Virginia Himes

When WyoHistory.org published its history of the Wyoming Symphony Orchestra in October 2021, the editors realized that there were many more people available to contribute their thoughts and memories of that organization. The American Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming was also interested, and offered to contribute funding to support an oral history project to capture more information on the history of the symphony.

The Casper College Western History Center transcribed most of these interviews. In addition to being available here, at WyoHistory.org, the audio files plus transcripts are also available at the Western History Center and the American Heritage Center.

Thanks to the interviewees for donating their time; to the Casper College Western History Center for transcribing the audio files; to Kylie McCormick for transcribing some of the audio files; to the American Heritage Center for funding the project; and to the trustees of the George Fox Fund, Inc. for donating the use of its Zoom account.

Wyoming Symphony Oral History Project

Rebecca Hein interviewing Virginia Himes, September 16, 2022

Date transcribed: October 10, 2022

Rebecca: Hi. Let's start since I have started the recording now. Let's start with your name, your instrument, and how you came to play that instrument.

Virginia: My name is Virginia Himes. I played the violin; I was six years old, an aunt of mine started me on the violin.

Rebecca: Did she give you lessons?

Virginia: Yes, she did.

Rebecca: Did she have a violin?

Virginia: She was a music teacher.

Rebecca: I see. And did she have an instrument to give you or to lend to you? Or how did that work?

Virginia: I really don't know ... I'm sure she got the instrument from the school.

Rebecca: Okay. So for how many years did you take lessons?

Virginia: From the time I was six years old. Through the time I was a sophomore in college.

Rebecca: Okay. And what did you major in, in college?

Virginia: I went to a two year school and you really couldn't. Back in the day, you didn't have a major. You just took credits and got an associates. I did go on and study. I was going to go into music therapy, but then I dropped out.

Rebecca: Have you kept playing the violin this whole time?

Virginia: Have I quit playing the violin?

Rebecca: Go ahead.

Virginia: I'm sorry ... What [did] you ask me?

Rebecca: I meant to ask you if you had continued playing the violin this whole time.

Virginia: Even now? No, I played until 2019.

Rebecca: Okay. And ... [you’ve] played in the Wyoming Symphony Orchestra that whole time from when you started with the symphony until 2019.

Virginia: No. I started in December of 1974 with the symphony, and I retired in December of 2019. I played 45 years.

Rebecca: Okay. So in 1974 that that would have been under Curtis Peacock, is that correct?

Virginia: Yes.

Rebecca: Do you have memories from those early years [you can tell] me? That would have been the Casper Civic Symphony, I believe.

Virginia: I think that's what it was called. I have memories of it. I have very good memories of it.

Rebecca: What are some of your memories from back then?

Virginia: But I think ... now mostly [of] the camaraderie that we had. I had moved to Casper, in fact, just a few days before I started the symphony. And I have just very fond memories. I learned a lot. Played a lot. And thoroughly enjoyed it the whole time.

Rebecca: From the years that you were playing under Curtis Peacock, more than 20 years I believe. Do you have particular memories of pieces that you played under him that you especially enjoyed?

Virginia: I guess I'm one of the strange ones. I enjoyed everything we played. I just loved playing and I really didn't care what it was. I just enjoyed playing and tried to do my best always.

Rebecca: That's great. Were you in the first violin section the whole time? From the very beginning.

Virginia: I think when I first came, I had not played for a few years and so I asked to play [in the] second [violin section], and I think I played in that section for maybe one or two concerts, and then I moved to the first [violin] section.

Rebecca: Then Curtis Peacock left the orchestra in the early 2000s, and Jonathan Shames became the conductor.

Virginia: Yes.

Rebecca: So you played under Jonathan Shames for the three years that he was here, is that correct?

Virginia: Yes, I did.

Rebecca: Do you have specific things to tell us about that time.

Virginia: I liked every conductor I played under. I simply learned a lot of things. Enjoyed playing. I think every one of them, I am not going to say they had a specialty. They, just looking back ... [they each] had their own way of doing things. And I enjoyed playing under all the conductors.

Rebecca: So that that would include Matthew Savery, you enjoyed playing under him.

Virginia: I did. Very much so. Learned a lot from him. Yes.

Rebecca: The orchestra did some difficult pieces under Matthew Savery, I've noticed. Did you find that especially fun? Things like Mahler's Fifth Symphony and the Tchaikowsky Serenade for Strings. [Gustav Mahler, 19th and 20th century Austro-Bohemian composer and conductor; Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, 19th century Russian composer]

Virginia: ... I enjoyed it very much. Like I say, anything, the conductor put in front of us I enjoyed learning about it and practicing and doing the best I could. I had 45 years of absolutely wonderful experiences.

