This is the story of how a veterans’ orchestra came into being, who the musicians are that perform voluntarily - well-known musicians, generals, physicians, attorneys - and the intricacies of being a conductor.

Over a friendly breakfast in 2005 with Yaacov Mishori, formerly Principal Horn of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and a past member of its board, I asked him, “How many retired IPO members do you think would like to play symphonic repertoire together, just for pleasure?”  The question was not entirely innocent.  I pondered about those first-class musicians, forced at the peak of their capabilities at age 65 into retirement and sudden redundancy.  Mishori kept updated accounts of IPO retirees and knew every professional musician in the country.  “We could find out,” he said, and faxed me his lists. On my first try, ten IPO and four Jerusalem Symphony retirees responded favorably.  Not enough to create an orchestra, but enough to pursue the idea further, which I did.

Not every retiree from an orchestra is eager to join an ensemble again, especially a voluntary one.  Some seniors take temporary jobs in smaller orchestras, some turn to teaching or chamber music, and some pack up their instruments altogether. After a lifetime of surrendering their artistic integrity to the whims of itinerant chiefs, submitting to yet another conductor may be anathema to some musicians.  Yet most of those we approached found it a pleasant idea to play familiar repertoire in a relaxed, informal environment. Indeed, some of the most sought-after musicians and music educators in the country committed to the project as well as advanced players of the younger generation, and an ensemble of quality came into being, albeit on a zero budget.  Considering the recruits’ high average age, the name Emeritus seemed appropriate for such a venture.  

I must confess that the august troupe made me feel like the Sorcerer’s Apprentice.  Would these players, used to a continuous parade of world famous conductors, accept me as conductor and music director?

The contrasting functions of conductor and music director can pose an added difficulty for the person who takes on both posts.  Conducting is a lonely occupation. No one is privy to the conductor’s long toil in mastering a score.  The music director, on the other hand, must be a social-minded executive, setting repertoire, inviting soloists, coordinating dates and venues.  His need, above all, is a telephone.

Lacking a rehearsal hall for the first four years of our existence, we rehearsed at home (in our living room, angry neighbors notwithstanding), thus creating an atmosphere of friendliness and intimacy. In our fifth year, Emeritus was awarded a residency at the Levinsky College of Education in Tel Aviv, where we enjoy proper rehearsal facilities.

The Emeritus is neither professional nor amateur, or alternatively, it is both. Operating without subsidy and performing for free, it is by definition an amateur enterprise.  But because of the eminence of many of its players, it cannot be called amateur.  A well known Italian conductor said to me in wonderment, “In Italy you would not find one musician willing to play for free after retiring from an orchestra.” Yet world class violinist Menahem Breuer, retired concertmaster of the Israel Philharmonic and occasional leader of the Emeritus, says, “I do this with pleasure.  All the players seem to like this mutual music-making, which is a nice thing in itself.”

In its short but active history, Emeritus has played to full houses not only in its regular concert series in Tel Aviv, but also in unconventional venues such as the municipal community center in ancient Nazareth and the Protea Village auditorium in Tel Mond. We have collaborated with leading educational music institutions, among them Keshet Eilon Music Center, Acco Conservatory, Maxim Vengerov Music Project, Orpheus Music Association, and Herzliya Gordon School of the Arts.

Soloists and conductors who have appeared with the orchestra are well established artists, as well as gifted young newcomers. Guest artists have included musicians from Belgium, China, Cyprus, Ecuador, France, Holland, Switzerland, Turkey and the U.K. 

Conscious of music’s social and ethical obligations, the orchestra has presented young Arab soloists and has played for Arab audiences. We undertook a charity concert in aid of the 2009 El Salvador flood victims and celebrated the founding of Israel’s first Youth Symphony, the Gadna Orchestra, with a number of the original members participating.  Abroad, the orchestra opened the 12^th Bellapais International Music Festival in Cyprus with two demanding Beethoven programs, to warm public acclaim. 

Comprising over 40 players, the ensemble constitutes a full and well-balanced chamber orchestra, and prepares three programs per season.  The works performed are among the best loved of the classical repertoire centered on Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven.  Habitually the orchestra also introduces debut works of young composers - Ayala Kalus, Yael Levi, and Cypriot Asli Giray are among those.  

One of our violinists, Prof Menachem Shapiro, a semi-retired endocrinologist whose parents came to the USA from Russia when he was two, says: “My mother, who was a doctor, wanted me to be a violinist when I was a child, saying, ‘Any idiot can be a doctor, but you have to be special to play violin.’ So I started learning violin at age 10. My mother could not foresee that this would be the factor leading to my courtship and marriage to Judy, who is a talented pianist.  We played duets on our first date and it was a ‘closed case’ between us.  Playing a musical instrument is part of the lives of all our children. The ‘disease’ is being passed down.  Playing violin is my ‘morphine’.  Playing with highly talented instrumentalists in our orchestra is being in Gan Eden in this world.”

