Adele Addison

Oral History Project
C152 Adele Addison 1996.038.0001

Lynn Kallos [00:00:05] This is an oral history interview with Adele Addison regarding her experiences with the Aspen Music Festival during the 1960s and 1970s. The interview is taking place on July 11th, 1996, at Adele Addison’s home, and the interviewer is Lynn Kallos. Okay, just for the record, can you state your full name?
Adele Addison [00:00:24] Adele Addison. Do you want my married name as well?
Lynn Kallos [00:00:29] Sure.
Adele Addison [00:00:30] Adele Addison Berger. B-E-R-G-E-R.
Lynn Kallos [00:00:32] Okay. When and where were you born?
Adele Addison [00:00:37] In New York City. I don’t know what this has got to do with this Historical Society.
Lynn Kallos [00:00:42] It’s just to put it on record.
Adele Addison [00:00:45] Put my birth on record?
Lynn Kallos [00:00:47] You don’t have to if you…
Adele Addison [00:00:48] No, I don’t mind… I’m just going to follow along here. This, I don’t know what it has to do with my experience in Aspen. The fact that I was born, I suppose…
Lynn Kallos [00:01:00] Just to ease into the interview. Rather than just jump starting it.
Adele Addison [00:01:03] I’m fine. You know, I mean, I have no qualms about answering the question. In New York in 1925. That’s not a problem. I just want to know what it has to do with the interview.
Lynn Kallos [00:01:14] It’s just to start it. When did you first become interested in music?
Adele Addison [00:01:21] Oh, dear. Um, that was someplace along in school. You know, we all went to glee club and so on, so I can’t say that I… absolutely it was at this point I became interested in music. Music was just part of the school life. So I can’t say there was a clear cut, “Oh I am interested in music, and I am going to be a musician.” No, no, no, no, no. Very normal.
Lynn Kallos [00:01:45] It was when you were young, though.
Adele Addison [00:01:46] Yes. Yeah, yeah.
Lynn Kallos [00:01:47] Okay. And was it always voice that you were interested in that…?
Adele Addison [00:01:51] Music and the fact that I could sing made it, made me interested in voice. Now, when I say sing, I’m not talking about singing. I’m talking about, as a child, loving the
glee club and, you know, that kind of thing. But that’s, I consider music, you know, all under music.
Lynn Kallos [00:02:10] Right. Okay. Um, so when did you decide to make music your profession rather than just a casual thing?
Adele Addison [00:02:17] Oh, I’m not really sure about that, in that…. I’m sorry, you’re going to get cat noises. {cat meowing in background}
Lynn Kallos [00:02:24] Oh, that’s all right.
Adele Addison [00:02:25] I don’t think that it was a decision, really. I think it was kind of a normal outgrowth of, as I say, being in the glee club, finally being given solo lines to sing. Um, probably my teachers, who were very dear and very kind ladies, both in junior high school and high school. As I say, they were the conductors of the choir. And because they heard me do these things, they began to think that I should be in music. It wasn’t I who thought. I’m not saying that they forced me into it, but music was just a normal part of the school life. Much more so, I think, than it is now. It was the outlet. We didn’t have too much, you know, like youngsters have today. They’ve got everything. But we didn’t have it.
Lynn Kallos [00:03:31] So they, I mean, just suggested that you go into it?
Adele Addison [00:03:33] Yes. Right. And very… never forced or pushed or… very kind of normal. And I guess supposingly {sic}, they wanted to find out whether or not, indeed, it was something that I could do, and they never, you can never tell with a child that way, how the child will turn out. You know, I could have been interested in math, except I don’t have any talent for it. {laughter} So I can’t say that it was a clear-cut decision. Not at all.
Lynn Kallos [00:04:06] Okay. Um, let’s see, when did you first come to Aspen then? And why?
Adele Addison [00:04:12] Well, I came to Aspen upon invitation of the then, um, he was the director, not the musical director. They call them CEOs now. Well, he was the director of Aspen, and the man who was then, um, a very wonderful man and singer, my Lord, Mack Harrell. At their invitation, that’s how I came. And I had been singing professionally, and they met with me in New York because the office of the Music Festival was then centered in New York. And they took me to lunch and invited me to come for that summer. Their soprano soloist was going to be away, and so in her place… and she was a beautiful singer as well, Phyllis Curtin. They invited me to come for that summer, and I was invited back the next summer, even though Phyllis returned, and she and I were here at the same time. And so I’ve been coming ever since. Did you ask me when?