Rebecca: In 2019? Was Christopher Dragon the conductor or was it still Matthew Savery? I can't recall.

Virginia: When I quit I [had] played one or two concerts under Mr. Dragon. Yes. In my opinion, he's a brilliant man.

Rebecca: Yeah. He seems to be a really excellent conductor from everything I've heard.

Virginia: Yes. Yes.

Rebecca: Okay. I have one more question, which is: Well, you've sort of answered it already, but I'll ask it anyway. Does any one musical performance jump out at you as being the absolute high point of your time playing. With the orchestra in Casper.

Virginia: I absolutely loved playing the Messiah [by George Friedrich Handel, late 17th and early 18th century German-British composer]. Absolutely loved playing Beethoven's Ninth [Symphony]. I loved them all. I really can't say. Any favorite I had? I think my time in the symphony. We were fortunate. We played with pops groups. Any kind of group that came. It was just a joy. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Rebecca: Okay. That's great. Do you have anything else you would like to tell us about your time with the symphony? Forty-five years is a very long time.

Virginia: Yes, it is. I could tell you I'm only 35, but you wouldn't believe me. Um, I think. I think everyone should have a musical experience. I think people that say they don't like classical music, they don't realize they hear it all the time. And it was just one of the most wonderful experiences I've had in my life to be able to be honored to play that. I was lucky. I enjoyed playing when you played.

Rebecca: Yeah, that was a that was a good period for the symphony in the 90s. I would have been in the Civic Symphony in 1974 also. But I can't say that I specifically remember you from then. It was a long time [ago].

Virginia: We were much younger then.

Rebecca: I was a senior in high school in 1974. Well, in December I would have been a freshman at college, so.

Virginia: In ‘74. That's when Deb Bovie started playing. And I know she was a senior at Kelly Walsh [high school].

Rebecca: Right.

Virginia: I don't know if you and Deb played together [at] the same time. I just know that was the first time we ever met that many years ago. So.

Rebecca: Ginny, I want to go back to something you said a little while ago. You said some people think they don't like classical music, but they hear it all the time. Could you be a little more specific about that?

Virginia: About hearing classical music?

Rebecca: Yeah.

Virginia: All right. Well, people will say they don't like it, but you know as well as I do that oftentimes with commercials, the music is classical music. And I'm sure they hear that and they don't sit and go, ugh ugh ugh. I just think they hear it. They hear it in more ways than they think they do.

Rebecca: Do you think part of the problem is people are hesitant to come to a concert because they don't know how they should behave or how they should dress, things like that.

Virginia: I think they don't come because you think classical music and you think long hair, boring things? Um, I think it needs to be more introduced into the schools. As you well know, in several places there is not instrumental music in the grade schools anymore. That upset me terribly. I just think everyone should be exposed to it. I don't care if it's just two weeks in a classroom. I think everyone should be exposed to it and I think they would have a big awakening if they did. Everything in this life is not a rock band or a country band. And you're supposed to say, right? Right.

Rebecca: Well, as far as I can tell, orchestras have always struggled with the image of that being for somebody else. Or being for an exclusive crowd and not being for the common person or whatever. That's unfortunate, but I'm familiar with that.

Virginia: It is. Yes. Yes. Right? Right.

Rebecca: I remember; I don't know if you have run into anything like this, but when I was in the [Casper] Youth Symphony way back when I was in high school in the 70s, we had to help with fundraising, which was fine. What we did was on Saturday mornings we would go around to people's houses and ask them for the pop bottles. The empty Pepsi and Coca Cola bottles that they might have in their garages. You probably remember you had to put out a deposit for those bottles and then you could take them back and get your deposit money back.

Virginia: So. Right. Right. Yeah. Yeah.

Rebecca: So we would ask them if they would be willing to donate their empty bottles and then we would take them back and get the money from them. And many times, [after] we identified ourselves, they would say, Oh, we support the Casper Troopers. You know, we'll give you our pop bottles. But we really we, we prefer to support the Troopers. So I don't want to say anything against the Troopers. But I do remember having a sense that the majority of people in Casper, if they had to choose who they were going to support, it would be the Troopers and not the Youth Symphony or the Civic Symphony.

Virginia: I know. That's very sad. So sad. I have heard that you perform personally our great symphony performs. If anyone wants to do that, I think that's fine. And I would support their wanting to. That's just my choice. But I know that that mentality and it still is.

Rebecca: Yeah. And I do not know how the Troopers are doing now, but I know when I was in high school they were entering competitions for drum and bugle corps and winning and winning and winning and winning. Probably generating a lot of civic pride. And I had friends that were in the Troopers and they didn't have any time at all because outside of school what they did was rehearse with the Troopers, which that's okay. I don't think you could have gotten classical music students to rehearse that much, partly because it just wouldn't have been a popular idea among the parents and the teachers and so on. That's a guess.

