Starting as an idea developed by Waukegan High School music teacher Hank Levy and WKRS radio reporter and eventual Waukegan Mayor Bill Morris — with a boost from Jack Benny — 50 years ago, the Waukegan Symphony Orchestra is now a city institution.
Levy felt a city of Waukegan’s size should have its own symphony orchestra. Morris said Levy came to him in 1973 with the idea, he liked it and assembled a team from the business community to handle the executive end, while Levy and others recruited musicians.
“Hank Levy and I had been discussing the importance of a strong cultural component to have a strong, thriving community leading up to his suggestion we start a Waukegan symphony,” Morris said.
The Waukegan Symphony Orchestra opened its 50th season on Oct. 6 at Waukegan High School’s Trapp Auditorium, offering a series of varied musical pieces through May with some of its members recalling the inaugural performance in 1974 with Benny serving as guest soloist.
Violinist Kim Curtis of Gurnee was a Lake Forest High School junior when she was recruited by her music teacher to join the symphony in 1974. She continues to be a member of the ensemble today, though she took time off over the years to raise her daughter.
Performing in the opening concert on May 18, 1974, Curtis came face to face with Benny in rehearsal. She said he intended to break a string on his violin and then borrow one from one of the musicians. They were playing the first movement of “Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto.”
“Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, it was really him,” she said. “He walked along the row taking violins. He took mine, played a few notes and said, ‘It won’t work,” and took another one. He was really good.”
Matt Matias of Green Oaks joined the orchestra in 2008 as an oboist. He first learned to play as a third grader at Oakdale Elementary School in Waukegan, and was a Jack Benny Middle School student when he sat in the audience for the inaugural concert.
“He was a real celebrity from our town,” Matias said. “He was pretty good. It was exciting to see him. It was kind of cool.”
Feeling they would need a celebrity for the first concert, Morris said he and Levy decided to reach out to Waukegan native Benny. Morris said Benny agreed with a fee of around $100,000 in today’s money, plus transportation costs. The concert was a sellout. Then Morris got a surprise.
“Just before the concert started, Mr. Benny pulled me aside and told me he would waive his fee and expenses under two conditions,” Morris said. “We would use the money to endow the symphony, and the second was that I could tell no one until he was dead 10 years.”
Performing regularly since then, Ty Roher, the Waukegan Park District’s manager of cultural arts and a bass player with the orchestra since 2018, said initially it operated as a not-for-profit organization, and is now run by the Park District. There are between 50 and 60 members.
“It’s a place for people who like the symphonic experience,” Rohrer said. “There is nothing like it. It is a good family experience. We’re always looking for young people to join. They will be the next generation of symphonic musicians.”
For musicians like Matias and Stan Bouma, a French horn player with the symphony since 1983, it is an opportunity to be part of a team where every member has a unique and indispensable role to play for everything to properly come together.
“We work together to pull it all together for the concert,” Matias said. “Everybody’s got a job to do. You do your job, you play with your team and it all comes together.”
Bouma said he remembers a concert where the orchestra was playing Engelbert Humperdinck’s “Overture to Hansel and Gretel.” The piece begins with French horn music. As always, there is the pre-concert nervousness about being sure everything works.
“It opens with four horns,” Bouma said, “The horns are critical to that piece. On the second note, I could feel the collaboration. I knew it was going to be a successful concert.”
Currently under the direction of Music Director Alexander Platt, the orchestra’s first concert this year was “Forgotten Gems.” They will perform Celebrating Black Artistry on Feb. 23, a Young People’s Family Concert on March 9 and “New York and Paris” on May 18.
The symphony will also team with the Waukegan Concert Chorus to perform the “Joseph A. Favero Memorial Do It Yourself Messiah and Carol Sing Along” on Dec. 8.
