paragliding and enjoyed a stay at a resort on Tenerife with her best friend, Pakou.
Eric and Holly celebrated their tenth wedding anniversary this year at a resort in Mexico on the Yucatan peninsula. A trip to Chichen Itza was one of the highlights.
At home in Eden Prairie Eric and Holly grow a lot of their own food- canning homemade Sala, pickles, and preserved vegetables in the fall. Braelyn and Lincoln help with the preparation. Braelyn is now six years old and in the first grade in the Eden Prairie school system. Lincoln is four. We visit them several times a year and lately they have been visiting us over the Fourth of July.
Best wishes to all.
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On Veteran’s Day Rick Metzger posted a thank you to his son for Bob’s service in Iraq.
And Rick also shared a photo of a birthday gift from his brother Ken. Is it the hat or the “rifle”?!
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Bonnie Peterson was in Phoenix, then returned to Chicago for the holidays, and now is home again. Here she celebrates her birthday with Josh (I think) and his family.
Purchasing a new addition for the home garden.
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Danis Kelly has been traveling, too, with a visit to Sedona. Danis will also be cruising the Hawaiian Islands in February with her sister and brother-in-law. I plan to meet them and show them our beautiful island of Kauai.
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David Taggart, Terry Burko, and some of the members of their Team Chemo-Sabe were recognized at a dinner held by the Wisconsin Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. The team raised over $93,000 in 2019 and over $500,000 since 2005! Terry and David are front and center, as they well should be.
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Our intrepid Judy Ormond made another adventure trip to Australia and the Great Barrier Reef. She sent this photo snorkeling at the Reef and of Uluru (Ayer’s Rock) at Sunrise.
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Linda Siegel has been studying the evolution of Afro-Caribbean Rhythms in Latin America with Bembe Drum & Dance. From their website, Bembe is a cultural Performing arts program in the city of Milwaukee that inspires music and performance skills, intergenerational connection, and cultural identity exploration through Afro-Latino Musical Cultural.
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From Richard Kimball-
Sarah and I are wintering in our condo in the Art Deco historic district of south Miami Beach. We spend six months here and the rest in Milwaukee or traveling. I was free-lancing in Miami but my eyesight makes it to difficult to read music now. Wish I was a better improviser and I would do some jazz. Both Sarah and I are well and get a lot of bicycling and swimming in. We will be back in May and hope to see some ex- colleagues then. Best to all.
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We also heard from Steve Basson-
These pix show the Massachusetts Bassons; the other one shows Phoebe in Brooklyn with her own poster asking that we save the planet ….Mr and Mrs B also added a little Ogunquit and lobster to this trip. Hope all is well with my fellow retirees.
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The work continues with the new hall. Recent media postings include:
https://www.mso.org/backstage/article/support-milwaukee-symphony-center
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Mike Borschel remembered our wonderful MSO visits to Santa Domingo when he and Cathy visited Punta Cana recently. Mike has been “scuba-ing” for a number of years now.
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And some great, surprising news from Norma Zehner-
I got married! I wasn’t looking for love, but it just happened. I met Hancer Gonzalez at a Spanish conversational group a little over a year ago, we started dating in March and things progressed very quickly. His daughter and her 3 children have been visiting from Venezuela for the past 5 months and, unfortunately, have to return soon. Imagine me dealing with car seats, school registration, and so on. But it has been a very easy adjustment because they’re all so loving.
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Joana Miranda had several of her illustrations posted on over 1800 LinkNYC kiosks in all five boroughs of New York City for two December weeks! Joana, Woody, and I had an opportunity to meet for a short time between New York City Ballet performances of The Nutcracker (Andy was conducting that day but had some “conductor business” during the break).
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Some of the other five illustrations being used.
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And there is some wonderful news about Megumi Kanda. She has won the 2020 International Trombone Association (ITA) Award! The following is from the official announcement and her background is included for those of you who may not know her.
The ITA Award recognizes the highest level of creative and artistic output in areas such as performance, composition, arranging, teaching, conducting, research and/or service.
Megumi Kanda, Principal Trombone of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, is a native of Tokyo, Japan. Megumi began to play the trombone at age ten and continued her studies at the prestigious Toho High School of Music, where she studied with Sumio Miwa, trombonist in the NHK Symphony Orchestra. At age fifteen, she became the youngest player ever to be named as one of the top ten trombonists at the Japanese Wind and Percussion Competition. Two years later, she won the Grand Prize in the National Competition for Solo Trombone and won best soloist prize upon graduation from the Toho High School of Music.
Megumi came to the United States in 1994, and received her Bachelor of Music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she studied with James DeSano, former principal trombone of the Cleveland Orchestra. Prior to joining the Milwaukee Symphony in 2002, she previously served as a member of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, faculty member of the Eastman School of Music Community Education Division, and principal trombonist of the Albany Symphony Orchestra.
Megumi has performed in recital and as a soloist across the United States, Europe and Asia, including with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, the US Army Field and Pershing’s Own Bands, and the Prague Chamber Orchestra. As a JVC/Victor Entertainment artist, Megumi recorded three solo albums: Amazing Grace, Gloria, and Mona Lisa. She also can be heard on Magnifique Live, a live recording with other JVC artists recorded at an August 2005 performance at Takemitsu Hall in Tokyo’s Opera City. She is a regular guest artist at festivals such as the International Trombone Festival and the American Trombone Workshop, as well as at numerous colleges around the US and Japan.
In April 2006, Megumi was recognized by the Arion Foundation in Tokyo, Japan as one of the most influential Japanese classical artists. She has also received a Certificate of Commendation from the Consul General of Japan at Chicago in recognition for distinguished service contributing to the friendship between the United States and Japan. In 2017, Megumi was named by the Milwaukee Business Journal as one of Milwaukee’s Women of Influence in the category of education.
In her spare time, Megumi enjoys gardening, going to Milwaukee Brewers games, and taking walks with her husband Dietrich and sons Hans, Max, and Lukas.
This photo is Megumi with her early trombone teacher, Sumio Miwa, at his 80th birthday party early in January.
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Joe Conti played with friends at Milwaukee’s The Jazz Estate at one of their Latin Jam Sessions.
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Anne DeVroome Kamerling also wrote:
I now have 2 daughters over the age of 50 (how did that happen?)…Tamara on the left, Kimberly on the right…and, no, they didn’t cause my gray hair! Garry is doing well, although age 93 has its challenges. We hope to go to Arizona for 3 weeks in February to escape part of the Wonderful-Wisconsin-Winter. Best wishes to everyone.
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Who knew Santa Claus played the cello and Janet Millard is a section mate?!!
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I know how much we all “love” to play the Palchelbel Canon. For an unusual version that may bring a smile, try this:
That is it for now. Best wishes to you and your families.
Andrea
OLOMA65 