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<\/a>Photo by Gerry Johnson<\/p><\/div>\n
Norman Lebrecht (one of the most widely-read commentators on music, culture and cultural politics) posed a question on his blog concerning the longest serving orchestral player in the country. Someone recently sent him an email noting that the bassoonist from Lake Placid Sinfonietta had hung up his instrument after playing with them since 1947. He was sure no one had or has been playing that long with one orchestra. A stream of comments came in, with one from George Brown, Utah Symphony\u2019s Principal Timpani, saying this:<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOur esteemed colleague, Frances Darger, has been playing violin here since 1942, so counting a brief one year hiatus early in her career, Francis has been performing with the Utah Symphony for 68 years.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Turns out Darger beat out everyone on Norman Lebrecht\u2019s list. Well, for a week, and then someone found another crazy instrumentalist who started playing for a group when she was 15 and never gave up her day job.<\/span><\/p>\n Born and bred in Utah, Frances Johnson Darger auditioned for the Utah Symphony in 1942 when the men went off to war and it was time for women to step up and step in to the workforce. She was only 17 years old. Her first performance was on August 25, 1942, for a program titled, \u201cA Salute to the Men in the Armed Forces of the United States!” “The Star Spangled Banner,” Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture and Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue\u201d were featured. She remembers being \u201cjust a kid,\u201d but at that time the Symphony only had six concerts a year so hers was definitely a side job.<\/p>\n Nearly 70 years later, Darger has been through all the greats: Maurice Abravanel, Joseph Silverstein, Keith Lockhart and now Thierry Fischer. She says each was marvelous and did wonderful things for the Utah Symphony and the community. Abravanel built up the season little by little until the Symphony became a 52-week orchestra, making them one of only fifteen full-time orchestras in the country. While other orchestras have cut down their season during difficult times, Utah continues to perform every weekend in Abravanel Hall and plays for the Utah Opera in the Capitol Theatre.<\/p>\n \u201cJoseph Silverstein was marvelous and was here for ten or fifteen years\u201d she says, \u201cand Keith had access to wonderful soloists and brought a lot of great musicians to Utah.\u201d Thierry Fischer is still new but Darger says so far the most notable change he\u2019s made is changing where the orchestra sits. If you are a regular audience member at the Symphony you may have noticed the violins have split up. \u201cThe second violins moved from the left to the right and he moved the cellos over by the first violins. I play second violin and I love it because I have more room over there,\u201d Darger laughs.<\/p>\n Playing for the Symphony her entire life has been \u201ca joy and a pleasure\u201d she says. \u201cI never wanted to be a violin performer, I just loved orchestra music. Being a soloist was never one of my ambitions. It\u2019s not my thing.\u201d However, her \u201cthing\u201d has always been music. And it was her mother\u2019s thing too. \u201cMy mother was a singer and she wanted all her children to play. She sang with the Salt Lake Theatre a couple times, she sang with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, but then she got married and had five children.\u201d Darger grew up in the era when musical families were an entertainment goldmine. Her mother actually chose the violin for her, as well as instruments for her other children. \u201cMy oldest sister was a wonderful pianist, my second sister was a cellist and the others sang. She would make us sing and play for all her friends,\u201d Darger remembers, \u201cand she was very much into the National Federation of Music Clubs.”<\/p>\n Courtesy Frances Darger<\/p><\/div>\n From the Salt Lake Tribune, image courtesy Frances Darger<\/p><\/div>\n From the Salt Lake Tribune, image courtesy Frances Darger<\/p><\/div>\n Fortunately, Darger didn\u2019t have a rebellious bone in her body. She gladly took up the violin and ended up loving it. She began at Frank Asper\u2019s youth symphony at the McCune Mansion, and that is where she fell in love with orchestral music. Auditioning for the Utah Symphony when she was still a child was just a natural course of events and an undying love for music is what has kept her there for all these years. She\u2019s too diplomatic to name a favorite composer or work she\u2019s performed, but she will say this, \u201cI\u2019m in love with all the Russian boys, Prokofiev and Rachmaninoff and Shostakovitch. Their music is just marvelous.\u201d<\/p>\n Now what about that brief one year hiatus? What was that about? Did she quit to have a baby? No, Darger worked through the pregnancies of all three of her children. Her one year hiatus, although a break from the Symphony, was not a break from music.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a>