The Alabama Symphony celebrated its 100th anniversary last season. Over the past century our organization has grown from a volunteer community orchestra to the thriving full-time professional symphony that it is today and we are immensely grateful to our Birmingham community for making our journey possible.
This past year, the ASO also lost one of our most faithful and supportive philanthropists, Gloria Moody. In honor of both her legacy and our centennial, we asked some of our longest-serving orchestra members to reflect on their careers in the orchestra and their memories of Gloria Moody.
Bill Williams, Percussion
ASO orchestra member since 1981
Where are you from?
I grew up in Akron, Ohio. I had just graduated from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, when I came to Birmingham to audition. I won the job and joined the orchestra shortly after.
What is your favorite thing about living in Birmingham?
I love the climate here in Birmingham and I love that there are many places close by to get outside and enjoy it, especially Oak Mountain, Red Mountain, and Ruffner Mountain.
What is your favorite thing about being a full-time orchestra musician?
I find satisfaction in the cycle that we go through for each performance: First we work individually (practice) then we work as a group (rehearsal) and then finally we are able to share the fruits of our labors with the audience during the performance.
What is something about our job that might surprise people?
I think beautifully presented concerts are inherently misleading. Concert attendees, perhaps even more so for folks that attend regularly, may deduce that there really is not much to performing for those born with the magic. But in truth, there is a great deal of labor and sacrifice over both the long arc of a lifetime and short spans – like the day of a concert – that go unseen.
Kevin Kozak, Horn
Orchestra member since 1981
Where are you from?
I’m from Northern New Jersey and I was living there when I won the audition for my job in the ASO.
What is your favorite thing about living in this city?
It’s a beautiful city in a beautiful area of the country. We have four seasons, hills, foothills. I also like that it’s very foodie and the people here are very friendly.
What do you like about being a full-time orchestral musician?
I love being a musician and I love being around other musicians. I love the process of putting many parts together to make a cohesive whole. Musicians tend to dig deep and don’t take things just at surface meaning, so you wind up getting to be around a lot of interesting people.
What is one thing about our jobs that might be surprising to people?
Many people don’t realize how quickly the rehearsal process goes in a professional orchestra. People are stunned to learn that we put a week’s program together in just a few days. The conductor doesn’t teach us the music like in school. The conductor puts it together but everyone shows up with their part learned for the first rehearsal.
Do you have a favorite performance memory from past years in the orchestra?
The one that stands out in my mind is Mahler’s Ninth Symphony. It was the piece itself, the performance, and the audience’s reaction to it. Mahler thought a great deal about the meaning of life, especially during this late period of his life and composition. The works that he wrote during this time were essentially his farewells. They are wistful and tender appreciations of life and I think that is very beautiful and profound. I recall that Mahler once said that “the symphony must encompass the world.” This piece in particular is an intellectual work but also a deeply spiritual work and it was a very special performance for me.
Judy Sullivan Hicks, Principal Harp
Orchestra member since 1981
Where are you from?
I’m from Rochester, New York. I did my Bachelor’s degree at the Cleveland Institute of Music and my Master’s degree at the Eastman School of Music. I was living in Rochester when I won the job.
What do you like about being a full-time orchestral musician?
I love playing in a musical ensemble where I’m playing with the same people each week. There’s a quality that you don’t get if you’re in a part-time orchestra. Here, we get to know each other’s playing very well and it becomes second nature to play together. I also enjoy the different hats we get to wear for all of our different types of concerts; masterworks, pops, etc.
Do you have a favorite performance memory from past years in the orchestra?
Back in the late 80s Ray Charles came. The concert was at a Baptist church and I got there early to tune the harp. So for a while it was just me and Ray and he was so kind and such a cool guy. I also remember that the energy of that concert was so great. It was just a really fun night.
Warren Samples, Principal Cello
Orchestra member since 1986
Where are you from?
I grew up in rural Pennsylvania in southern Lancaster County, but before I won this job I had been in Venezuela for a number of years playing with the now extinct Caracas Philharmonic. I actually worked with Carlos Izcaray’s father a bit while I was in Venezuela!
What is your favorite thing about being a full-time orchestra musician?
