The Valley Line

Jane Napier Neely

It felt a little like autumn over the weekend when on Saturday it was a bit misty and damp outside. I sort of wanted to snuggle under the covers a little bit longer than usual in the morning. But then it was a different story on Sunday when the day dawned sunny and clear — it was a perfect Indian Summer day ending when the moon bounced over the mountain tops that evening — an autumn moon of legends. A moon just meant for Halloween night.

I’m getting caught up on recent major social events about town these past few weeks. The Pasadena Symphony opened its 80th anniversary season. Conductor Jorge Mester magically appeared on his podium in a swirl of mist — that was quite an opening accompanied by oohhs and ahhs.

Without a doubt, the opening symphony’s opening program gained a lot of rapt attention. Philip Glass’s “Concerto Fantasy for Two Timpanist and Orchestra”— a classical showstopper written for two timpanists and 14 drums set not in the back as usual, but in front of the orchestra — garnered most of the attention at the opening night performance. However, the second classical blockbuster on the program that evening, Berlioz’s “Romeo and Juliet,” received its fair share of attention as well.

More than 200 supporters of The Pasadena Symphony Association, including members of the board of directors, city officials, major donors and Jorge Mester, music director of The Pasadena Symphony, gathered prior to the performance, at a lovely private club in Pasadena to celebrate the opening of the orchestra’s 80th anniversary season by attending a gala dinner entitled “An Evening of Shakespeare, Passion and Love.”

Returning for an ‘encore performance’ as gala chairmen were Gerri Lee Frye, Shelly Reisch and Benjamin Oberman.

“The three of us have such a good time and work so well together that it’s become a tradition we look forward to,” says Frye, who in addition to chairing the opening night dinner, endowed the opening night performance, as she also has in the past, in memory of her mother, Ethel Cohodas Ornstein. It was her mother, says Frye, who instilled within her a great love of the arts.