CBA Ode to Joy

THE BEGINNINGS AND EVOLUTION OF THE CBASO THE CHICAGO BAR ASSOCIATION SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Something Wonderful at Symphony Center, April 26, 2015

It all began at the old Medina Temple on State Street at Christmastime in 1985. The annual Do-It-Yourself Messiah conducted by Margaret Hillis was being held there that year instead of the usual Orchestra Hall venue, and two lawyer-cellists, Susan Chernoff and Julia Nowicki, found themselves sharing a stand. During a break, Nowicki asked, “Wouldn’t this be fun to do more than once a year?” A light bulb went off, and the idea for an all-lawyer orchestra was born. They took the idea to the Chicago Bar Association, which immediately embraced it. By March 1986, an ad appeared in the CBA’s newsletter: Attention Music Lovers: Are you interested in getting together with other CBA musicians to play chamber music? We would like to start a chamber orchestra. Possibilities are unlimited, but include performing for Bar activities and receptions and participating in smaller ensembles (quartets, quintets, etc.–strings and winds). One rehearsal per week will be held beginning in the fall. If you are interested in playing or conducting, please call Susan Chernoff at 845-9249 by March 28. Nowicki and Chernoff interviewed three conductors altogether, but according to Nowicki, “It was no contest as soon as we met David Katz.” Then the associate conductor of the Elgin Symphony under the direction of Margaret Hillis, Maestro Katz took on the project with enthusiasm. The CBASO’s first rehearsal took place on November 5, 1986, in the dining room at the old CBA headquarters on LaSalle Street. Around a dozen musicians showed up and several, including Nowicki and Leslie Bertagnolli (violin and original member), remember playing Leroy Anderson’s The Syncopated Clock . Katherine Erwin (flute, bassoon, and original member) recalls: “I remember it like it was yesterday . . . [That dining room]

50 ODE TO JOY