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Maurice Levy: You, of course. You were a student at the public school
system and at Carnegie Tech. What is your - many musicians teach? What is
your particular position?
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Patricia Prattis Jennings: Well, I don't currently teach. When I first
joined the orchestra, I did teach. I would drive to Monroeville every
Monday afternoon and Tuesday afternoon, and then drive to Upper Saint Clair
on Saturday mornings and teach all day. In fact, two of my students were
Billy and Bobby Hertz, whose parents were both in the orchestra, Sarah and
Al Hertz. And they would give me a cereal and a banana. By the time I'd get
to their house in the afternoon. I was pretty hungry. At that time. I was
living with my mother and father, and I didn't really want to have students
trekking in and out of their home for lessons. Uh, after that, I really
didn't teach very much. Even though I appreciate what teaching can do for
the teacher, one learns when one teaches. I always felt that I wanted to
spend my time practicing my own music and doing other things that
interested me. And of course, being a member of the orchestra, it wasn't
absolutely necessary that I teach, because quite honestly, for all these
years I've been the only pianist in the city of Pittsburgh who has made a
living solely by playing the piano. And I know that I'm very fortunate, and
I'm sure that there are a lot of local pianists who would like to shoot me.
But this is the way it is, and I won't be here forever. Um, it has occurred
to me occasionally to wonder why I was never invited to teach on a faculty
in the city of Pittsburgh.
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Jennings: There are a number of music schools. There's there's been the
Chatham Music summer camp and other local institutions. And, uh, for the
most part, none of them has ever asked me to teach, despite the fact that I
have achieved a pretty good reputation as a pianist. And I think I'm known
as an intelligent person, and I can only speculate upon the reasons, uh,
which may not be negative, but I don't know. I just found that interesting.
Uh, I know people whose skills are less than than mine are who have taught.
Uh, one thing happened many years ago, I guess I was in my early 20s, and I
called the Pittsburgh Playhouse to inquire about drama classes, because
I've always been interested in drama and my voice. You know, I've done a
good bit of substitute announcing for WQED FM and feel that I have had a
certain knack for that kind of thing. You know, it doesn't pay very much,
but it takes the skills of being able to pronounce all of those foreign
composers and organizations. But at any rate, at that time I was interested
in drama. I was interested in in better speech and vocalizing and so on. So
I happened to get the head of the school there at the time, a fellow whose
name I think was Mark Lewis, and we talked at great length.
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Jennings: He found out what I did for a living. He seemed to be just about
enchanted by the idea of me. The only thing about me that he did not know
was that I was black, and he spoke to me about coming to the Playhouse
School to teach. And I said, well, that might be very nice, and let's talk
about it and so forth and so on. I never heard another word from him. I did
hear from someone else some months later that the reason that he didn't
hire me was because he found out that I was black, and he was afraid that
white parents would not want to bring their children to study with me. And
he hired instead a woman who was better known as a singer. I can't remember
her name, and it doesn't really matter now, but she was certainly not a not
a professional pianist or a well known local pianist. So I don't hesitate
to, um, to name him, because I have quite honestly often felt that I would
like to communicate with him how I felt about that particular situation.
What I heard may have been gossip. There may be no truth to it, but it
certainly seems odd to me that after that conversation with him that I
never heard from him again.
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Levy: That's not an unreasonable conclusion to draw, though.
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Jennings: I don't teach now, but occasionally I listen to someone and
there was a young man who comes to play for me quite often, who studies
with somebody else, and I enjoy being able to listen and advise people who
want want my expertise. But I don't want that regular schedule because they
come, the students come at the late part of the day, when you're either
ready to start dinner or ready for a little siesta.
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Levy: Right? And you have your you have your duties with the Symphony.
That's right, that's right.
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Jennings: And my newsletter, don't forget.
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Levy: Oh yes, yes, yes. We'll talk about the newsletter. Uh, well we can
talk about the newsletter now. Would you like to explain, uh, precisely
what your newsletter does, what its purpose is, who gets it?
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Jennings: Well, the newsletter is called Symphonium and it was the first
issue came out at the end of 1988, and it resulted from a conference that I
went to in upstate New York of the Music Assistance Fund, which is a fund
administered by the New York Philharmonic, which provides monies and
support for talented African American symphony instrumental players.
