“In his senior year of high school, Herbert Light turned down a basketball scholarship so he could play the violin,” writes Erin Blewett in Tuesday’s (4/5) Temple News (Philadelphia). “Today, at 79 years old, Light has been playing the violin for 73 years…. He started training when he was 13 with David Madison, the former assistant concertmaster of The Philadelphia Orchestra” and joined the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1960. A documentary film by Light’s son Jonathan, A Dream Fulfilled, “will chronicle his father’s career and the history of The Philadelphia Orchestra ‘through one person’s eyes,’ Jonathan Light said…. Herbert Light remains humble, according to his colleagues. He is well known by staff and patrons at the Kimmel Center, the current home of the orchestra. ‘He’s someone you want to have a cup of tea with,’ said Richard Montgomery, who has been an usher at the Kimmel Center for 14 years. ‘The crowd knows him.’ ” In a trailer for the film, Light says, “Being in such a great orchestra for such a long time invokes many great memories of wonderful soloists and wonderful conductors…. When I was offered this job and entered the orchestra, it was the greatest moment of my life.”
Posted April 7, 2016
