{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/presentation/3/context.json","id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/iiif/d795718966/manifest","type":"Manifest","label":{"en":["Edward Walters oral history, 2002 December 20"]},"logo":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/008/original/peabody-institute.logo.large.horizontal.blue.cropped.png?1549570058","metadata":[{"label":{"en":["Description"]},"value":{"en":[" Edward Walters (b. 1946) is a clarinetist and conductor who studied at the Peabody Preparatory and Conservatory and taught at the University of Maryland. His sister, Jeannette Walters, was a soprano who studied at the Peabody Conservatory. Interview with Elizabeth Schaaf about Walters's career as a clarinetist and music contractor and his musical training at Peabody. (Abstract)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Date"]},"value":{"en":[" 2002-12-20 (created)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Agent"]},"value":{"en":[" Walters, Edward, 1946- (Interviewee)"," Schaaf, Elizabeth M. (Interviewer)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Language"]},"value":{"en":[" English (Primary)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Format"]},"value":{"en":["audio/mp3"]}},{"label":{"en":["Publisher"]},"value":{"en":["Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University"]}},{"label":{"en":["Rights Statement"]},"value":{"en":["The collection is open for use. Contact peabodyarchives@lists.jhu.edu for more information."]}},{"label":{"en":["Source Metadata URI"]},"value":{"en":["https://aspace.library.jhu.edu/repositories/4/archival_objects/215396"]}}],"summary":{"en":[" Edward Walters (b. 1946) is a clarinetist and conductor who studied at the Peabody Preparatory and Conservatory and taught at the University of Maryland. His sister, Jeannette Walters, was a soprano who studied at the Peabody Conservatory. Interview with Elizabeth Schaaf about Walters's career as a clarinetist and music contractor and his musical training at Peabody."]},"requiredStatement":{"label":{"en":["Attribution"]},"value":{"en":["The collection is open for use. Contact peabodyarchives@lists.jhu.edu for more information."]}},"provider":[{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/aboutus","type":"Agent","label":{"en":["Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University"]},"homepage":[{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/","type":"Text","label":{"en":["Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University"]},"format":"text/html"}],"logo":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/008/original/peabody-institute.logo.large.horizontal.blue.cropped.png?1549570058","type":"Image"}]}],"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/public/images/audio-default.png","type":"Image","format":"image/png"}],"items":[{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506","type":"Canvas","label":{"en":["Media File 1 of 2 - pims0091_WaltersE_01.mp3"]},"duration":2811.03674,"width":640,"height":360,"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/public/images/audio-default.png","type":"Image","format":"image/png"}],"items":[{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506/content/1","type":"AnnotationPage","items":[{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506/content/1/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"painting","body":{"id":"https://aviary-p-peabody.s3.wasabisys.com/collection_resource_files/resource_files/000/117/506/original/pims0091_WaltersE_01.mp3?1624271000","type":"Audio","format":"audio/mpeg","duration":2811.03674,"width":640,"height":360},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506","metadata":[]}]}],"annotations":[{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506/transcript/38497","type":"AnnotationPage","label":{"en":["WaltersE_1_OHMS_20220609 [Transcript]"]},"items":[{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506/transcript/38497/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"ELIZABETH SCHAAF: Tell me where and when you were born, unless you’re sensitive about your date of birth, and you can leave it out.\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: My name is Edward Walters, and I was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, March 8, 1946. \n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: And when did you become involved in music?\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: I became involved in music when I was in middle school, what they call middle school, between seventh grade and eighth grade, that summer. And when I say I became involved, that’s when I started taking lessons. There was always music in the house because my mother was a pianist, and my sister singing, but I had never seriously worked at anything. And then, that summer, I decided I wanted to play something. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506#t=0.0,60.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506/transcript/38497/annotation/2","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"I think it was because my sister’s boyfriend was a clarinet player, it was Percy Brown, and so, you know, I wanted to play what he played. So he brought a clarinet over for me to try, and that was it. I was hooked ever since.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: How many brothers?\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: I have four brothers.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: And you are the --?\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: I am the second. My sister was the oldest, and then I have an older brother Roland, and then there’s me, and then there are three younger brothers. \n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: And just one sister.\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: And the one sister.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: And who was your first teacher?\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: Well, Percy Brown would have been. My sister’s, well, later her husband, but then her boyfriend. \n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: Did you take lessons in school as well?\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: Yeah, I was fortunate because I started with him when he was, at that time, a student here at Peabody. Then, after about a year or so, maybe my second year or so of taking lessons, ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506#t=60.0,120.