Yet why would experienced professionals be eager to play with amateurs? Simply because retired pros are not always around to fill every position required and if one’s orchestral setup is incomplete, one does not play at all.  Pros are thus willing to stretch their magnanimity, helping and instructing their less experienced peers, and attending more rehearsals than they would otherwise need.  The fear, however, of violating this precarious balance between the two groups can cause a music director sleepless nights. What if the pros’ patience runs out or if a pro is forced to quit? 

Professional orchestra playing is a distinct specialization in music.  Our Assistant Concertmaster Nehama Rosler, for example, who had joined the Jerusalem Symphony at age 18, took early retirement after 37 years.  Zvi Segal, IPO First Violin, was in the Philharmonic for 41 years.  Cellist Gershon Bar-On, a Bucharest Music Academy graduate who made aliyah in 1965, played in the Jerusalem Symphony for 38 years. First Oboist Ehud Avichail stayed with the Jerusalem Symphony for 40 years.  Los Angeles born Richard Lesser, graduate of Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute and the doyen of clarinet players in Israel, came to the IPO in 1967 as Principal and stayed on for 34 years.  Yaacov Mishori, the celebrated horn player, author and broadcaster, presenter of our concerts and irrepressible jokester, was an IPO member for 38 years. 

This wealth of experience is not to be taken lightly.  I remember an IPO concert many years ago in which Isaac Stern played a violin concerto, as usual, to great acclaim.  After the intermission, dressed in a light gray business suit, fiddle in hand, he tiptoed onto the stage, sat shyly in the last desk of the second violin section, and studiously played in the orchestra for the rest of the evening.     

Pros have an obvious lead over aficionados in technical proficiency, familiarity with the repertoire and ownership of a superior instrument, but their primary advantage is the ability, while playing, to watch and follow the conductor - the key to the orchestra playing together. 

I learnt of this perplexing duality early in life. As a teen piano pupil in the beginning years of WW2, I joined a youth orchestra organized by well-known Czech conductor Georg Singer. The piano not being an orchestral instrument, it was decided that I should quickly learn to play the timpani.  I knew and admired the two boys who sat in the orchestra’s first desk: Shimon Mishori, future concertmaster of the Jerusalem Symphony, and Chaim Taub, future concertmaster of the Israel Philharmonic and world renowned violin pedagogue.  No one, however, explained to me how crucial it would be to watch the conductor, and the kettle-drum being a particularly loud instrument, every strike, especially if off the beat, was instantly noticed by all.  I saved my honor, eventually, when I discovered the trick, and from then on made sure to look at the conductor before every entry.

Not much came of my episode as a timpanist.  Firstly, I didn’t get to play much as I was only assistant timpanist, the chief timpanist being a piano-playing girl a year older than me.  I came to rehearsals regularly hoping she’d be absent, but that hardly ever happened.  Secondly, I didn’t get to practice much either.  My teacher, the IPO timpanist Kurt Sommerfeld (the orchestra, founded in 1936, was then called the Palestine Orchestra), arranged for me to take two discarded timps home for practice.  When the instruments arrived, I waited patiently for my mother to leave the house, and started drumming.  This took place only weeks after Italian airplanes had bombarded Tel Aviv, causing damage and casualties.  Not five minutes into my practice session, I heard our good neighbor Mrs. Greengart in the next building shouting my name across the balconies, ordering me down at once to the so-called air-raid shelter at the building’s entrance.  There I was surprised to find the tenants visibly agitated, even angry at me for coming down so late. “But there was no alarm,” I protested.  “Be quiet,” I was told. “This is another air strike. Didn’t you hear the bombs falling just now?”  Only then did it dawn on me what, or more precisely, who, had caused the mayhem.  That was the end of my timpani career.  The lesson, however, of having to watch the conductor relentlessly has not been forgotten.

Alan Tschaikov, a graduate of London’s Royal College of Music, was the Jerusalem Symphony’s clarinet and bass-clarinet player for 41 years. “I started playing the clarinet with my father,” says Alan, “who was Sub-Principal Clarinet in the BBC Symphony Orchestra. I did my national service in the Central Band of the Royal Air Force.  After a few years of freelancing I came to Israel in 1957 with my wife Maureen and a one-month- old daughter and joined the Jerusalem Symphony, having got the job already in England.  Since retiring I have continued to teach and play chamber music, and together with Maureen, a pianist, musicologist and librarian at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, we donate concerts to retirement homes. We have four married children. Our daughter is a nurse in a border kibbutz and one of our sons is the commanding police officer in the Old City of Jerusalem.  A curious coincidence is that my uncle Anton, a violinist who came here with the British Army during WW1, founded a music school in Jerusalem in 1919, under the patronage of the celebrated diplomat, author, supporter of the arts and Jerusalem Governor Sir Ronald Storrs. There, Uncle Anton played chamber music with the noted cellist and music pioneer Thelma Yellin, who was a cousin of Maureen, years before we were thought of.”    

