I heard a story yesterday on NPR about the retirement of Ann Hobson Pilot, harpist at the Boston Symphony Orchestra for the past 40 years. When she was recruited by Arthur Fiedler in 1969, she was one of only four women in the BSO, and for 20 years afterwards, she was the only African American!
There’s a video of her at NPR, and if you’re an NU affiliate, you can log in and listen to a little of her playing as accompanist to the flutes in Gaubert’s Divertiseement grec on the Naxos Online album “Gaubert: Works for flute”. (Need to see about why that’s not in NuCat yet–but I found it in Nexpress, luckily!) Last night at the BSO’s Opening Night, Hobson played a piece by John Williams commissioned for the occasion of her retirement, which I’m looking forward to hearing re-broadcast on WGBH this weekend.
Karen, I saw her on the telly the other night, she was wonderful. It takes a lot of strength to play the harp.
It was a wonderful performance. I was there with Joel and here’s his take on the event from Hubarts. http://www.hubarts.com/weblog/2009/09/bso-opens-season-with-a-pilot-tribute.html
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