On Saturday, April 13 at 4:30 p.m., musicians will perform in memory of Bob Anderson (1917-2012), the founding conductor and music director of Cascade Symphony for its first 30 years, from 1962-92.

There will be several small ensembles representing the orchestra: a string quintet, a cello quartet, a marimba duet, a piece for oboe and piano, a piece for brass,  and a solo by our former principal cellist, Barbara Johnston.

The concert also features performers from Sno-King Community Chorale, Seattle Jazz Singers and others.

The free concert is at Trinity Lutheran Church, 6215 196th St. SW, Lynnwood.

More about Bob Anderson from Donn and Evangeline Anderson, Carol Anderson:

Robert Anderson | 1917-2012

Bob was born in the gold-rush village of Nome, Alaska in 1917, after his parents, Axel and Jenny immigrated from western Sweden. They survived the Spanish Flu epidemic that killed most of Nome’s inhabitants and moved to Seattle in 1918, settling near Green Lake. Bob learned English, entered school and began violin studies with Erick Koker at age 9. Following Axel’s death in 1934, Bob helped support his mother and brother Harold by teaching privately, playing events at the Olympic Hotel, working the Alaska ferries during the summer, running a news stand in Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood and grinding
coffee beans for Al Manning’s restaurants. He graduated from Lincoln High School in 1936 and enrolled at the UW as a Music Major with teaching credentials. Following Jenny’s death in 1939, Bob moved to Minneapolis to help his brother finish high school and studied with Harold Ayres, the Concert Master of the then-Minneapolis Symphony.

Returning to Seattle, Bob recalled the day he heard the news of the Pearl Harbor tragedy – riding the ferry to his teaching job at Bremerton High School. This job granted him a deferred deployment after he enlisted in the U.S. Army in January 1942. The deferred deployment permitted the “encounter” that would change his life from wandering musician to husband, father, teacher and conductor. The huge doors of the UW Music Department may still bear the marks of his “meeting up with” (read: knocking her off her feet) a pretty 20-year old Army General’s daughter, newly arrived in Seattle. The rest is history.

Following his marriage to Georgia Olmstead, Bob went overseas in the spring of 1945, serving as S/Sgt Bandmaster in the 2nd Armored Division in Germany. When the European war was declared over, Bob completed his deployment with the 1st Armored Division at the American University in Biarritz, France, studying conducting and orchestration.

After the war, Bob started over yet again as he joined his wife, built a GI-l house, pursued a M.A. and re-secured his chair in the Seattle Symphony. He played every show, ballet, park concert, opera, circus act and musical in town. 1947 was a great year. Dad welcomed a son, Robert Donn. He was then hired to build a music program in the Edmonds School District. 1949 began a 20-year commitment to the choir of First Christian Church on Capitol Hill. In 1951, daughter Carol arrived and Bob accepted the podium of the Bremerton Symphony, which he led for nine years. He continued to build the Edmonds School District music program with staff that became life-long friends and was contracted as District Music Coordinator in 1954, a position he held until his retirement.

Beginning in 1957, Bob was awarded Ford Foundation fellowship grants to study orchestral conducting with Richard Lert, the Conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic prior to the Nazi invasion of Austria. Bob would drive the Old Highway 99 straight through and back again from the Asilomar Conference Grounds in Pacific Grove, Calif., to spend two weeks, delighted to be head down in scores, but be back in time to march in the Sea Fair parades. At the end of the four grant years, he returned to play in the Asilomar orchestra with Donn, to participate in the training of other aspiring conductors.

Meanwhile the Bremerton ferry figured again in his life, as it was on a return trip that the Cascade Symphony was envisioned, to debut in 1962. The CSO was his passion and joy for 30 years. Remembering a conversation with Jascha Heifitz backstage while stationed in New York, Bob lived by what the virtuoso reminded him – “There will always be better fiddle players than you, lots worse, so diversify. Do all that music offers.”

The tag-team race of Bob’s musical life was tempered by Georgia and with each retirement, they were able to slow down and enjoy travel to England and Scandinavia to visit family, continental Europe, Australia for Donn and Evangeline’s marriage, and Hawaii to revisit Georgia’s childhood sites.

Thank you for encouraging Dad after Mom’s death in 2002. While he was a good sport about moving to Bellingham in 2008 at the age of 90, he missed the Edmonds area very much. He made many friends while in Bellingham and they provided him with a new life and outlook (however Mondays remained “rehearsal” nights – what else do people do on Mondays?) After a short and contented stay at a Bellingham Care facility, Dad “took the 3rd ending” (his euphemism) on May 11, 2012 at nearly 95.