Actually just string players who are supported for a year as sort of
apprentices in symphony orchestras. This helps them gain experience. I have
very mixed feelings about that kind of program, but at any rate, I was at
the conference. I got a chance to meet many African American musicians from
all over the country, some of whom I had met or heard of before, but many
of whom I hadn't. It was a wonderful experience. It was all done with great
style. We had wonderful food, wonderful meetings. I mean, it's just a
great, terrific weekend. And I decided at the end of that time, it would be
a shame if after then, all of us who had, who would probably never again be
together in the same room couldn't in some way keep in touch with each
other if something permanent couldn't grow out of that experience.
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Jennings: And that's why Symphonium was born. We have just I have just
finished the 12th issue. It comes out three times a year. I'm sorry, not
the 12th issue. I guess the ninth issue comes out three times a year, which
is about what I think I can handle. It has been very well received. It goes
all over the country. It is read by 7 or 800 people and more, I hope. This
is something that I don't mind if people Xerox my newsletter and send it to
other people. The point is to disseminate the information contained in the
newsletter. Its focus is for and about the professional African American
Symphony Musician also included are conductor and composers. I don't focus
on singers other than an in an incidental way, partly because I don't think
that singers have had the difficulty, as female black singers, at any rate,
have had the difficulty being recognized, being given credibility by the
music aficionado that the instrumentalist has. He's had a much harder time
carving out a niche other than Andre Watts. You probably can't name for me
a black instrumentalist.
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Levy: Uh. Why do you think of the, there is such a low participation in
instrumental classical music by African Americans?
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Jennings: No, I don't think that has as much to do with it as the fact
that if, first of all, if you think of the percentage of the non-African
American community that's interested in classical music, it's it's minimal.
It's very low. If you think of the class structure of our society, we know
that despite the fact that symphony music is, is, uh, we would like to
think of it as something for the masses. It's not really for the masses.
The I'm sure that the statistical curve of white people who like classical
music is, is mostly in the upper socioeconomic group. Well, there's a much
smaller percentage of the black community that lies in that socio economic
group. Then if you take the 5% of both groups, you're going to end up with
a very a very low number. Now, when you ask me that question, were you
asking about audience or participants?
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Levy: Well, I would think, no, I think that's consistent with your answer.
The question I put, because of the nature of the community in terms of
socioeconomic, educational level, it's not easily available. There aren't
very many people in the in the African American community who listen, just
as you say, there isn't in the white.
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Jennings: Well, I think it is available. I think it's as available as it
is to anyone who who has a car or can get on a bus and go downtown or who
can turn on the radio. But the point is that people in certain economic
classes, be they black or white, gravitate towards certain certain kinds of
cultural, um, cultural entities.
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Levy: Well, many of those things come about, of course, I would think
either on an upper high school or a college level. They have a friend who
goes, would you like to go downtown?
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Jennings: I think you would probably find that the percentages of people
in Pittsburgh Symphony concerts who live in Bloomfield is as low as the
percentage that live in Homewood? I don't know, I've never seen statistics
on that, but I think that's quite possibly the case.
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Levy: I would think that's a reasonable slice of it. Having taught school
and talked to kids, there are there are some people who live in Bloomfield
who do go, but.
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Jennings: There are some people who live in Homewood who do go.
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Levy: They're not the norm. Even even, you know, they they classify. And I
throw this out again, say all Italians love opera. Well, that's a
ridiculous statement because that's the same people in Bloomfield. How many
of them do you see at the Pittsburgh Opera?
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Jennings: Exactly. But I'm saying you can't look out into the audience at
the Pittsburgh Opera or the Pittsburgh Symphony and identify the people
from Bloomfield, but you can identify the Black people. So the percentages
of Bloomfieldians might be might be just as low as far as participation.
When I grew up, there was no stigma attached to studying classical music,
at least if there was, I didn't hear about it. Uh, in school, the people
who played in the orchestra were, as far as I know, highly respected. Then
the bottom kind of fell out of the Pittsburgh Public Schools musical uh,
system. Now, I realize that we have these art schools now, we have the
Creative and Performing Arts schools. I'm not really sure how effective
they are when it comes to. Yeah, when it comes to organizing orchestras.
Now, you and I both spent time at Westinghouse High School at the same
time. I as a student, you as a teacher, we had 2 or 3 orchestras and 2 or 3
bands. There's nothing like that now. So that the children in school grade
schools. I was in a grade school orchestra at Lemington. I imagine many
grade schools had orchestras. The children who came into that school, who
were not involved in music, heard the music going on. They knew the music.
