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By the seventh season, the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra had doubled in size from the original group. By the late 1950s, it would triple. Paul Katz had been instrumental in encouraging city leaders to construct a facility for outdoor public concerts, and – after years of lobbying and fundraising – additional money from the Works Projects Administration funded construction of the Diehl Memorial Bandshell. In 1940, the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra gave the first concert there.
At the final concert of 1941 on December 17, the most significant music was that of Francis Scott Key. Pearl Harbor and the country’s subsequent entry into World War II was about to alter the course of, although not derail, the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra (DPO). The Star Spangled Banner led every program during wartime, and today the first concert of each season continues that patriotic tradition.
During its tenth season in 1943, the Orchestra moved from the Victory Theatre into Memorial Hall. Concert programs throughout the ’40s gave special honor to the many members of the DPO, who were absent and serving in the United States Armed Forces. According to Virginia and Bruce Ronald’s local history, The Lands Between the Miamis. the Orchestra survived during the war by enlisting musicians stationed at Wright Field.
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USO Award Presentation
Ceremony, 1944
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Trombonist Johnny Reger, who joined Michael Hauer’s local band when he was a teenager in the 1930s, was one of the many DPO musicians who served the country during WWII. He played his way across Africa, Italy, and southern France, with the 36th Engineers band that became the band of the 7th Army under General George S. Patton. Reger also played United Service Organization (USO) shows with entertainers Bob Hope, Al Jolson, and Martha Raye.
On Sunday afternoons, for the men and women of the Armed Forces stationed locally the DPO presented a series of USO concerts at Memorial Hall. At one such event, Sgt. Eugene List – the famed pianist who had appeared with the DPO a few years earlier – returned in uniform to present Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. In 1944, for its patriotic and inspiring use of music to aid the national war effort the DPO received a Service Citation from the Music War Council of America.
“The Dayton orchestra is among the first musical organizations in the country to be honored by the council, which has investigated the war service record of hundreds of musical groups.”
War Council of America,
Dayton Journal Herald, 1944
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A feature story in the October 10, 1949 Journal Herald highlighted the day jobs, educational backgrounds, and family life of the many female DPO musicians. Women made up a large percentage of Dayton's Orchestra, but were a rarity in larger metropolitan orchestras during this same time period.
In November of 1945, Isaac Stern – a young man in his twenties – received a warm reception when he performed Sibelius’ Concerto for Violin in D Minor with the DPO. Several times during his illustrious career, Stern returned to Dayton. That same fall, following his triumphant performance of Brahms’ Second Concerto in B Flat Major, the DPO invited pianist Artur Rubenstein back to open the 1946 season. Gregor Piatigorsky, the world-renowned cellist, also made a return visit that year, having debuted with the DPO in 1941.
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In 1943, the DPO
moved into Memorial Hall.
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Due to the difficulties of losing musicians and volunteers during wartime, the DPO temporarily suspended Young People’s Concerts until the 1945-46 season. When they resumed, Paul Katz had enlisted the support of a team of energetic partners, who helped the Orchestra bring to life many composers and great orchestral works. For over two decades, Ellen Jane Lorenz Porter wrote scripts and served as narrator for the concerts, and a fully costumed George Zimmerman – supervisor of music for the Dayton Public Schools – portrayed different composers. Together, they taught lessons about the masters and music history.
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Isaac Stern with Paul Katz, 1945
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The DPO received a national honor, when the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) featured it on Orchestras of Our Nation, a program designed to acquaint music lovers with the accomplishments of orchestras from various regions in the country. On Saturday, March 8, 1947, the DPO’s first coast-to-coast broadcast aired live from Memorial Hall. NBC made its selection on the basis of a recorded audition and testimonials from world-famous artists, who had appeared with the Orchestra. That same year, 100 women joined forces to form Friends of the Dayton Symphony. The organization’s goal would include garnering public interest in making improvements to Memorial Hall.
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Artur Rubenstein with
Paul Katz, 1946
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“I congratulate the Dayton Philharmonic for its viewpoint and for its perseverance in making a place for itself before community support of any degree had come to it. I feel that the real purpose of the Orchestra will be fulfilled when it is able to play frequent concerts to great masses of people at popular prices.”
Charles F. Kettering, 1941
By the early 1950s, many area churches’, temples’, universities’, high schools’, and combined choruses had performed with the DPO, creating partnerships and musical alliances that are ongoing. In 1950, famous band director Artie Shaw performed on his clarinet with the Orchestra. That same year, NBC radio featured the DPO on Pioneers of the Symphony. Dayton also celebrated the opening of Deed’s Carillon Historical Park, a site for future – and free – outdoor concerts.
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The 20th Anniversary Program
Cover, 1952
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The 1950s saw a dramatic increase in volunteer efforts and the official establishment of the Dayton Philharmonic Women’s Association with Mildred Monroe as acting chair.