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506/transcript/38497/annotation/3","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"I got to study with Gennusa, Ignatius Gennusa, who was principal clarinet of the Baltimore Symphony. I would have been a ninth-grader there, or something like that, maybe going into tenth grade. So I studied with Gennusa for two years, and then I studied with Chris Wolfe, who’s also in the symphony. And that was all before I came to the Conservatory.\n\nSo I started taking lessons here at the Preparatory after about two years.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: What year did you start in the Preparatory?\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: I would say probably about 1961, I would imagine, or ’62.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: I wanted to get back to your music at home. Your mother was a pianist, but was she primarily a church musician?\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: She studied piano as a child and up through high school. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506#t=120.0,180.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506/transcript/38497/annotation/4","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"She didn’t go to college right out of school, and she got a degree from a sort of Preparatory school in Philadelphia. I guess her primary avenue for playing would be mostly at the church. \nI didn’t necessarily consider her a church pianist because she would play at home. I remember, in fact I just talked to her about this, she had a lot of classical compositions, and I would sit at the piano while she played through all of these different pieces. Chopin, Beethoven, that kind of thing. So that was her training, but I think her employment, where she actually worked, she was a church organist, church pianist. \n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: Did she set out to have a career as a concert pianist?\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: No. I don’t think she ever did. No.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: Just a passion for music.\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: Yes. She just always did that. She always, I guess, enjoyed it. And my mother was one of that group of people, the mothers who went back to school after their kids. She was in school when I was in college. My mother went back to college. And that was sort of new then. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506#t=180.0,240.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506/transcript/38497/annotation/5","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"I mean after that, there were a lot of moms who went back to school once their kids were older. So she was in college when I was in college, of course, getting better grades than all of her kids. [Laughter] You know.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: What a burden.\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: Yeah.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: And where was she in school at this point?\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: She went to, I think, Coppin State Teachers College, and she got a teaching degree, and I think she taught for about, not very long, because she was probably in her late forties. She taught for about ten years in the Baltimore school system. She just taught primary grades.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: Did you all go to concerts together as a family?\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: Early on, as my sister became more involved in music, we started going to see her a lot. So we’d go as a family to that. Not really, no, we weren’t regular concert-goers. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506#t=240.0,300.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506/transcript/38497/annotation/6","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"That came later as we started getting more serious in music. \n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: I’m curious about starting out at nine years old and working with somebody like Mr. Gennusa —it’s like sailing straight into the big leagues.\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: Well, let me just say I was in ninth -- no, I started playing clarinet basically when I went into eighth grade. But still, after two years, then I got to study with Gennusa, which was really pretty overwhelming. He was fascinating. I think it was very helpful for me because I would just listen to him play because he would play a lot in lessons.\n\nHe’d ask you what you thought of this passage or whatever. You know, everything sounded great to me. I was hardly worth even asking. But then I would go home and try to imitate the sound that I heard, and I think that was really good for me because I had a good concept of what I wanted to sound like. And he was known for his sound.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: Oh, beautiful. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506#t=300.0,360.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506/transcript/38497/annotation/7","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"That’s very fortunate to have gotten that level of training so early on. So you didn’t have to spend so much time trying to learn to play all over again, unlearning habits which so many of us have to do when we come here.\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: Yes, I was fortunate.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: Now, Percy Brown. Your sister met Percy Brown here when? As a student?\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: Yes, I think so. As a student, yeah. She might have met him because Percy was a couple years in advance of Jeannette [Walters]. I don’t remember exactly when, but I think Jeannette would have been a Preparatory student when they met. \n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: What was your father’s reaction to your deciding to pursue a career in music?\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: He was very supportive and standoffish at the same time. I mean, he didn’t try to influence us at all. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506#t=360.0,420.