November 2007

Some years ago, when my middle son was about to graduate high school, he and his friend talked of possible majors. His friend, Adrian, had decided to choose business. Now Adrian was a fine musician. He played well, but he also composed and arranged. When he visited our house, which was quite often, he would play the piano for his own enjoyment though it wasn’t his first instrument. I asked him about his major, and when he told me, I explained to him that he should reconsider. It was a brief conversation, but somehow I communicated that he had the talent, the ability to choose music and that he could make a living at it as well. 

He agreed apparently and received a degree in composition from the University of Texas four years later. The first time I played at Mu Phi, I brought his Opus 1 for flute alone. His compensation: tickets to the Cleveland Symphony. Adrian joined the Army after graduation and has recently been selected as a staff arranger for the Army Band in Washington, D.C. And I happen to know he has used that flute piece as the basis for a brass fanfare several times.

Our alumni chapter has a number of things to brag about: Mary Williams’ Lamke award reported in the current Triangle, the chapter itself chosen as the outstanding alumni chapter for the province, individual honors for members such as Katie Freiberger and others. The list could go on, as bragging often does. 

When I need to know more about a word, I go to the dictionary. As I noted, there is very little positive about the words brag or boast. One of the meanings of boast surprised me, however: to shape (stone) roughly in sculpture and stonecutting as a preliminary to finer work. We are not stone, of course, and we can change more easily than with a chisel. The idea of finer work is exciting and challenging. Regardless of what nice things have been said or done in the past, we can always “boast” them into something better. As a chapter and as individuals, we have the opportunity to do small things better (like getting the meeting started at 7:30 perhaps) and large things well (continuing to support the library program when everyone is so busy). We should not let the idea of finer work mean that we can just practice harder. It is probably time for us simply to polish up the rough edges.

Best,
Mary Ann Taylor

Next Meeting

We will not have another meeting until February 11th, when we will join the SAIs back at the downtown library. 

Chapter News

Yearbook

(Contact your webmaster for an address and phone.)

Bea Carney turned 89 on Sept. 20. She is still teaching and enjoying life, and says hello to Dallas friends.

Let Mary Williams know about other corrections or omissions in your yearbook. I’ll make sure they get in next year and will post changes in the newsletter as received.

Dues

Sharon Kraus reported that she is turning in our chapter dues and if you haven’t paid yours, you have probably heard from her by now.

SERV hours

Reminder from Sandra McMillen: Be sure to keep track (monthly if possible) of the volunteer hours you accumulate this year – from last June through next May. See page 37 in your yearbook for more information and a handy form.

Awards

The chapter won the Outstanding Alumni Chapter in the South Central Province for 2006-2007. VP Zeller cited the programming, the SERV participation, the library series and Sadie Rowe’s 400 SERV hours. Congratulations to Sadie!

Appearing in the Triangle, Vol 101, Issue 3 – Fall 2007:

Orah Ashley Lamke Award
Mary Manning Williams, Gamma, Dallas Alumni
B.Mus., University of Michigan
M.B.A., University of North Texas

Mary has had a multifaceted career, having worked as a music, art, and piano teacher; corporate trainer; business manager; and active volunteer. Her Mu Phi service is extensive. A Dallas Alumni member since 1961, she served as chapter president 1966-68. She currently writes and publishes the chapter’s newsletter and maintains its award-winning website, which she originally developed. She frequently hosts chapter meetings and is also the chapter’s photographer. Perhaps most notably, she served for twenty-five years on the committee that oversees the chapter’s long-running, popular Sunday concert series. She was chapter business delegate to the International Convention in Portland, Oregon, and is a Golden Triangle member. Mary’s other volunteer service includes the Dallas Chamber Orchestra (board member, president), Friendship Force of Dallas (vice-president, exchange host), and Unity Church (former accompanist, lay leader).

Thanks to all of you for nominating me! M

Officers

Your officers for 2007-2008 are:

Mary Ann Taylor - President
Sylvia Taylor Lerch - Vice-President 
Sandra McMillen - Secretary
Sharon Kraus - Treasurer
Edie Pfautsch - Historian
Patricia Hill - Steward
Sadie Rowe - Chaplain
Phyllis Wilson - Chorister

Committee chairs are listed in the September 2007 newsletter.

Mary Ann Taylor, in her new role as president, ably opened our first meeting of the fall. She announced our awards for this year and that doctoral dissertations have recently been written on the compositions of member Katherine Freiberger and also on the compositions of the late patron and Mu Phi husband Lloyd Pfautsch. Sylvia Taylor, assisted by Sharon Kraus, Frances Estes and Becky Corley, planned the meeting that included a salad lunch. 

Tina Murdock, Music Librarian at the Dallas Public Library, Fine Arts Division gave us a very interesting tour of the 4th floor (Arts floor) of the Dallas Public Library, including the back storage areas where much of the history of the Dallas arts community is kept. Items on this floor include art, architecture, and music; besides books many other things can be checked out are an enormous LP collection and 12,000 CDs, DVD and VHS videos, scores and pictures. In addition, many opera costumes, set designs, original architectural drawings and reference works of all kinds are stored here. Tina is shown here with a string quartet stand designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. She also has a collection of the Dallas Symphony and Meyerson memorabilia, including batons of famous conductors.

Volunteers are needed to help unpack and store items donated to the library. Contact Tina if you are interested. She can also use donations of scores (especially of chamber music), original manuscripts and letters, Texas music and recordings, and pictures of all kinds (artists, musicians, people in history – especially Texas and Dallas history). Don’t throw away that collection of old stuff in your Aunt Hattie’s attic until you find out whether the library would like to have it. Contact Tina at: tmurdock@dallaslibrary.org.

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October Meeting

Thanks to our hostess Pat Suitt and co-hostesses Claudia Jameson, Tena Hehn and Zelda Hantz. Performers for the October meeting were the Les Amis Quartet – Gretchen Nichols, Ruth Reed, Pat Suitt and Frances Estes – who played the Martinu Quatuor for Oboe, Violin, Cello and Piano. This group of friends has played together in various capacities since the ‘80s – with the Fort Worth Symphony and in the schools. The delightful Martinu piece combined jazz, atonal and neoclassical elements. A short biography of Martinu disclosed that he was a Czech composer, born in a bell tower (!) to bell ringers in 1895. He was a violinist, organist and composer.

Joining us were Mu Phi Cynthia Stuart who played piano and keyboard, and Cornell Kinderknecht who played a variety of wind instruments, beginning with the oboe, and including two Native American flutes and an ocarina. They played their own compositions, including Cynthia’s Longing and Tenderness, and Cornell’s Painted Sky, Day’s End and Generations. We certainly enjoyed both groups of performers.

November 18 - Doo-Wop Vocal Band (The Dallas Camerata Woodwind Quintet will not play due to an illness of one of the members.)

The Arts in Dallas

A good place to go to find websites for other arts organizations in Dallas: http://www.ntbca.org. There are also events listed here on our Events page.

At the Library

Tina Murdock has started a gathering of metroplex music organizations; it met last summer for the first time. If you belong to another music group that might want to be a part of it, let Tina know. Send her your complete contact information so she can add you to her mailing list. Be sure to include your name and e-mail address in the body of the letter, so she can put names and e-mail addresses together. The next meeting will be sometime in January.

Tina Murdock, Music Librarian, Dallas Public Library, Fine Arts Division
1515 Young Street, Dallas, TX 75201
214-671-8337; 214-670-1646 (fax)
tina.murdock@dallaslibrary.org

Electronic mail

President/ General Information - Patricia HIll  pattylou915@yahoo.com

Mary Williams: txtravel@flash.net