I think there’s something really cool about what we do. When we’re up on stage we’re like dogs at the dog park. We get to explore our passions and our fears and tell our secrets while not really explaining them. It can be really liberating. And if we do it right we can help the audience find that place too, where they can experience parts of themselves that they don’t get to trot out every day because maybe it’s not appropriate or safe. But they can come to the concert hall and get to experience that.
What is something about our jobs that people might find surprising?
The thing I find is that a lot of people are really surprised that Birmingham has an orchestra. They don’t know about it. Lots of people don’t know that we’re out there for them. When they find out, they seem kind of tickled and a bit proud. And once they think about it, they do appreciate that the city does support an orchestra.
Do you have a favorite performance memory?
Emanuel Ax came in 2007 and played Brahms’ Second Piano Concerto. He played the same piece on my first masterworks concert in the ASO. It was especially amazing to hear how much his performance of that piece had grown since he last played here. He was already a very mature artist when he played in 1986 but in 2007 it was astonishing.
I also have a vivid memory of doing Schumann 2 with Maximiliano Valdez. He talked in rehearsal about Schumann writing in his diary that he was hiding his depression from Clara. He wrote that he was putting it into his music because that was the only way he could work out his demons; he felt it was unfair to burden anyone else with it. For some reason that really struck a chord in me and made a really powerful and special experience of performing that piece. I don’t believe that we have to like a piece of music to enjoy playing it. When I sit down to play I insist on having fun, otherwise the person who suffers is me. I think that if someone was brave enough and took the time to write this stuff down, you might as well go looking for the reason.
Jay Burnham, Principal Timpani
Orchestra member since 1987
Where are you from?
I grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico and went to college in Cleveland, Ohio at the Cleveland Institute of Music.
What is your favorite thing about living in Birmingham?
I love the people and the weather in Birmingham!
What is your favorite thing about being an orchestra musician?
Being a full time musician has always been my dream, I love my job!
Do you have a favorite performance memory from a past season?
One of my favorite programs the ASO has performed in the past included Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring followed by Orff’s Carmina Burana.
What are you looking forward to playing this season?
I’m looking forward to Holst’s The Planets later this season, as well as everything else.
Lisa Wienhold, Principal Flute
Orchestra member since 1989
Where are you from?
I was born in Germany, but grew up in Alaska. I went to a year of high school at Interlochen Arts Academy and then to Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore for college. I played Principal Flute in the Knoxville Symphony before coming here.
What is your favorite thing about living in this city?
Being able to be outside so much of the year. And I love the friendliness of the people and the ease of southern living. After 30 + years in the south I’m almost a southerner now.
What do you like about being a full-time orchestral musician?
I love the endless variety of the music we play and the joy of creating a performance with my amazing colleagues. To have so many world class musicians come together with individual artistry and create music that is so much more than a sum of the parts is incredible. Add our appreciative and supportive audiences and it truly feeds my soul.
What is one thing about our jobs that might be surprising to people?
I think some people may not know that playing in the orchestra is a full time job. We spend a lot of hours at home practicing and preparing for our rehearsals and concerts. For an orchestra the caliber of the ASO it takes a lot of work to be on top of your game. Even in the “off season” we are conditioning and practicing. I usually start working on a seasons music the June before we start. It really is comparable to a major league team. The opening day first rehearsal in September is always exciting!
Do you have a favorite performance memory from past years in the orchestra?
I have so many and there are always a couple of concerts a year that are especially meaningful. I loved playing the Bernstein Symphonic Dances from West Side Story this past November. At the very end of the piece there is a small flute cadenza. It occurs after lots of furious dance music and sets up the very poignant ending to the piece. It has always spoken to me.