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506/transcript/38497/annotation/8","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"At all. He was very even-handed about it. If that’s what you wanted to do, be very supportive, but he never tried to steer you in one direction or another, or even counsel you. I mean it was sort of your decision. And it was good because if you wanted to do it, that’s fine if you’ve chosen to do that. I think anyone that goes into music, they’re always cautioned by a lot of people. You know, it’s a tough field.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: What are you going to do to make a living?\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: Yeah, what are you going to do to make a living. That kind of thing. I mean, you hear that all the time. But he never, and when I would bring those issues up, I don’t remember his exact words on that, but I think he pretty much felt if that’s what you wanted to do, that was the most important thing.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: And it obviously has not been a problem for you.\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: Well, I’ve been very fortunate. I teach at the University of Maryland now — I teach a course called the Business of Music, where I try to talk to the students about opportunities in music fields, ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506#t=420.0,480.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506/transcript/38497/annotation/9","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"because most of us were performers tend to focus very narrowly on things, and we don’t see the bigger picture. And when we come out of school, we have no idea what we’re going to really do or even how to get employment, or [know how to take advantage] of all the different opportunities out there. \nSo I try to let the students know about the real scope of the music industry: everything from writing to publishing, editing, to film scoring. There are just so many things, and a lot of them are new because of technology. A lot of things are new now in the music industry with computers and so forth.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: And you’re involved in a lot of different aspects.\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: I have a position called a music contractor where I hire orchestras. I do that for Wolf Trap Performing Arts Park, and I also do it for the National Theater in Washington. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506#t=480.0,540.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506/transcript/38497/annotation/10","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"So when they need to hire musicians for the operas or their musicals that come in, then I choose the players for that.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: How long have you been doing this?\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: Doing it for a long time. I started very early in the position. I was very fortunate. I started in the National Theater back in 1976.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: What drew you there?\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: You know, it was just by chance. That’s why I like to talk to the students about these opportunities because sometimes you don’t know when they’re going to come up. I didn’t even know what a contractor was. I mean, I didn’t know how orchestras were hired. I thought they were just there. I didn’t know that somebody actually had to choose who was going to play. I thought they auditioned. I just didn’t know.\n\nAnyway, in the freelancing industry, you don’t have time to audition people for every concert that comes up. That’s a money thing. You get the group, and as long as you do an okay job, they’ll probably ask you to do it the next time. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506#t=540.0,600.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506/transcript/38497/annotation/11","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"I was playing in a theater here in Baltimore, over there at a place called Painters Mill. These were the summer theaters where they used to do what they called Broadway stock -- I think is what they called it.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: Summer stock.\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: Yes. And they used to do Broadway musicals, and they’d do variety shows, and it was a fun thing to do. I really enjoyed it. I mean, it wasn’t great music, but it was fun, and I was playing. I got to play for some very, very big entertainers, and, you know, I really enjoyed it.\n\nIn fact, I remember my first impressions were, gee, I actually get paid for this! I would have done it because it was so much fun. But at any rate, they were going to make a change at that theater, in the contractor, and they asked someone at their neighbor-sister theater in Washington if they had any recommendations -- who they should put in that position. I had just met this person. I didn’t know all this was going on, but anyway, my name came up. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506#t=600.0,660.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506/transcript/38497/annotation/12","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"And so they called me and asked me, would you like to take on this position. And my first reaction was no, because I’d be replacing the person who hired me. So I was thinking well, gee, I really don’t want to do that. I mean, what’s the problem, or whatever. And they talked about it, and I just didn’t feel comfortable doing it. And they said, look, you’ll either do it or we’ll move on to somebody else.\n\nSo I said, well, if you’re going to make the change, I didn’t want to be the reason why, but if it was already [decided]...\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: Who did you replace?\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: His name is John Melick. \n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: He was also contracting for the Morris Mechanic [Theater].\n \nEDWARD WALTERS: Yeah, then he later on moved to the Morris Mechanic and also, for a little while, was doing the Baltimore Opera. So I’ve known John, and we still remain friends. It was one of the situations where he and management had a little conflict. You know, those things happen. So they wanted to go in another direction. \n\nSo anyway, I started there for one summer, and at that point, I no longer lived in Baltimore. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506#t=660.0,720.