In Thursday’s (8/6) MusicalAmerica.com, Susan Elliott writes, “Back in 1966, when Leonard Bernstein hired Orin O’Brien to join the double bass section of the New York Philharmonic, she became the orchestra’s first woman, making history in a heretofore all-male club. (The first ever was Edna Phillips, who broke the gender barrier in 1930, when Leopold Stokowski hired her as principal harp of the Philadelphia Orchestra.) … She trained at UCLA and Juilliard and spent the summers of 1952 through 1955 at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, [which] on August 4 … presented O’Brien with its Distinguished Alumni Award…. [Music Academy of the West President Scott] Reed and double bass faculty member Nico Abondolo introduced the award during the intermission of a concert at the Lobero Theater…. Abondolo … described O’Brien’s challenges when she arrived in the Philharmonic. Some of the players welcomed her, some decidedly did not. She stuck with the former, ignored the latter, and kept her head down. Today, nearly a half-century later and in her eighth decade, O’Brien remains perched stage-left in Avery Fisher Hall, the first of the 50-plus women now in the orchestra…. As she accepted the award, the audience rose to its feet and cheered.”
Posted August 12, 2015