He laid his baton down for the last time… but the music continues.

Donn and Evangeline Anderson
Carol Anderson

Instrumentalists from the Cascade Symphony will showcase their individual talents in small ensembles as they present CSO’s annual Ensembles Concert on April 14 at 3 p.m. at Edmonds United Methodist Church (828 Caspers St.).

The concert will feature unique and varied solo players and chamber ensembles from all sections of the orchestra, including a trumpet solo, an oboe and piano duo, a bass clarinet duo, a flute duo, a string quintet, and selections from the extremely popular Cascade Percussion Ensemble.

Tickets for the ensemble concert are $15 for adults and $10 for students. Buy tickets. Tickets will also be available at the door.

The program includes:

Malcolm Arnold Fantasy for Trumpet
Trumpet

Mauricio Murcia Bedoya – Columbian Dancer
Daniel Barry – Cobweb
William O. Smith – Sections from Jazz Set
Bass Clarinets

Ennio Morricone – The Mission
Oboe and Piano

Friedrich Kuhlau – Concert Duo #1 in e minor, op. 10
Flutes

Glazunov – String Quintet in A major
John Rutter – Suite for Strings
String Quintet

Mozart -Marriage of Figaro
Beethoven – String Quartet in F Major Op. 18 #1
Camille Saint Saens – Carnival of the Animals – Aquarium
Carlos Gomes – Burrico De Pau
Manuel de Falla – Danse Rituelle Du Feu (Ritual Fire Dance)
Maurice Ravel – Ma Mere L’Oye
Dmitri Shostakovich – “Polka from the Golden Age”
Percussion ensemble

Directions to Edmonds United Methodist Church

• From I-5 Southbound from Everett:
- Take the Lynnwood (196th St.) Exit from I-5.
- Turn right at the end of the exit ramp and you will be on 196th Street going west.

• From I-5 Northbound from Seattle:
- Take the Lynnwood (44thAve. W) Exit from I-5.
- Turn left at the end of the exit ramp onto 44th Ave. West and left onto SW 196th St. by the Fred Meyer store, and you will be on SW 196th Street going west.
- Cross Aurora Ave. (Rte. 99) and continue west, up and down the hill for about 2 miles. When the road bends, follow it! The Edmonds United Methodist Church is at the bottom of the hill near downtown Edmonds on the south side of the road right at the bend where it intersects with 9th Avenue.

Overture to Tannhäuser
Wilhelm Richard Wagner

Wagner spent three years composing this early opera, orchestrating it and writing the libretto himself. The themes in the overture are taken from scenes in the opera, outlining the plot. The opera premiered in 1845 in Dresden, Germany.

Tannhäuser, feeling guilty for having been lured by the seductress, Venus, attempts a pilgrimage to Rome to atone for his sins. Upon his return, he finds that his true love, Elisabeth, has died from grief, and he, himself, dies at her grave.

Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor
Ludwig van Beethoven

In 1892, Beethoven left Bonn to live in Vienna, a city still buzzing with the music of Mozart. There he dedicated himself to musical studies with the most eminent musicians of the age, including Haydn, with whom he studied piano.

Beethoven’s early compositions resembled those of the classical masters, but gradually his style changed. His third piano concerto contains classical allusions, but it was one of his first works to take the Sturm und Drang style to a new level.

The concerto is an interesting mix of Classical and Romantic; the facility and elegance of Mozart is combined with the power and willfulness of Beethoven.  An almost symphonic opening of the first movement precedes the entrance of the solo piano; the second movement takes an unexpected turn into a foreign key; and the third movement, which includes a miniature fugue, is much stormier than the usual light rondos of the Classical era. Read more about piano soloist Allan Dameron.

Symphony No. 2 in E minor
Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff

 It is something of a miracle that Rachmaninoff composed a second symphony, after the disastrous performance of his first.  The poorly performed and harshly critiqued first symphony of 1897 sent Rachmaninoff into such a bout of depression and writer’s block that for three years he composed nothing at all. Thankfully, he sought help, eventually overcame his crippling depression, and was inspired to write once again.

In 1906, Rachmaninoff decided he could no longer compose under the oppressive Russian rule, and he moved with his wife and young daughter to Dresden.  The new location, peaceful and quiet, allowed Rachmaninoff to commit himself fully to composition. The second symphony, which he considered to be his greatest symphonic masterpiece, was the first major work he composed there.

7:30 p.m., Edmonds Center for the Arts
6:30 p.m.: Preconcert Lecture with KUOW’s Dave Beck
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