Guest Blogger: Leah Wu, Alto I
Dianne Peterson, Executive Director of TWC, has been with the Chorus for 27 years. Read about her rich and varied time here, including some of her favorite memories.
Dianne, center, with members of the TWC staff at the French Embassy, November 2010 (Photo: Wayne Guenther)
How long have you been with the Chorus, and what brought you to TWC?
Well…it’s hard for me to even remember life before The Washington Chorus. My husband and I moved to this area in 1984 and two weeks later I was singing Beethoven’s 9th at Wolf Trap! My priority wasn’t unpacking, or worrying about my baby at home—I just needed to find a great chorus, and quickly before the season started.
How has your role and the Chorus itself evolved since then?
There's no simple answer to what happened to the last 27 years since that first audition. I came to this job through the back door; it just happened. My degrees are in music and I had always sung, but with the move to DC I ultimately left a career in retailing. Instead of going back to the pressures of the fashion industry I wound up taking on the challenges of the performing arts. In 1987, I slipped into the position of the Chorus’ first full-time administrative employee. My first job was General Manager. I was responsible for handling all the concert arrangements, including those on performance day when I lined up the chorus, gathered the soloists, then scrambled to get on stage… and sing.
In the late 80’s our wonderful volunteer-staffed community chorus was quickly turning into a business with escalating expenses—union orchestras, expensive venues, nationally recognized soloists, etc. We knew that we needed to step up our fundraising capacity. We rented our first office space. We changed the structure of the board, slowly hired more professional staff, and my job morphed over the years into what it is now. We grew and grew, and the time has flown by in a flash! In 2006 I stopped singing in the Chorus; it just got to be too much. But my heart is still on stage with the altos!
Do you have a favorite concert memory?
That’s a really tough one. There have been so many, and for me, each concert has a story (sometimes more like an adventure!) behind it. A story that starts with the initial concept and budget, the marketing fundraising, etc., and all the things that can go right, or wrong (like the blizzards of 2009!) along the way…right up until concert day. But in the end, it’s the magic that happens on stage that makes it all worthwhile.
If I had to pick one concert I would have to single out our Britten War Requiem in 1995 and the connection with the Department of Defense as a part of the 50th Anniversary world-wide commemoration of the end of WWII. We had hundreds of veterans in the audience, and the NPR recording of the concert led to our Grammy win in 2000. It was a five year long adventure! I was at the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles and will never forget when they announced us as the winner! We never expected to win. That was a thrill of a lifetime and quite the fairytale story.
At the Grammy Awards in 2000
I also have so many memories of many times when the Chorus has come together in song for the loss of loved ones—so many memorial services, when our collected emotions were best expressed in song. And certainly the Fauré Requiem we put together right after September 11th is in a category of its own.
What’s a favorite TWC travel memory?
Oh, I could write a book on our six tours, most especially the first one to Spain in 1994! Talk about adventures. No one could make it up -- falling 17thCentury gargoyles, corrupt tour directors, falsely advertised concerts, getting stuck in Majorca with no round-trip plane tickets to get to Barcelona for a concert the next day, and then finding out minutes before that concert that the soloists hadn’t been paid and had gone home without telling us—this all happened, and much more. And yet, those fourteen days are seared in my mind as some of my all-time greatest concert memories. We sure did bond as a group!!!
The evening of the falling gargoyle, Spain tour 1994
What’s your favorite part about working with the staff? And the board?
My pride in them—that’s the favorite part. I’ve been lucky to have hired so many talented people through the years. And many have gone on to great jobs in the arts all across the country. In a small office, everyone has to be a team player and everyone should be prepared to do what’s needed to get the job done, and to work long hours. We have a great time and all support each other. And our wonderful TWC board is so committed to the Chorus. At board retreat last fall our facilitator commented that he had never seen a board where “everyone was on the same page.” How great is that?!
What keeps you going season after season?
We’ve accomplished so much in these 50 years. I’ve had the opportunity to work side by side with two outstanding musicians – with Bob Shafer for over 20 years and now with Julian.
I’m so motivated about where the Chorus is going! The search and appointment of Julian as our music director was a critical time in the history of our wonderful organization, and for me personally. It’s been a wild ride and I haven’t looked back since. Under Julian’s artistic leadership we are doing great things and diving into the next 50 years!
But more importantly, it’s the wonderful people in our organization that keep me going. We’ve always been like a big family and I don’t believe that the spirit of a volunteer chorus can be found in any other of the performing arts. There’s nothing like it. It’s not a gig for the singers, it’s a passion. And although I’m not still singing, how lucky am I to be working in a field where so much enthusiasm and passion is the norm!!
With a huge orchestra, ten soloists, and children’s chorus from the Cathedral, the 160 singers from The Washington Chorus were surrounded by even more power to communicate this program of larger-than-life proportions.
In some ways, the concert was as much the Chorus’ own celebration of our 50th Birthday as it was a concert, but the response from the audience was simply overwhelming! One audience member said, “I think it was one of the most wonderful concerts I’ve ever attended … a monumental example of why this art form should always be supported.”