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506/transcript/38497/annotation/13","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"I lived in Washington. So then a position came at the National Theater. Well, actually it was between the Kennedy Center and the National Theater, and the position came up, and they gave me the job at the National Theater. So I’ve been doing it since 1976.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: That’s great.\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: And we’ve done a lot of the big touring shows that come in. Right now we’re doing Les Misérables for about the fourth time. It gets tiresome sometimes that the shows keep coming around, but, you know, we’ve done a lot of shows over the years. It’s been a great source of income, and I enjoy it. \n\nMusical theater is not my favorite. It’s not my passion really, but I’ve been able to keep working at it. In the summers I enjoy it. We get to do opera and then some more serious concerts at Wolf Trap. You know, we put on nice programs.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: Right. And you work with the conductors traveling with the shows?\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: Yes. They’ll bring the conductor, normally, and the pianist, maybe a couple other key players, ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506#t=720.0,780.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506/transcript/38497/annotation/14","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"and normally, in the big cities, they’ll pick up the orchestra. Now when they travel to small cities like the cities the size of Richmond or some of the smaller towns in the country, sometimes they’ll bring their musicians with them. \n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: Are there conductors that you enjoy working with more than [others]? I won’t ask you to put anybody on the spot.\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: Yes. Conductors are -- especially show conductors, which is a lot of what I do, and opera -- You see, my position is a little different, because I hear anything that they don’t like in the orchestra, that’s what I hear. It’s hard for me to separate myself from player because I’m also the contractor. So I hear the second violinist or the third horn player he’s not quite happy with, or the percussion player. I hear all those little complaints. So I sometimes find myself avoiding the conductors. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506#t=780.0,840.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506/transcript/38497/annotation/15","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"If they don’t say anything to me [laughs], you know, I don’t go up and ask how’s everything going. \n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: Don’t kick the dog.\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: Right. But over the years, I mean, some of the, I’ve got to play with some really good conductors over the years in the classical area. And, you know, some of the opera conductors have been really good to work with.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: Have you ever thought of stepping into that role yourself?\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: You know, I had a couple of opportunities to conduct, and I enjoyed it, but it’s not something that I felt driven to do or that I pursued. There was a great occasion very early on, the first year that I started at Painters Mill in Baltimore. I was twenty-five, twenty-six years old. I had graduated. I had just gotten a master’s degree. And I mean, I was still relatively young, comparatively, to where I am now, and Bob Hope was coming with a show. He was touring that summer. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506#t=840.0,900.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506/transcript/38497/annotation/16","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"I thought that was good, because I grew up watching Bob Hope, and that would be fun. And they said, he doesn’t bring a conductor, so either you hire a conductor, since I was the contractor, or somebody has to do it. So you hire someone, find a conductor, or maybe you do it. \n\nI had a few conducting lessons in college, but, I mean, I wasn’t a conductor. But I went to Philadelphia where the show was, and I looked at what was required, and I said, well, I can do that. It wasn’t conducting a great symphonic work. It was just basically starting some simple show tunes off and so forth, and the band pretty much plays it on their own. They don’t need me really waving my arms. \t\n\nSo anyway, I wound up conducting for Bob Hope, and that was a big kick. I really enjoyed that.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: Oh great.\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: I remember watching him in the movies, and then, all of a sudden, here he is. And there were certain times in the show where he said, “Okay, Ed, take it away,” or whatever, you know. [Laughs] It was a big kick. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506#t=900.0,960.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506/transcript/38497/annotation/17","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"So that was a fun experience.\n\nBut what happened, when I say conducting for Bob Hope, he had a little routine that he used to do, and then there was a singer that he traveled with. She had a lot of big arrangements that we had to do, and that was fun. But again, I mean, these are not complicated conducting things. It’s basically just get the orchestra going, and they’re fine.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: Contracting seems like it’s fraught with last-minute headaches and perils.\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: Yeah. I always say that actually if I had a choice, I’d probably just play. It’s like you got the jobs, I don’t want to let it go, but gee, I wouldn’t mind if I were just playing because it is full of headaches. And you’ll hear the problems, and that’s what you’re there for.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: And the desperate maneuvers to cover for somebody who doesn’t show up.\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: Last night, the violinist concert master comes in. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506#t=960.0,1020.