Although the orchestra’s nucleus derives from two leading orchestras, Emeritus has an undeniable international flavor.  Second Violin Principal Nora Amkhanitzky played for 20 years in the Armenia Chamber Orchestra in Yerevan. Russian Violist Ida Kushner came from the Samara Philharmonic.  Ukrainian Irina Baskin taught violin in Odessa. Sam Lewis played viola in the London Symphony Orchestra in his youth, and Canadian cellist Ari Kernerman, now a successful publisher of dictionaries in Israel, was the Toronto Symphony’s youngest member 60 years ago. Violinist Ariela Megiddo, wife of an Israeli career diplomat, was a member of the Bonn and the Washington DC Chamber Orchestras.  Flautist Dafni Ben-Ozer, director of the highly regarded Givatayim Conservatory, got her Artist Diploma from Indiana University. And flautist Tessa Swade from Cape Town, the orchestra’s dedicated administrator and my dear wife, is a graduate of London’s Guildhall School of Music.    

One of the dilemmas a music director faces is the number of rehearsals to be allotted to a concert program.  Too few, and the hoped-for quality is not achieved. Too many, and the excitement and the inspiration are bound to wane.  Altogether, too much orchestra activity may scare members away.  Too little, and the group may never coalesce into a vibrant unit.     

As befits a Jewish orchestra, Emeritus has its share of doctors and lawyers.  Besides our endocrinologist Prof Shapiro, we have among our ranks leading pediatrician Prof Basil Porter of Ben-Gurion University and dental surgeon Prof Yakir Anavi of Tel Aviv University.  Attorney and violinist Abraham Dotan has played in every conceivable ensemble including a mandolin orchestra, and attorney Shabtay Levy whose musician father founded the Hadera Conservatory, remembers how the Gadna Orchestra was first initiated in his parents’ home.

A new recruit is Donovan Bullen, an easygoing young Canadian. “I started playing electric bass in Grade 8, and then picked up the contrabass in high school. I ended up going to the University of Western Ontario where I received a Bachelor of Music with honors in theory and composition. I also studied at Humber College for a year, basking in the guidance of Canada's finest jazz players.  During this time my girlfriend got a job at the Canadian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was sent on her first diplomatic posting to Israel. I decided to take time off formal schooling and focus on practicing and private study in Tel Aviv. I amabsolutely loving my time here. I am practicing more and with greater focus than I ever have, and I feel my playing is reflecting this dedication. Furthermore, I have regular lessons with IPO bass player Eli Magen, who is a wonderful teacher. I have met several people in the local jazz scene and regularly attend jam sessions; and of course I have the pleasure of playing with Emeritus.”

Perhaps the most unexpected members of the orchestra are our two trumpet players, Uzi Eilam and Jacob Perry. Both are former generals in the Israel Defense Forces. Eilam was Head of Israel’s Atomic Energy Commission, and his recently published autobiography has become a bestseller. Perry, former Head of General Security, is currently chairman of one of the country’s major banks. Both men have played the trumpet since boyhood and relish their orchestra activity, at times delighting audiences with an unsolicited yet well coordinated bugle call.    

Inevitably, an assembly including members of advanced age is likely to suffer sad departures. Ze’ev Steinberg, IPO violist for almost 50 years, and surely the most energetic member of Emeritus, passed away recently at age 93. Composer, teacher of viola and chamber music at the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music, jurist at the America-Israel Cultural Foundation and the International Harp Competition, and member of many ensembles including the Israel Quartet, he is fondly remembered as Israel’s veteran “Mr. Music”. In a sequence of fate reminiscent of the Book of Job, only several weeks later our much-loved concertmaster Raffi Markus succumbed to illness. A Guildhall graduate, Raffi joined the IPO in 1958 in the First Violin Section, a post he held for 36 years until his retirement.  A long-time member of the Israel Quartet, he performed in Israel, Europe, and Japan, and joined Emeritus at its founding. Like Ze’ev, Raffi was born in Germany, and the two were probably the last of the formidable generation of musicians who had originally come from that country. 

Ze’ev’s successor as Emeritus’ Viola Principal is Yeheskell Beinisch, a lawyer-musician, former chairman of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, and currently chairman of the Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival. Our concerts now regularly provide a musical education for the bodyguards of Yeheskell’s wife, Israel High Court Chief Justice Dorit Beinisch, who has become a fervent Emeritus groupie.

Emeritus has turned out to be a close-knit, jovial and committed group able to attract first-class artists and enthusiastic audiences.  Do come and hear us, perhaps even join in if you play an instrument. samzebba@netvision.net.il