They saw their little colleagues going in and out of school, carrying
violin cases, carrying cello cases. The children don't see that now unless
they're brought by bus to Heinz Hall. They might never see a violin or an
oboe or a bass fiddle.
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Levy: Where the schools just reflect, though, at least in my experience of
what goes on in the community. Uh, if the youngsters don't come out for the
orchestra, you don't have an orchestra. And of course, but it's a case, as
you pointed out, you have to go out and recruit them on an elementary
level.
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Jennings: I mean, I don't think that the people in the community that I
grew up in particularly lobbied to have an orchestra at Lemington School.
It was just something that was, something that existed. And I went, I'm not
sure how much I knew about the violin before I went to Lemington School,
but something that I saw in that building made me want to play the violin.
Children don't have that opportunity now. I. I came from a middle class
family, but I did not come from a musical family. And I can't tell you by
the age of eight how many concerts I had been to of the Symphony. I really
don't remember, but my point simply is, there's not the kind of exposure,
at least not in in the city schools. I can't say much about the suburban
schools. Certainly we have the training orchestra. We've had too many young
people to fill up the Youth Symphony. So there's been another orchestra
formed. So there is music going on somewhere. I just question what kind of
exposure. I mean, a Black kid is not going to want to be a geologist if he
has no idea what geologists do, if he doesn't even know that such an
occupation exists. And the same is true with being an oboe player.
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Levy: Oh. You were.
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Jennings: I think that, um, part of the problem, as far as audience as
attendance at concerts, is in the marketing. And I don't think that the
Pittsburgh Symphony has done all that it might to entice the Black
community. Now, one could say, well, no, they're not enticing anybody else.
And that that's true. But with my work from my work in Symphonium, I do
learn things. And there are orchestras all over the country that are making
concentrated efforts to involve the Black community. Why are they doing
this? Certainly not purely out of, um. Uh. I'm stuck with a word that I
want, altruistic, not purely for altruistic reasons or for for socially
conscious reasons, but for financial reasons. But why does any business do
what it's doing? Mainly to get, you know, to, to get to be patronized. Um,
there are performances that take place in Pittsburgh, certain kinds of
concerts at the Benedum and so on, and other other events. One that comes
to mind particularly is the Black Nativity, which was recently staged at
the Fulton Theater for the first time. It was presented by the Wilkinsburg
Arts Council, which puts on very good plays. Well, I would imagine that a
large percentage of the audiences for those performances, and I think there
were six of them, were Black people, but it was marketed this this
performance was marketed to them. And I do think that a little bit better
job could be done by the Symphony. I think the Symphony could do a much
better job of bringing in Black performers, not just 1 or 2 singers. Every
other year. There are instrumentalists, there are conductors, there are
works by Black composers, all of which are largely ignored at this time by
the Pittsburgh Symphony. I hope that that is going to be changing somewhat
in the not too distant future.
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Levy: Your newsletter, of course, is an example of, of something where
we're trying to, uh, underline or create more awareness of.
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Jennings: Yes, the newsletters intention is to encourage young people and
to inform the uninformed of of what is going on in the music world of Black
classical instrumentalists, which is a rather exotic world. Most people who
read the newsletter say that they're surprised they didn't know that this
much was going on. And frankly, I didn't know that this much was going on.
I'm I'm learning what I do is learn the information and then pass it on to
as many people as I can pass it on to.
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Levy: You're a conduit.
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Jennings: That's right. I am a conduit. Um, another thing about the
newsletter, which probably is not appreciated too much because nobody's
thought about it, is the fact that, this newsletter is being produced by
somebody who lives in the city of Pittsburgh. This is another way for
Pittsburgh to to gain a couple of points in the eyes of people all over the
country. They think, my, this is from Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh must be a
rather progressive town. There are people in Pittsburgh who are trying to
do things. And I think that anything you do, which you do outside of your
hometown can only reflect positively on your hometown. When I'm invited to
play with some orchestra outside of Pittsburgh as far away as California,
even with the Pittsburgh Symphony on the Far East tour, that kind of thing.