Virginia: I think someone told me that the Troopers kind of, they weren't what they used to be. But I have not seen their program this year. But I have spoken to someone who has been around the Troopers. I don't know how long they've been around. I know she's been around them a good 50 years and I know she said the program they're doing this year is the best she has ever seen. I've not seen it, so I don't know, but I still prefer symphony music.

Rebecca: Yeah, me too. But that's not too surprising since we are symphony classical musicians.

Virginia: Are you still playing at all, Becky?

Rebecca: Oh, just for my own fun. Yeah.

Virginia: Oh. Okay. Well, keep it up as long as you can.

Rebecca: That's the deal at our age, isn't it?

Virginia: I have two shoulders that kind of balk at me playing, so I clearly haven't played. I'm very fortunate [inaudible]. You think of all the things that who we played for and not that many people in this world get to do that. So I'm very thankful.

Rebecca: Yeah. The guest artists we had. Seems like from way back they were all excellent. The soloists came in from outside. It just seems like most of them were ... it was amazing to be on the same stage with them and listen to them play.

Virginia: Oh, yeah, yeah. Lots of times you sat there with your mouth just wide open. Looking, listening?

Rebecca: Yeah. Do you recall any particular guest artist that was a standout for you?

Virginia: Alexander Markov is certainly a heck of a player. And there was one. Do you remember? I think he was in Alaska. And he would come down and play. Do you remember that?

Rebecca: I can't think who that would have been.

Virginia: I can't. I can't either. I know Alexander Markov [Russian-American violinist] is a good friend of Matthew's [Savery]. Some player named Brian. Unfortunately, he passed away, but he was an absolute tremendous player. There were a lot of the soloists [that] came and played so. Enjoyed for the most part, most of them some of them had a little trouble but I wasn't up there playing and I couldn't have done it. So. You just go on. I have to give them credit.

Rebecca: Did you find that any of them ... I kind of remember this, that any of them had what you might call an attitude. They were a world famous soloist, and we were a little bitty community orchestra and ... they were lowering themselves to be on the same stage with us. They never said it. You just got the feeling. Do you recall anything like that?

Virginia: You had this feeling, and it wasn't necessarily anything they said. Maybe we were reading just a look they gave us, you know, like. You should be able to play this absolutely perfectly. Well, guess what? I don't recall any any of them saying anything. You know, it was just and I'm sure you saw it, too. They would just maybe turn around and look with that. Looks like, come on and get it together. So. We did the best we could. We had a lot ... we had a lot of good times. We really did. We had a lot of good times. And I think if you think back then too, so many of us that have been around for a long time, the word I hear is we all cared. You know, it was a community orchestra, like you say, and it just it's grown. People still care. I'm sure it's just I loved it right up until the very end when I retired, I just knew that I'd reached the point that I had to retire. I just loved it all through the different stages that it went through.

Rebecca: That's wonderful. I have one guest soloist I want to ask you about, if you can remember, because I was so impressed that the symphony was able to get him. This is in recent years. He was a French horn player. His name is Eric Ruske. Do you recall his soloing with the symphony not too many years ago?

Virginia: Many years ago. Not too many?

Rebecca: Maybe as much as 7 years ago. Okay.

Virginia: A French horn player, we had.

Rebecca: Yep.

Virginia: I can't remember who's been there the last few years. And then the person. I guess I don't know who you're speaking of.

Rebecca: This would have been a guest artist, not a regular member of the symphony.

Virginia: Oh. They came in and played.

Rebecca: Yeah. Played a solo or concerto or something.

Virginia: Right? Yeah. Okay. I can’t remember that.

Rebecca: Okay. Do you have anything else you would like to tell me? For the historical record here.

Virginia: First of all, thank you for thinking of me, Becky, and asking me. It's been a good many years since we've communicated. I just am 100 percent behind orchestras, symphonies, and I certainly hope that they all can continue. I know some have had difficulty, but I just hope all of them can continue and people can keep enjoying going to the concerts.

Rebecca: Yeah. Me too. Well, you’re very welcome for being included. You're one of the longest standing members of the orchestra. So you've seen a lot of changes and a lot of things going on.

Virginia: You can help.

Rebecca: Well, we're basically done. So thank you very much again for making yourself available.

Virginia: Oh, Becky, it’s like I say, thank you so much for thinking of me and stay in touch.

Rebecca: Okay, thanks. Take care.

Virginia: Okay. Talk to you. Oh, you did the same. Bye bye.

Rebecca: Bye bye.