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506/transcript/38497/annotation/18","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Show starts eight o’clock, he was there about two minutes before. And normally he doesn’t do that. He comes over from Baltimore to Washington, and there’s all sorts of problems you can run into. You can leave two hours early and still, you know -- so that’s the kind of thing. I’ve gotten rather fatalistic about it cause I know these are all serious musicians, very professional. They’ll get here, and if there’s something wrong, there’s usually something wrong. So I don’t stay up at night worrying about it because these are all professionals and they’ll find a way to get there. I mean I’ve had people stuck in a traffic jam and who’ve left their car, they’re blocks away, but you know sometimes you can sit in traffic and just leave it and go. Park it somewhere and just run. You have to make the downbeat.\n\nBut, yeah, you hear a lot of the headaches and problems and so forth. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506#t=1020.0,1080.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506/transcript/38497/annotation/19","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"I can remember a fellow contractor who had the same position at the Kennedy Center years ago, before they had a regular opera orchestra, and the contractor told me this story. You know, talking about the things you hear about. He said they’re just getting ready to start the performance, he was a violinist, and one of the violinists taps him on the shoulder and says there’s no toilet paper in the ladies’ bathroom.\n\nYou know, he’s getting ready to start. [Laughs] I don’t know what opera it was. So, I mean, that’s not really his job, but they give you their concerns. Somebody’s got to know so you know you can deal with those kinds of things. [Laughs] They don’t teach you about that in school.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: I hadn’t thought about that as a potential problem. \n\nEDWARD WALTERS: Yeah.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: Well, going back to school. Where were you in middle school?\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: It was Clifton Park. At that time there was a middle school.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: Okay, so you were living in east Baltimore?\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: Yeah, we moved from Philadelphia right before that, and then I attended middle school. I went to elementary school in Philadelphia.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506#t=1080.0,1140.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506/transcript/38497/annotation/20","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"It must have been a very big transition for you when you moved down here, just the general atmosphere in Baltimore.\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: Yeah. Well, it’s interesting, I don’t know, at that age, I was ten, eleven years old. I think there’s really a difference between Philadelphia and Baltimore. Philadelphia is more of a northern clime, and Baltimore’s more, not deep south, but it’s more of the southern atmosphere. And I don’t know if that was so significant, but we didn’t come south. We had a lot of relatives in the New York area so we’d never been down here. You know, I didn’t want to come here. At that age you don’t want to leave your friends. Also it was interesting because that was right in the early ‘60s, right when they passed some of the desegregation laws. So I can remember, though, coming here — Because we thought it was sort of like a game — ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506#t=1140.0,1200.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506/transcript/38497/annotation/21","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"my cousins, when they came down that summer to visit us, we even called the theaters to see if we could go, to really test it out. And you see, you couldn’t. Blacks couldn’t go to a lot of the movie theaters. In fact, we couldn’t go to the one that was in our neighborhood, actually, at that time.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: Which one was that?\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: Well, there was one on Harford Road. I think it was called the Harford Theater.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: Yeah, there was.\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: It was just a neighborhood theater. You know, and there were certain ones you could go to and others you couldn’t go to. And so, but see we grew up -- I always ask my father about that because I don’t remember, in Philadelphia, that there was any place that we couldn’t go. I mean, some places probably you wouldn’t feel comfortable going. Like any ethnic group tends to go where their group goes, you know, but I don’t remember in Philadelphia there was any place you couldn’t go. But in Baltimore there was. \t\n\nAnd that had just changed. They’d just integrated schools. So a lot of things here were new. But other than that, actually the family did very well, and we all enjoyed it here. I mean, there are no scars from that. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506#t=1200.0,1260.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506/transcript/38497/annotation/22","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"I’ve had great times with people here, and so, like I said, no scars or anything like that. Most people were really very supportive.\n\nI was in a lot of situations, as with my sister, where we’d be the only minority in that group. There weren’t a lot of us singing or doing classical things anyway. So lots of times you’re in a position where there are not that many of you. But people were ninety-nine if not even more than that supportive.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: Well, you all were, I think, probably born at a fortunate time. I mean just twenty or thirty years before, there were so few opportunities for classically trained African Americans.\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: Yeah. I think there was no question. I mean, for me to get to study with the principal clarinet, after a year and a half of playing, I don’t think most people would have that opportunity.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: Exactly.\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: And I certainly don’t think that would have happened. You just wouldn’t have been connected. You wouldn’t have known anybody that would know him to even ask him to do that. \n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506#t=1260.0,1320.