My Musical Career|Part Eighteen

Leaving Albany

My three years in Albany as timpanist with the Albany Symphony, Berkshire Symphony and Lake George Opera were most fulfilling. I had the opportunity to do a bit of conducting and program presenting with the Albany Little Symphony, as well as personally familiarize myself with some superb orchestral and operatic repertory. My final concerts with the Albany Symphony were played in early May of 1980, although I did not know it at the time. At least I ended the season on a positive note: Brahms’s Second Symphony was the main work on those final programs.
As soon as the season ended, I took off on a trip out west with my good friend, Richard Ross. He was headed out west to spend some with his family and to drop off his wife Carla in Indianola, Iowa where she was to spend five weeks as an apprentice artist with the Des Moines Metro Opera. We would then drive to Denver so that I could audition for the Denver Symphony. I’d then go on to Utah with Richard, spend the rest of the time out there, and return, pick up Carla and then head back to Albany where Richard and I would play for the Lake George Opera’s five week summer season.
The trip went well, but the audition did not, and I was soon back in Glens Falls, New York and staying at the home of John and June Boor (he was head of the music department at Queensbury High School, the opera’s performing venue). This was a lot closer to the school – it was well within walking distance, and one of my roommates was Fred Avila, the second bass player with the Opera, and a fellow member of the Albany Symphony. We each had downstairs private rooms to ourselves and it was quite a nice arrangement. The season proceeded apace, and I noted during that time that there were two auditions posted in the International Musician. One was for the principal timpanist’s position in the Charlotte Symphony, and other was for a consortium position with the University of Evansville of Evansville, Indiana – as adjunct instructor of percussion, with duties as timpanist of the Evansville Philharmonic and Owensboro, Ky. Symphony orchestras. I applied to both, and was accepted as a candidate for both organizations. I discussed this long and hard with Fred, and he told me not to let my failure with the Denver Symphony deter me from taking the auditions. I thought long and hard about it the rest of the short five week season and upon my return to Albany. First up was the audition in Charlotte, NC. Like the Denver audition, the less said the better. Suffice it to say that I took it and didn’t place. It was back to the drawing board.

Evansville Audition

There was still the Evansville audition to be held in early September. After two auditions without results, I was not about to commit to another potential failure – which is how I saw it the time. I had lunch with Fred, who kept insisting that I should take it. The job description would have me teaching percussion and playing timpani with two orchestras, and there was also an artist-in-residence position in the local school system. While the timpanist duties were right up my alley, I was a little less certain of how I would do as a percussion instructor, or what

Evansville

this artist-in-residence position entailed. I hemmed and hawed until Fred nearly screamed at me to call them and get full details. I finally got a hold of Dave Wright, clarinet teacher at the university and principal clarinet of the orchestras as well as chairman of the search committee and talked with him about the job. He convinced me to make the trip as it could well be worth my while, so I decided to take the audition. Another thing that helped me was the fact that my parents had decided to take off from work and would be driving me down. It would be a god way for all of us to reconnect, to have me audition, and for them to have a little vacation. In retrospect, it was a great idea, as all three objectives were accomplished.
Accordingly, I left Albany and took the train downstate a few days before the audition was scheduled and spent a night with the folks at the family home in Yorktown Heights. The next day, we set out for Evansville, Indiana in my parent’s brand new 1980 Chrysler LeBaron. It was a very comfortable car and the drive gave us a chance to reconnect and generally relax and enjoy each other’s company. We arrived in Evansville the day before the audition, early enough to check into the hotel, clean up and enjoy a good lunch, then drive to the venue and check out the area. We spent the rest of the afternoon doing just that, then we retired for the night, may parents making sure that I was well rested and ready for what the audition committee would throw at me.

The actual audition was held in the Wheeler Concert Hall of the Fine Arts Building on the campus of the University of Evansville. The instruments – a set of Ludwig Dresden timpani owned by the Evansville Philharmonic; a Ludwig Concert Bass Drum; Musser xylophone; Ludwig concert snare drum, and assorted traps and stands were set up

Wheeler Concert Hall

in such a way as to facilitate an efficient audition. The committee sat at a long table in  the space between the performing area and the audience seating (as there was no raised stage in Wheeler) – close enough for the committee to converse with the candidate should they wish to do so, but far enough to get a good sound picture of each of the candidates. The committee was made up of Stewart Kershaw, the conductor of the Evansville Philharmonic; Leon Gregorian, conductor of the Owensboro Symphony; Dr. Paul Dove, chairman of the Music Department at U of E; Ed Lacy, principal bassoonist of the EPO and wind faculty at Uof E; the aforementioned David Wright, EPO principal clarinet; and Anne Hastings, a member of the piano faculty.
Other faculty and students were allowed to observe from the audience seating.
There were two other candidates present when I arrived. One was Tom Van Arsdale, the instructor of percussion at Murray State University in Paducah, Kentucky; and the other was Philip Shipley. I had no idea at the time that he would be my immediate successor in Albany.