And I've had a number of engagements outside of the city of Pittsburgh. But
the people know that I'm I'm a Pittsburgh person, and I think that this
reflects very well on on the city of Pittsburgh, which has unfortunately
had a terrible time shedding its image as kind of a fuddy duddy town, you
know, in a lot of ways a kind of a backwater.
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Levy: It's conservative. By the time he is sort of conservative, it's more
conservative than some cities.
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Jennings: But it's produced a great many outstanding musicians, and I hope
that I'll be considered one of them.
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Levy: Well, I would think so. Uh, one of the experiences that have been
available to people in the black community, uh, was through somebody like
Mary Cardwell Dawson, who started the National Negro Opera Company, which
was based here in Pittsburgh. What? What was your experience?
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Jennings: Well, I was a rather young child when when all of that was going
on. I do remember meeting Mrs. Dawson, and I have a kind of a memory in my
visual memory of her as a very dynamic lady who could get things done. And
she obviously did if she if she mounted opera productions. I remember going
to hear, uh, Aida at Syria Mosque. And the woman who sang the role of Aida
was named Muriel Rahn, which I thought was a very glamorous name. And of
course, this opera company was started for the same reason that that Black
newspapers and so many other Black institutions were organized because we
were kept out of white institutions. And this gave Black singers, Black
dancers, opportunities to perform. Things have improved vastly for Black
women singers. They haven't improved so much for Black men. I doubt if you
can name more than two famous Black male singers. You can name William
Warfield and who else?
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Levy: Uh also was responsible for the National Association of Negro
Musicians, Gary Carter.
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Jennings: Yeah, that I that I know.
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Levy: What do you know about that?
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Jennings: Hardly anything. I quite honestly never heard of the National
Organization of Negro Musicians until 1978. The Pittsburgh Symphony used to
go every summer to the Philadelphia area to play the Temple University
Music Festival. That's right. At Ambler. And I went one afternoon to the
home of Natalie Hinderas, who was a very well known pianist at the time. In
fact, I studied with her briefly when when we'd go there in the summer,
partly because I wanted her expertise, but partly that because I wanted to
know her. She was a Black woman. I believe that her name was Natalie
Henderson. But again, things being the way they were for black people in
the days of her youth, I think she felt that she could get over more easily
if she had a foreign sounding name. So she became Natalie Hinderas and she
looked like she could be someone named Natalie Hinderas. Anyway, that was
during the convention of the National Association of Negro Musicians,
which, as I say, I had never heard of before. And I still, in a way, I
guess I know the answer to to this, but wondered why, at that time I had
been a member of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra for, for, for, I guess,
nearly 20 years. Why, they had never even sent me a postcard saying, we
exist. Would you like to join? And but I would imagine that this is true of
many Black Symphony players around the country. They're not even thought
of. There were kind of people from another planet in a way. So that's about
all I can tell you. And I think that the Pittsburgh Chapter was just formed
quite recently, and I am not a member.
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Levy: So you joined the Symphony in 1964? Mm. Okay. And you're 23 years
old. That's right. The Symphony? Yes. And, uh, Doctor Steinberg was the
conductor.
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Jennings: That's right. He, uh. Of course, he was familiar with my work
because I had had my debut with the orchestra at the age of 14, playing
Mozart's Coronation Concerto for the Pittsburgh Symphony Junior, which was,
uh, a concert that went on for several years, which enabled high school
musicians to sit chair for chair with members of the orchestra, which, as
you can imagine, created a rather large orchestra. And I was a violinist in
that orchestra in 1955 and 1957. But in 1956 I was the piano soloist, and I
had the particular pleasure of playing an entire concerto. Many young
people who were chosen to play with the orchestra for youth concerts got to
play a movement, but I got to play the whole thing. Anyway, uh, so
Steinberg knew my work from for various reasons, including that over the
years, and I was selected to to to go with the orchestra in August of 1964
on the 11 week. European and Middle Eastern tour, which was a length of
tour which is no longer permitted by by contracts of major orchestras. But
you can imagine that was quite an initiation for a young girl. And I had
many very interesting experiences during that tour, and we went to places
that barely exist now because of of political strife. Beirut and I write
that may be the where the worst devastation has occurred, but we traveled
all through Europe. Tehran, Iran. And we went to to Iceland. We went to
Poland, we visited Auschwitz. We, we. We're all over. And it was it was
very exciting and very, very tiring. Can you imagine? We left on August the
14th and we came back on the 1st of November.