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506/transcript/38497/annotation/23","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Well, possibly in Baltimore, because it was a surprising number of Peabody faculty were involved with what was called the Colored Symphony Orchestra here in town — \n\nEDWARD WALTERS: Oh, I didn’t know that.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: -- actually teaching in the African American community and just not teaching students here at Peabody. Because they couldn’t until 1947 when Paul Brent came in. But you’re absolutely right. I’m sure there were exceptions that were few and far between.\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: Yeah. So, no, I think there’s no question. When I was growing up, things were opening up. You know, ten years before, that it was a different thing.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: And you went on to high school where?\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: Went to City, which is called City College High School. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506#t=1320.0,1380.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506/transcript/38497/annotation/24","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"It was all boys school then, and played in the orchestra and band at school and continued to study at the Preparatory here.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: Who had the music program at City then?\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: I can see his face now. He was a cellist. Kessler [phonetic]. Anyway, he was a cellist, and it was very fortunate, because he was a very good musician. I really enjoyed playing for him. You got to do some nice pieces there I thought, and he had a pretty good orchestra. We could do some of the Mozart symphonies and things. And so that was good experience. And then, when I was in high school, I started playing saxophone as well. Actually, I started that right after I started playing clarinet. I sort of started teaching myself saxophone. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506#t=1380.0,1440.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506/transcript/38497/annotation/25","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"So I played in a lot of dance bands or weekend bands. We used to play for parties and things like that.\n\nAnd by eleventh grade, we weren’t very good, but we were able to get jobs. [Laughs] \n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: Where were you working? What kind of jobs were you getting?\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: We used to play a lot of the teen centers. A lot of the CYOs [Catholic Youth Organizations] and then a lot of the Jewish neighborhoods had, like at their shuls or whatever they have, parties and things. So that was a real education for me. I didn’t know anything about those traditional Catholic or Jewish [religions]. And I was playing in bands, a lot of them [the audiences] were Jewish or we were playing at CYOs and so forth. Like I say, we weren’t very good, but we were able to make money, and I got experience playing. So it was an education.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: That’s really great. I guess they’re mostly gone, all of those [teen centers or CYOs].\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: I don’t think the teen scene is what it used to be. We used to have bands that played. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506#t=1440.0,1500.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506/transcript/38497/annotation/26","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Now a lot of that is for DJs, or whatever, or spin records. The business.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: Yeah, because I remember that growing up. \n\nEDWARD WALTERS: Yeah. At that point they still had your big bands like the Glenn Miller kind of band. You know, when you’d have a prom, you ‘d have a very formal band playing. So there still was a lot of that around. I don’t think you have much of that at all.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: My goodness, well, when you were coming up, the Rivers Chambers Band was still active.\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: I never knew.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: Playing for some of the big school functions.\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: There were some really good ones.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: So you were already studying with Gennusa, so coming in here, you didn’t have to go through the audition process, really.\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: Well, I did. I mean, you had to audition. And at that time I had actually changed teachers. I changed to Sidney Forrest when I went to the Conservatory. And so then I studied with Sidney Forrest for the four years that I was here. \n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506#t=1500.0,1560.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506/transcript/38497/annotation/27","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"And you were playing in the orchestra?\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: Yeah. Not always, but most years I’d be playing some in the orchestra. We used to rotate, and it was by audition, so. It seemed like every year I’d be playing some in the orchestra and the –\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: Wind ensemble.\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: Wind ensemble.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: Who was conducting the orchestra when you were here?\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: There were different people. I’m not going to be able to remember the names. I remember one of them was a real tyrant. I can’t remember his name right now.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: Were you here when [Laszlo] Halasz [director, Peabody Art Theater] was here?\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: Halasz. That was him! [Laughter] Yeah, that’s the one. And then Mueller?\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: Leo Mueller —\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: Yeah, Mueller. I think Leo Mueller [conductor, Peabody Symphony Orchestra] — \u2028 \u2028\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: — who wasn’t exactly laid back himself [laughs], but a very sweet man. \u2028 \u2028\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: Yeah, he was a nice man. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506#t=1560.0,1620.