Lynn Kallos [00:05:41] Yes.
Adele Addison [00:05:42] I think… um, I think it was ’57. I think… yeah.
Lynn Kallos [00:05:53] Okay. And then that was how you got into the Music Festival, was just coming?
Adele Addison [00:05:59] Yes. Well, I had known of the Music Festival, obviously, because it was a going festival and it was a, I guess a wish, kind of a desire, that someday I would also sing
at this festival, as I had sung at Tanglewood, because I grew up as a… in Tanglewood, really, because I lived down the road in Springfield, Massachusetts, really. So I kind of grew up around there, knowing all of the conductors that came there, the men of the Boston Symphony and so on. And, but it was also because I had heard so much about Aspen and what it was like, I said, “Oh, one day I’d love to go there.” So that did happen.
Lynn Kallos [00:06:47] What were the sorts of things that you’d heard about Aspen that drew you?
Adele Addison [00:06:53] Well, the wonderful quality of the music, certainly, for one thing. And the performers who did it, which, of course, makes music really quite wonderful. Well, music is wonderful in itself, but indeed it’s only on the paper until somebody brings it off, you know? Um, that… I had heard wonderful things about the climate, but at that point, you know, and the scenery and all that, that wasn’t for me, because I knew nothing too much about that kind of thing or thought that much about it. I was more interested in the musical aspects.
Lynn Kallos [00:07:27] Okay. When was it you decided to live here in Aspen?
Adele Addison [00:07:32] I don’t live here.
Lynn Kallos [00:07:33] Oh, you don’t? Okay. I thought this was your year-round living…
Adele Addison [00:07:39] No, no, no, no, no. I live in New York City, and I come here for the Festival.
Lynn Kallos [00:07:44] Oh, okay. That clears that up.
Adele Addison [00:07:48] We have this house here, but, I mean, it’s not a year-round project.
Lynn Kallos [00:07:52] Oh, I thought it was.
Adele Addison [00:07:53] No, no, no, no, no. Maybe sometime. You know, you never know what’s going to happen down the road.
Lynn Kallos [00:07:59] Right. So the first year you were involved in the Music Festival then was ’57, you said.
Adele Addison [00:08:04] Mhm.
Lynn Kallos [00:08:04] Okay, I just wanted to clarify. What was it like then, back then, to be part of this Music Festival that you’d heard so much about?
Adele Addison [00:08:12] Oh, it was a… Well, first of all, being part of the Music Festival was wonderful. But also being in the small town of Aspen was quite wonderful. It has changed a lot. Then, um, it was smaller. You’d look in the audience, and you would see the people from the post office and what was then the market, THE market, Beck and Bishop’s. I mean, it just was, it was a different thing. It was much, you were, you felt much more integrated into the town.
Lynn Kallos [00:08:55] More of a tight-knit kind of community.
Adele Addison [00:08:56] Yes. I wouldn’t call them tight-knit. I think they were, they were really quite wonderful. It wasn’t, they weren’t tight about it, you know.
Lynn Kallos [00:09:05] What was it like to be part of this Music Festival?
Adele Addison [00:09:09] You keep asking that… somehow I don’t get across to you the… Pardon?
Lynn Kallos [00:09:13] Just like, um, I guess what it was like to be part of what was going on, this great thing that you had heard about, and to come here and experience it. And…
Adele Addison [00:09:23] Well, that was fine. But, you know, uh, I don’t think that people get too caught up in that. Now maybe some people do, but I want to tell you, being part of the Festival was working, and I was working at something that I could do. I didn’t, I don’t dissociate that with saying, “Oh, isn’t it wonderful I’m part of a festival?” Do you understand what I’m saying?
Lynn Kallos [00:09:46] Yes, I do. But I guess I’m just wondering what the, like, the scene and the ambiance of the Festival was while you were participating in it?
Adele Addison [00:09:57] Well, because it was smaller, we were… I suppose it was a more intimate group in that we had fewer people to know. And making music together was… and even though we came from, again, different parts of the world, different parts of this country, that was quite, quite wonderful to bring all of those different people from everywhere, all of those different people together, to make music. And that was quite wonderful. It was somehow, and I’m sure that the people who are part of the Festival today, that we all still feel that it’s quite wonderful to come together. But the making of the music, which really kind of stays the same, was different in those days because we had fewer, many fewer concerts. And so we seemed to know each other better. We saw, we were able to see more of each other because we were the only ones to see. {laughter} It was kind of that simple, I guess. And I don’t think that any of us thought, “Oh, aren’t we special because we are here at the Festival?” We simply were doing our work the best we could do it. And if that made Aspen special, fine, I guess it did. But that isn’t what we were about. We were just trying to do our work well.
