Fenimore Chamber
Orchestra Starting Strong

Rosemary Summers brings a lot of experience to the new Fenimore Chamber Orchestra.

“I actually got my start in the music business with the Catskill Symphony Orchestra and the Catskill Conservatory back in the 70s,” Ms. Summers, Chief Operations Officer of the new orchestra said.

“Everything that is involved in the physical production of a concert is what I am in charge of. Hiring the
appropriate musicians, securing the venue, providing the sheet music for everyone…chairs, stands lights, front of house, ticketing ushers…that’s what I’m in charge of.”

“That was back in the 70s. I was a student of Carleton Clay, the founder of the Conservatory. He offered me a job and taught me how to be a music copyist. Chuck Schnieder saw my work and he asked me to be a copyist as well for Catskill Symphony.”

“One of the greatest joys of a long teaching career is to have people such as Rosemary show up serendipitously ‘at your doorstep!’ In Rosemary’s case, she breezed into my music theory classroom one day in the mid-1970s to take the first of several theory classes required of music majors,” Carleton Clay said. “This began a lifetime friendship with her and all five members of my immediate family.”

“She was a superior student from the outset, and, as an adjunct to that, I quickly realized that she was a brilliant music calligrapher — this being long before computer days,” Mr. Clay said.

Being a copyist is a little complicated. When a composer creates and writes a piece, they put it on paper as a full score.

A copyist extracts and makes separate parts for each musician. Ms. Summers would take all of the different parts and write scores for each one.

Then, Ms. Summers was the music librarian for the Metropolitan Opera. A music librarian is responsible for all of the sheet music that is required for a performance.

“That includes the score for the conductor, all of the individual parts for the musicians you see on the stage.
It can get a little complicated!.”

“One of my responsibilities was to sit in each of the chairs of a player and mark the part. So the conductor might say I want I slower here or faster here,” Ms. Summers said.

“Over the course of my career I have sat in every chair from concert master down to the triangle player. I learned first hand the relationship between the conductor, and the player, and the printed page. It’s different for every instrumentalist because of the uniqueness of the instrument they are playing, where they sit on the stage, what their site line is,” she said.

“Early in my music career I was actually a singer but realized I didn’t want to sustain that. When I got into the copyist business, I learned so much from doing this by sitting in the middle of the orchestra.

Ms. Summers left Oneonta in the 1980s and met Thomas Wolf at Catskill Symphony Orchestra.
“We caught back up with each other three years ago and started talking about creating this orchestra,” she said.

I worked for the Metropolitan Opera as the music librarian. Once I decided that was where I should be, that’s where I went, and I was there for 25 years as James Levine’s personal librarian.

In addition to her COO role, she has some interesting clients as well. “I still do that work as a personal librarian for Placido Domingo and Andrea Bocelli. I have all of their concert music at my house. When they are doing a new program, they contact me with the programs and I gather up all of the music and organize it,” she said.

“I’ve been involved in every aspect of the music business; it’s in my blood. For me it’s integral to my identity. I don’t think I will ever retire, it’s hard to give up,” she said.

“Rosemary makes a lot happen behind the scenes,” said Thomas Wolf. “We have to be involved with music. It’s in our blood and we are a good team. The Fenimore Chamber Orchestra is going to be great for our area. We are excited for our first concert on August 27 at Christ Church in Cooperstown. Tickets will be available at the door for cash or check or people can go to fenimoreco.org to order online.”
When asked about the future and her long-term plans, Ms. Summers was profound. She got some great advice from her father, who is 96.

“My father said there comes a time when you realize the road ahead of you is shorter than the road behind you. One becomes much more deliberate about how you are going to spend that time you have left. None of us is guaranteed a tomorrow.”