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506/transcript/38497/annotation/28","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Halasz, that’s the old school. He was very mean, very mean. Hopefully you don’t have too many people like that now. I don’t know, he just embarrassed people. I think you can make your point without bringing people to tears. I don’t know what that was about. Those things, I hope people don’t tolerate that now.\n\nYou know, I have no question -- he was very good at what he did, but I think there’s something wrong with that when it refers to music.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: Well, the answer is, it does happen, but no, they don’t tolerate it. So the Peabody Opera Theater was still going on then.\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: I guess it was in the early stages. I remember we did something every year. I remember we did Gianni Schicchi, Puccini. \n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: Were you here when they did a couple of the [Gian Carlo] Menotti operas? ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506#t=1620.0,1680.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506/transcript/38497/annotation/29","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"And Menotti was here.\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: If I wasn’t here, I knew about it. I remember. That might have been right before I got here. But, yeah, I remember that. \n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: That was just so incredible. \n\nEDWARD WALTERS: Yeah. Because you know, my sister going here, so then when I was in high school, I would just come to a lot of things because she was in them. So when I came here, I felt fairly comfortable because I had been in the building and some of the teachers knew me and that kind of thing. So it wasn’t a totally strange environment at all. \n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: I asked your father what your sister’s reaction was, because coming here for the first time for, I think for most students, is fairly intimidating. And he pointed out that she was not a person who was easily intimidated. [Laughs]\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: She could make herself at home.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506#t=1680.0,1740.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506/transcript/38497/annotation/30","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"And so having been around this place for so long and familiar with the teachers coming in, obviously you were completely at home by the time you came here.\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: Yeah.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: And let’s see, wind ensemble, that would have been Dick Higgins. \n\nEDWARD WALTERS: Yes.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: He had only just started the wind ensemble at that point. It would have been fairly new. \n\nEDWARD WALTERS: Okay.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: What was he like to work with?\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: I really enjoyed working with him. He was a very nice man, and he was one of the teachers that I got to know better than some of the others. As I say, I knew some of the people were. I don’t know that Peabody was the friendliest environment then. Your connections were your teacher. Everything seemed to go through your teacher, and sometimes I thought there were not a lot of other people that were sort of nurturing while you were here. I think that was a real problem with the school. \t\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506#t=1740.0,1800.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506/transcript/38497/annotation/31","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"I’m sure they’ve taken steps to correct that. But Higgins was a very personable person. One you could get to talk to, and so  I enjoyed that and I enjoyed working in that ensemble.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: And when did you finish here at Peabody?\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: ’68. ’64 to ’68. \n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: My goodness. That’s right! Leo Mueller was firmly in place at that time. And the orchestra had played its first run-out concert at Howard University.\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: That’s right.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: Were you in that?\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: I didn’t play that concert.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: Walter Lee was there, I think.\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: Yeah. I don’t know if Walter played that concert either.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: Yes. I do remember that.\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: Do you? Okay.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: Yes. I remember because he noticed there was a very pretty harpist who played, because we didn’t have a harpist at school at that point.\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506#t=1800.0,1860.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506/transcript/38497/annotation/32","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"But I remember. In fact, I went to see the concert at Howard. I went to see it when they played there.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: It was a good performance. \n\nEDWARD WALTERS: That would have been my senior year. I don’t know if that was in ’68 or ’67. I think it was ’67.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: I think that sounds about right.\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: But Mueller, I thought, was very good. I thought he was a task master, but he was --\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: A very just person. \n\nEDWARD WALTERS: Yes. Not intimidating. I mean, I didn’t feel uptight playing for him. You just felt like you wanted to do it right. But I thought Halasz was -- he had everybody scared. I don’t know if you get your best results that way.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: It seems an unhappy way to make music.\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: Yeah. But I guess that comes out. I don’t know if that comes out of that [Arturo] Toscanini tradition or whatever it is. You know, total intimidation.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: You too can be as lovely as Reiner.