Lynn Kallos [00:11:36] Was it… did you find that it was a different experience every year?
Adele Addison [00:11:41] Every year, you say?
Lynn Kallos [00:11:42] Or from year to year? Did you find…?
Adele Addison [00:11:46] Insomuch as things are different from day to day, you know. I mean, making the music is sort of kind of how life is. It is different day to day. You may do, say, what you call a routine, but something about it is always slightly different.
Lynn Kallos [00:12:05] Okay. I see. I was just wondering if it was the same type of experience, I guess, from year to year.
Adele Addison [00:12:12] No, honey, experiences are what you make them.
Lynn Kallos [00:12:17] Right. I was wondering if the Festival here in Aspen was like anything else you’d participated in before?
Adele Addison [00:12:29] No, it was different in that most times you are… I think that has changed a lot, too. Festivals have gone in different directions because of the needs of festivals, because of thinking about music, how music can fit into the community and so on. But to answer your question, uh, it was different for me in that not only was I a performer in the Festival, but I was also responsible for working with young, talented singers as well. At the beginning it was mainly singers, then it became instrumentalists as we began to do music that involved singers and other instruments. So that was a different thing. In fact, that’s one of the things that Aspen has been very proud of, that the faculty is equally interested in teaching. And that, I think, that, I would say, was different from other festivals. When I went to Tanglewood and sang at Tanglewood many years as part of the festival, I didn’t do any teaching. I may meet with students and speak to them or something of the kind, but I was not involved with teaching them week by week.
Lynn Kallos [00:14:12] So the Festival allowed you to do that?
Adele Addison [00:14:14] Yes. Oh, in fact, that’s part of the Festival. That’s a… that’s the foundation, one of the foundations of this Festival, that faculty does participate in the teaching of these students, and that students, for instance the orchestral students, sit along within the orchestra as they are assigned and play with the teachers. That is quite wonderful.
Lynn Kallos [00:14:43] And that’s what you do now, every summer?
Adele Addison [00:14:46] I teach. Yes.
Lynn Kallos [00:14:47] Do you still perform?
Adele Addison [00:14:48] No, I do not. No.
Lynn Kallos [00:14:52] I guess you sort of answered this, but I was just wondering what you enjoyed most about participating in the Festival.
Adele Addison [00:15:04] You know, I… it’s an oversimplification, but I just enjoy doing what I do and doing it well. Now…
Lynn Kallos [00:15:15] That’s a fine answer.
Adele Addison [00:15:17] You know? And that’s hard enough to keep up with. One has to do a lot of rethinking and investigating and making some decisions, sometimes throwing those things away. But if you can do what you do and do it well, I think that’s it. I can’t say that I always do it well. I’m in there trying, but I don’t know if I always do it well. But no, I would think that would… I would say it would give me the most pleasure.
Lynn Kallos [00:15:52] So now that would be, would that be teaching for you now, whereas it was performing before?
Adele Addison [00:15:58] Well, there was always a… Pardon me. Yes, now it is, of course, the teaching. Before it was… it was two things. It was the performing and the teaching. Because I had those two responsibilities.
Lynn Kallos [00:16:14] Okay. Um, I was wondering if you felt any changes in the Music Festival after 1954, when MAA… Well, I guess you weren’t here yet, but maybe you’ve heard the changes from 1954 when the MAA became separate from the Institute. Do you know that story?
Adele Addison [00:16:36] Yeah. See, I can’t answer your question because you’re asking me about changes, if I noticed any changes, and I would have had to have been here.
Lynn Kallos [00:16:45] Okay. That’s true. Let’s switch the question and say, okay, have you noticed any changes then from 1957 until now, in terms of the Music Festival and its structure or its participation?
Adele Addison [00:16:57] Oh, yeah. I mean, there are constant changes because the people who are at the head of it, who differ over a period of years, and then they are new. Those, all of these people have ideas for the Festival. So, of course, obviously, you know, there are changes. Um, they just don’t feel that that was it and that it should be. One can’t do that and run an organization, uh, with any success, I think. And so yes, indeed, I have seen changes, and I am sure there are changes in people’s minds today that they will hopefully put into the whole feeling and direction of how Aspen will go. And you can only assess whether that has been good or bad after it’s been done.