“In plain words, you’ve got the goods! Your orchestra fulfills my own conception of what an orchestra should be. It has grown up in the place where it was first developed and that is more than we have in New York. It is made up of citizens who play primarily for the love of music, not merely to get a good notice in the papers.
Olin Downes, New York Times music critic,
Dayton Journal Herald, 1947
The first function of this organization was to prepare for the orchestra’s 20th anniversary season. Fashion shows and Holiday Fairs became annual events. In 1955, the Women’s Association established a scholarship fund, where talented young music students could receive cash for private music lessons and tickets to DPO concerts. That tradition continues today.
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| Charles F. Kettering |
At 36, a young Yehudi Menuhin made his first appearance with the DPO. It was 1953, and Menuhin had already been playing professionally for 28 years. One of the few child prodigies who attained greatness as an adult performer, he was appearing with every leading orchestra in the world. That same year, Jose Greco and his Spanish Dancers tangoed into Memorial Hall.
In 1954, the Board of Directors of the DPO gratefully acknowledged the National Cash Register Company for the use of its auditorium for the next two years during the first remodeling of Memorial Hall. Miriam Rosenthal had been the only woman chosen to serve on the citizen’s committee formed to explore the possibilities and details regarding the renovation of the historic site.
| Mrs. A. Robert Snyder and Mrs. Max Monroe helped organize the Friends of the Dayton Symphony in 1947. Four years later, it became the Dayton Philharmonic Women's Association. |
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Mason Roberts, Robert Oelman, Earl Hagerman, and John O'Brien, members of the Citizen's Planning Committee for the restoration of Memorial Hall, 1955 |
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| Yehudi Menuhin, 1953 |
In 1955 upon the death of Richard Westbrock, who had managed the Children’s Chorus for nineteen years, the Inland Division of General Motors named Joseph P. Geiger as the new director of the vocal group. Until its official dissolution in 1970, the Inland Children’s Chorus remained part of the Dayton arts scene.
The 1956-57 season marked the joyful return of the DPO to the newly remodeled Memorial Hall following a $900,000 face-lift. The September 13, 1956 inauguration of the performance space began with the Eagle Scouts of the Miami Valley Council posting the colors and concluded with the audience joining in on Irving Berlin’s God Bless America. Entertainment included the Dayton Philharmonic and Training Orchestras, The Daytones (a local vocal quartet), The Daytona Chorale, the Antioch Area Theatre Troupe, and dancers from the Schwarz School of Dance.
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Joseph P. Geiger, ?director of the Inland Children's Chorus, rehearses the boy's section for its 16th appearance with the DPO, 1956. |
“Before we discuss the many wonderful improvements, it might be well to remind ourselves that Memorial Hall was originally dedicated as a lasting memorial to all of Montgomery County’s war veterans and must never be removed. Finished in 1910, it is today considered one of the most soundly constructed buildings in the country.”
A letter from the Citizen’s Planning
Committee for the Restoration
of Memorial Hall, 1956
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Program Cover for the 1957-58
season (Paul Katz's sabbatical). |
In the fall of 1956, Brazilian musician Heitor Villa-Lobos guest-conducted the DPO in his own work, Chôros No. 6. Katz and the DPO often welcomed contemporary composers, such as Villa-Lobos and Paul Creston, to share their talents with the receptive Dayton audience.
The following year, choreographer Josephine Schwarz acted as Artistic Director for Dayton’s premier of Amahl and the Night Visitors by Gian-Carlo Menotti. Along with local dancers and chorus members, the DPO production included the NBC Television Theatre Cast. Evan Whallon, conductor of the Columbus Symphony, guest-conducted. While Katz was on sabbatical, Whallon conducted part of the 1957-58 season. That same season, alternating seats every other performance Adon Foster and Carl Rubinoff shared the position of concertmaster.
By the late ’50s, the DPO was providing the community with 12 Young People’s Concerts and still not meeting the demand. These concerts, packed with humor and fun, taught music appreciation and concert decorum to over 30,000 children every year – often their first opportunity to attend a live performance. Programs always thanked the City of Dayton Police Traffic Department for their hand in orchestration – outside!
Pierre Monteux, director of many of the world’s greatest ensembles, including the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, conducted the DPO in 1959. Some local musicians counted playing under Monteux among the highlights of their careers. As the 1950s closed, five original members of the Chamber Orchestra Society, including Katz, were still performing with the DPO. They were violinists Gwenn Garber, Marjorie Kline, and Elma Rhinehart; cellist Margaret Kirk; and trombonist William Coates.
| In April of 1959, the Dayton Daily News ran a feature profiling the different, full-time occupations of several DPO members. Pictured left to right are Wallace Hard, E. Mannes Lubow, Herman Wittman, and Miriam Smith. The story included details about Lubow, a Columbia University gradutae and downtown optometrist, and Wittman, who was an employee in the central film depository at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, where he analyzed sand cataloged music and sound effects for government films. Also highlighted was Jerry Knop, Principal Hornist, an IBM operator at Aeroproducts. |
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