If memory serves, I was the last one to audition. I arrived as one of the candidates was auditioning, and I chatted briefly with Tom, and then it was my turn. I was ushered into the hall and promptly and without fuss, set myself up and proceeded to play the required excerpts. On timpani, it was the last page of Stravinsky’s “Le Sacre du Printemps – from Number 186 to the end; excerpts from Carl Orff’s “Carmina Burana”; excerpts from the first and second movement of the Beethoven Ninth Symphony; and the last movement of Brahms’ First Symphony. For the percussion it was the xylophone part from “Ma Mere L’Oye of Ravel; the bell solo from the Glazunov Violin Concerto, and on snare drum it was the opening of Rossini’s “La Gazza Ladra” overture, and a bit of Ravel’s “Bolero”.
The playing portion took about twenty five minutes as both conductors asked me to repeat sections at different tempi. Then came a question-answer period. Dr. Dove asked most of the questions, which were mainly dealing with such matters as how would I conduct myself as a percussion instructor, and how best could I contribute to the music program at U of E. The questions were cogent and well framed, and Dr. Dove allowed all members of the jury to participate. It was definitely not a “Spanish Inquisition”, and I was more relaxed as I answered the questions than I have ever been at an audition – then or since.
After I had answered to their satisfaction, I was invited to wait outside with the other candidates in the hallway outside the concert hall. It was here that I got to know Phil Shipley and Tom Van Arsdale a bit better as we had the better part of forty-five minutes to wait before the committee made its decision.
We chatted quite freely – in the manner of nervous candidates relieved that the actual ordeal of auditioning was over, but half-dreading the final decision. I found my colleagues to be decent, well-educated and well-spoken. Each of them would have made a good pick.
As it turned out, at the end of forty-five minutes, Dr. Dove came out and gathered the three of us together. His words will forever be etched in my memory: “Thank you gentlemen. We have decided to offer the position to Mr. Simco.”
I was, again for the second time in my life, speechless.  I could hardly believe my good fortune, and I accepted the congratulations of my fellow candidates with a smile, but with only a few words of thanks. I was invited back into the hall to get my things and to be congratulated and to get to know my soon-to be employers and colleagues. Also a couple of soon-to-be students. I’ll leave the descriptions to later, but suffice to say that after talking to each of them, I sensed a sincerity and warmth  from all concerned, and a sense as if I had known them all my life. I knew that this was not true, but I had the sensation nonetheless. I then went to the Dr. Dove’s office and discussed my availability. I told him that I had to return to Albany and wind my affairs up, and that it would take me about two to three weeks to do so, and that I would be back in Evansville before the end of the month. This was acceptable to them, and the college would make arrangements for me to stay in the university’s guest house when I returned and until I could find suitable permanent accommodations.
I was so excited that I literally ran to my parents and shouted “I’ve brung home the bacon!” (I was never good at grammar then – I should have said “brought” – but I was so hyper-excited, that good grammar never entered my mind at that point.)
My parents were equally excited – my dad so much so that his heart started racing with excitement and he had to sit down and collect himself, which he was able to do quite quickly. I introduced them to a few of the audition committee, and then it was back to the motel to wash up and go to dinner. We enjoyed a leisurely dinner, then retired for the night. The next morning, we were on the road early for a triumphal road trip back to New York State. We stopped off at a road side stand for some melons and fruit. I remember the melon being especially sweet.

Winding up affairs in Albany

Closing out three years in Albany wasn’t easy. I had the greatest respect for my colleagues and friends, and it was hard to say good-bye to these people, especially since I would not see a great many of them as the orchestra season did not begin until October, by which time I would have been in Evansville for two weeks.
So there were a lot of phone calls – to Maestro Hegyi – thanking him for the opportunity to work with the ASO, Berkshire Symphony, and Little Symphony; and letters to each organization resigning my positions (I recommended Phil

Greyhound Bus

Shipley as my replacement in Albany, and learned that he was indeed hired for the 1980 -81 season); and then a personal visit to Peter Kermani to thank him for the many kindnesses over the past three seasons. I would see a few of my colleagues again as I was not resigning from the Lake George Opera – in fact I would do three more summer seasons with them, but for the majority of them it would be the last time I would work with them.
My friends from church called to congratulate me and my roommates assisted in my packing. I was putting together my percussion bags, and a large trunk full of personal items and taking the Greyhound bus out of Albany (there were no Amtrak connections with Evansville). I was most grateful for the experiences I had had over these past three years. I had come of age as a player, and had seen a good deal of life outside of the music school and the Big Apple. And so, like my arrival in Albany almost three years to the day previously, It was on a gloomy gray morning that I left town (for good as it turned out) on a Greyhound bus bound for Evansville and a whole new adventure.