Lynn Kallos [00:18:03] Right. So it’s not necessarily good or bad changes. It’s just…
Adele Addison [00:18:06] No, I mean, I… no…
Lynn Kallos [00:18:08] It just changes.
Adele Addison [00:18:09] Yeah. And please, you know, one can say, “Oh, I don’t think that was a, that’s a good thing,” but that’s only according to you, you know, and that’s all very kind of personal. And you have to keep in mind what is good for the Festival. It may not necessarily do, have anything to do with your feeling about the Festival. And if that is strong enough, and there are many people that share that, then you have to perhaps try to have some influence to redirect. But it just isn’t this or that. Nothing about life is, honestly. There’s always, always room for thought and discussion and a willingness to be a little bit more flexible about things.
Lynn Kallos [00:19:08] Um, I was wondering what you thought about the Aspen audience in terms of how does it compare to the other audiences you’ve performed in front of?
Adele Addison [00:19:18] Oh, audiences are audiences, my dear. I think… and Aspen has become, I think, so much more accessible to people. We can’t talk of the Aspen audience, you know, as it once was, it was much smaller and drew much more from down the valley, say, to Denver and so on. Now we get, good heavens, we have people here from everywhere. So that’s quite different. Um, and you know, so many festivals have grown across the country. One can’t even say anymore that they, the audience, I mean, of Aspen, prefers chamber music to any other group because what happens is you will find festivals that mainly do chamber music. So you can’t… the Aspen audience is a very versatile one, some people preferring the chamber music, some people preferring the festival orchestra concerts. You know, it’s… some people coming particularly for the pianists, you know? So no, it’s kind of a healthy mix. Yeah.
Lynn Kallos [00:21:01] I asked this just because I’ve read things in The Aspen Times from ’50s, ’60s, and there will be artists remarking that, yes, the Aspen audience is more intellectual, more knowledgeable, more, I guess, in touch with the arts than, say, other audiences.
Adele Addison [00:21:19] Yeah, and that may have been, you know, but again, I think you’re talking about a smaller group and maybe you could say that, but you don’t know. You sit in that tent, and somebody sits next to you, and you think he or she may look… Good Lord, what are they? What do they know? You would be amazed. No, you can’t… I don’t think that can be said too much. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Oh, there are always people who come because they heard, you know, there’s something wonderful going on in that tent. And so they feel they should go as long as they are here and it’s available to them. You know, that’s everywhere. I think now there’s so much going on in this country in the way of the arts and the music. We may think it’s not enough. It doesn’t have enough money. None of it does, you know? We may think all those things, but there’s a tremendous amount going on here, and our audiences have become much more aware. That does not mean that they will particularly care more for music. I’m talking about, they are aware that things are accessible to them and take advantage of those things.
Lynn Kallos [00:22:41] Is there something you think that Aspen brings to the Music Festival that other places can or do not?
Adele Addison [00:22:54] Well, I suppose, and I’m sure most of the musicians who come, just like the audiences, that they do let the atmosphere get to them. It does something to them. You can’t have all of this nature around you and not have it affect you. Now, I don’t know whether one can call, say that that’s responsible to the Aspen Music Festival. I think the people who come here to participate in the Festival bring certain wonderful qualities, and they then take the advantage to fit in to this wonderful atmosphere, and the nature does something to them. So I don’t… they’re not responsible for that.
Lynn Kallos [00:24:06] Right. I was just trying to think if there’s something about Aspen that makes the Music Festival work and something about the Music Festival that makes Aspen unique, how they kind of co-, I guess, -unite to make each other unique.
Adele Addison [00:24:26] Well, again, insomuch as these unique people come to a unique place, let’s hope. And as I say, I think they do influence, you know, in that respect. The people desire to come here and that’s part of it, that’s great to begin with. And then they come, and what is here is so very wonderful that they are then influence-inspired, if you will say, by it. I’m not much of an intellect, you see. I can’t go into that because I’m not very intellectual. I really am not. And I’m sure somebody has figured that all out. And I hope you get those, one of those persons on your tape, and, you know, it’ll answer that part of what you are requesting me to answer right now. I don’t know. I don’t know how you could be here and not be influenced. Just look out that window. Good Lord, how wonderful.
Lynn Kallos [00:25:37] Okay, well, I think I’m finished with my questions.
Adele Addison [00:25:42] Good! {laughter}
Lynn Kallos [00:25:42] So I’d like to thank you, though, for this interview, very much. I’d like to thank you.
Adele Addison [00:25:47] You’re welcome.