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Cascade Symphony
A Ferry Tale

Once upon a time there lived in the land of South Snohomish County a group of musicians who had no orchestra. Each week the conductor of the Bremerton Symphony, Robert Anderson, took them across Puget Sound to play their music in the land of the Navy Shipyard. But there came a day when Conductor Anderson resigned, and now the musicians were returning from their last Bremerton concert, wondering where they could find another orchestra. As the ferry rumbled along through the choppy Sound on this Sunday evening in March, 1962, they said to each other, "Why not a new symphony orchestra in South County?"

In April, 1962, Cascade Symphony was incorporated under Washington State charter, and played its opening concert June 4 with a 60-member orchestra under Mr. Anderson's baton.

The years flew by, and the orchestra grew and prospered. The quiet suburban area that saw the founding of Cascade Symphony seems now an imagined landscape... not even a freeway then. Today the Symphony serves a bustling area of over 150,000 people. Through the years, the Symphony has maintained its high musical standards. From its very beginning it became known for outstanding quality. During its first season, a picture of the orchestra appeared in a book by the president of Columbia Broadcasting System, distributed worldwide through the State Department, as an example of a growing community symphony movement. Several musicians in that picture are still with the orchestra today.

For the past 45 years, orchestra members have been energized by rehearsals each Monday evening of the concert season. As the orchestra has continued to grow and mature, a nucleus of charter members has remained constant. A generation has passed. The musicians grew up, grew middle-aged, grew gray. Their children were born, their grandchildren arrived; careers developed, changed, vanished into retirement. In their changing lives, one aspect remained constant. Monday evening was always Cascade night. These charter members include Clydia Pappenfus (violin), Eileen Lusk (violin), Donna Nielsen (violin), Norma Dermond (cello), Kathy Moellenberndt (viola), Celia Scott (viola), Jim Erickson (flute), and Bob DeCou (horn).

The musicians of the Symphony have invested a lifetime of effort and a small fortune in training and instruments. During the concert season, they rehearse every Monday evening, each player contributing over 100 hours a year. This adds up to a staggering total of 9,000 hours annually - donated by these many people to their community.

Today another generation listens to the music of the Cascade Symphony, beginning a new era under the baton of Maestro Michael Miropolsky. A new set of memories is being created, to be recalled at Cascade Symphony's not-so-distant 50th anniversary. May we all be here to celebrate that concert!

See archive photos of our first concert season!