Gloria Narramore Moody
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A Remembrance
Alabama resident and philanthropist Gloria Moody passed away at the age of 88 on July 24, 2022. A great friend and supporter of the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, Gloria Moody made many contributions to the arts in the region, first as a highly accomplished musician and teacher, and later as a true patron of the arts and classical music. While she served on many arts boards in Birmingham and Tuscaloosa, it was under her four year tenure as President of the Alabama Symphony Board of Directors that a new ASO rose from the ashes after its bankruptcy and subsequent dark years. Her generosity in time and resources, her strong artistic vision, and her tireless commitment to sustaining access to the arts throughout
L to R: Adam Pandolfi (Assistant Principal Horn), Anne Pandolfi (Retired Section First Violin), Gloria Moody, David Pandolfi (Retired Principal Horn)
the region and across the state, have cemented her incredible legacy. As a part of her final bequest, Gloria left a substantial gift to the orchestra that will act as an endowment of the Principal Flute chair. A special memorial concert by the ASO will be performed in her honor on Thursday April 27, at 7 pm, at the Alys Stephens Center. Read on to hear some memories from former and current members, including Lisa Wienhold, Principal Flutist.
From Roger James, retired section first violinist:
Back in the hard old days of 1993, when the ASO had closed its doors, shut down our health insurance, filed for bankruptcy, and everyone was scrambling to make ends meet, I took work at UAB, which ended up in a microbiology lab – with me running various experiments on tiny little pieces of DNA, but that’s a whole other story. Eventually, one of my part time add-on jobs was playing fiddle in the Steel City Ramblers, a band that specialized in Cajun and Zydeco music from southwest Louisiana. One of our semi-regular gigs was at Ca-John’s Bar and Grill in Faunsdale, AL, home of the Alabama Crawfish Festival. We were there one Tuesday
night, sometime in 1995 or 1996, with about six people in the bar, and in walks Gloria Moody and Arthur Press, who had just recently retired from the Boston Symphony and relocated to Birmingham. They were celebrating Gloria’s son’s impending wedding and had chosen Ca-John’s restaurant for dinner, and then came in to hear the band, and they were the only people dancing, too! When the band took a break, Gloria made a point of approaching me to share about what was happening in the discussions around getting the orchestra back on stage, and told me to expect to go back to work soon (it took until fall of 1997). Later that week, Linda and I got an invitation to join Gloria and Arthur for dinner, and more discussion about the possibility of a new orchestra. The new orchestra did happen and Gloria was a big part of how it happened. I’ll always remember how kind she was to all the players in the hard times.
From Lucina Horner, ASO violist:
The “new” orchestra started back up in 1997 and I joined in 1998. At some point (1999, I think), we were in between executive directors and Gloria Moody stepped up and helped out as needed. She was generous with her time and efforts. Once Scott Speck left as Assistant Conductor, there was a search for a new Assistant Conductor. I was on the search committee and got a chance to spend time with Gloria Moody while working on the committee together. She was very curious about the whole process and asked a lot of questions. For example, our Music Director, Richard Westerfield had gone through all of the recordings and picked the ones that he was interested in seeing in person. She was so fascinated with the process that she asked for us to view a couple of the rejected recordings to see what was the difference between those and the ones that were accepted. She was dedicated to doing a good job at all aspects of helping the orchestra through the times that we needed help. She saw the whole Assistant Conductor search through to the end, the culmination of which was the hiring of Chris Confessore.
From Lisa Wienhold, Principal Flutist:
I spent two summers as a fellow at Tanglewood, the summer home of the Boston Symphony. While I was there I was lucky enough to play Copland’s 3rd symphony with Leonard Bernstein conducting, and I will treasure that memory forever. The fellows’ orchestra at Tanglewood is made up of college and young professional musicians and the auditions are incredibly competitive. Gloria Moody, who was a patron and supporter of the ASO, spent summers in the Berkshires where Tanglewood takes place. She had told the BSO that if there was ever a fellow from Alabama she would sponsor them. I had just won my job here when I received a flute fellowship and she sponsored me for both summers. It is not an insignificant gift, and I was so grateful. Gloria sadly passed away this past summer, and all of us at the ASO miss her terribly. She was a huge part of the ASO family – always there to
support us and to help us. Recently I found out that Gloria had left a legacy gift to the ASO and her family has chosen to use it to endow the principal flute chair. I’m unbelievably honored and grateful. She made such an impact in my life and on the musical life of Alabama, and now her legacy will live on in the Gloria Narramore Moody Principal Flute chair.
For more information about the upcoming concert, please visit:
https://alabamasymphony.org/event/gloria-moody-memorial-concert