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Levy: Right. You lived out of a suitcase for three months.
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Jennings: Yes, and piano and celesta and celesta. And there had to be an
American work on each program. So there was a good bit of contemporary
music that I was involved in playing. And I actually think that the you
see, this was a State Department sponsored tour, and I think that the State
Department, gently or otherwise, suggested to the Pittsburgh Symphony that
it might not be a bad idea if its personnel was more reflective of the
population at large. So I was taken on that tour, as was Paul Ross. When we
came back, I continued with the orchestra and have been there ever since.
Paul went back to Carnegie Tech to finish his his degree work, and then he
rejoined the orchestra. So they were stuck with us.
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Levy: No, I would say that stuck. So you've been with the orchestra now
almost 28 years. 28 years. Oh. Can you. What kind of things would you like
to recall for us? And it's hard to ask a question about 28 years
experience. Your high points. The things the soloists or the conductors or
the things who are more vivid in your memory than some of the others. When
you do something, when you do 26, 28 series of concerts a year. That's a
lot of concerts.
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Jennings: Well, of course just being in the orchestra for for many years
was enough excitement. That was all the excitement I could handle, but it
has certainly provided an opportunity to to work with the greatest
performers in the world. And as the pianist, I have been required to do a
great deal of of accompanying for, especially for vocal rehearsals. And
these rehearsals would take place in Steinberg's apartment at Gateway
Towers. And some of the people that were involved in those rehearsals were
Regina Resnick, who used to come here quite often, Joanna Simon, who's the
sister of Carly Simon. And she was a favorite singer of Steinberg's and
would come to sing quite often. There are singers who who no longer come
here. In fact, I wonder what's become of some of these people if they're
still singing or what? What has happened to them? It's sort of like people
that we no longer see on television. They drop, they sort of drop out of
our existence. Um. One of the more interesting experiences that I had was
when Elisabeth Schwarzkopf wanted me to accompany her to learn something,
and we went over to Carnegie Tech and we used Beatrice Krebs, who was a
great vocal teacher there. We used her studio. What was a snowy night? When
we came back out to so that I could take Madame Schwarzkopf back to her
hotel, I dropped my car keys in the snow.
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Jennings: So there were Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and I on our hands and knees
in the snow, looking for my car keys. And Roberta Peters has been in my
home. She came along with Eileen Schaller. They were singing something with
the orchestra and they they jumped in a cab and came came out here. At one
of the interesting experiences that I had, it may take too long to relate
here, but Steinberg engaged a fellow pianist from New York to perform a
work that was for piano, strings and narrator by Schoenberg called Ode to
Napoleon. And I had worked with the narrator, helping him to learn what to
say when with the music and so on. Well, at the first rehearsal, the
pianist quickly demonstrated that he really didn't know what he was doing.
So my assistance was was, um, enlisted. I spent the entire day with this
fellow, drilling him on this piece, brought him to my mother's home, took
him back down to the William Penn Hotel that night. Meanwhile, Steinberg
called while the fellow and I were working together and told my mother for
me to get on an extension. And he said to me, basically, if the fellow
can't do it tomorrow morning, I want you to do it. Well, my God, I had
learned this piece strictly in a in a hack accompanist rehearsal kind of
way.
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Jennings: I had certainly not learned the solo piano part in a way that
would would prepare me to play at that weekend. But I was I was willing to
to give it a try. However, at the rehearsal the next morning, the guy sits
down where we start, and it wasn't too long before he did something,
something wrong. Well, since I had worked with him the whole day before, I
hadn't had a chance to to do any work on it. So Steinberg stopped, pointed
at me and said, you play. And I said, oh, maestro, he can do what I know he
can. He said, out. He threw me out. Music went flying in one direction,
stands went flying in another direction. I started to cry. The whole
rehearsal was disrupted. I think the main problem is that Steinberg was
using me as a scapegoat. He had done something that was not done with the
best judgment. He had engaged this fellow without obviously without knowing
whether the fellow could fulfill his responsibilities. And he was he was
angry and he took it out on me. But the program for the weekend was changed
and the rest is history. I'm still there. Steinberg isn't, but I'm still
there. I've outlived a lot of people or outlasted a great many people.
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Levy: Have to be as durable.
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Jennings: That's right.
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Levy: What other do you recall? The other things of that nature.