\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: Yeah.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506#t=1860.0,1920.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506/transcript/38497/annotation/33","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"When you were facing commencement, did you go through the traditional deer in the headlights -- now what?\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: Well, not so much. I was, like I say, I was very fortunate. I mean, things seemed to fall in place for me. My senior year at Peabody -- actually the summer between my junior and senior year, I worked at a nightclub in Baltimore, a place called the Blackjack. Where the band I was working with -- now we had gotten better by that time. You know, it was a different band. But we were like the house band.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: Now where was the Blackjack?\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: It was on Lafayette Street, right before you get to North Avenue. It was a nice theater. It was a nice nightclub. And it was a very in spot to go to. And for me, I was not twenty-one when I started, so here I am in this environment. And I think I turned twenty-one while I was playing there. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506#t=1920.0,1980.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506/transcript/38497/annotation/34","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"And so all of a sudden I was thrown in with adults.\n\nYou know, nightclubs. That was sort of a wake-up call because I was also making money and I was playing professionally at whatever level it was. And then I got a chance to work for John Melick at Painters Mill. So I had a little bit of experience by the time I graduated. So I had a little taste of making money playing, and I had my degree in music education so I’d done my practice teaching by then. So I was pretty set to really start making a living, I thought. \t\n\nSo when I went out — of course, you never know exactly what you’re going to do — But when I stepped out, I thought I was fairly well prepared in that respect.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: Good.\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: I can remember the speaker at the graduation was Eugene Ormandy, and I remember something he said, and I tell students this today: I think his big message was that sometimes you don’t know when it’s going to happen, but if you prepare yourself well, you’ll get that chance that you want. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506#t=1980.0,2040.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506/transcript/38497/annotation/35","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"And you know, you can’t always predict when it’s going to happen, but at some point you will get it, and all we can do is just prepare ourselves for that, and be ready when it comes, and take advantage of it.\n\nI thought, you know, that’s really true! You don’t know. It’s never going to happen when you want it to happen, but at some point you’ll have the opportunity. It will be staring you in the face, and then you got to grab it. And you know, it may not come around again. \t\n\nSo often in music, there is no work and there are no jobs or there are no auditions. But there will be some point where you will get a chance to show what you can do. \n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: I know students tend to go in kind of groups that fall together and fall apart and change. Who were the students you were hanging out with during your student days here?\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: Well, we changed sometimes from year to year, ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506#t=2040.0,2100.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506/transcript/38497/annotation/36","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"but a good friend of mine then, because we were in the same major, it was a percussion player named Harold Gary. I don’t know if he’s in the business anymore. He taught for a little bit, but his father had a grocery store or something. I think he might have gone into his father’s business. So Harold Gary and I were pretty close.\n\nThere was a pianist by the name of Hal Stesch that I used to -- Hal Stesch went out to Las Vegas and he stayed out there. \n\nIt would change. There was a group that came down from Potsdam one year. We had a lot of students that came down from Potsdam, New York. They were graduate students, but I sort of latched on to them. So it would change. \t\n\nI’m trying to think of people I kept in contact with, the people I was in school with like Jim Hill, the clarinetist in the symphony.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: Louis Lipnick. \n\nEDWARD WALTERS: ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506#t=2100.0,2160.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506/transcript/38497/annotation/37","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Lipnick. Yes. Louis Lipnick. Oh, and right now Barbara Knapp. Barbara and I worked at her opening. Barbara’s an oboist I used at the -- Barbara and I, we weren’t friends when we were in school, but we knew each other. So I work a lot with Barbara now, and she’s playing the show with me. So every now and then we’ll bring up Peabody or whatever. The funny thing was, I asked her last night, and I never ask her anything. We were warming up, you know, sometimes people will play extra. So somebody was playing Dvorak last night, and so I said, Barbara, when the orchestra played that concert, were you playing when they played that piece, Dvorak No. 8? And she said, yeah. And that’s the first time I heard the symphony, so I never forgot it. I mean, that was my introduction to it.\n\nBut anyway, patterns would change. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506#t=2160.0,2220.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506/transcript/38497/annotation/38","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"It seemed like every year, as I look back at it now, it would be a different group of people. I haven’t really maintained that many close ties with people who were here. \n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: Well, we all get busy and have our lives. Now, you know, it seems like things have changed so dramatically here. And things have changed a lot in the music business, you know, since you’ve gotten out of school. How do you see those changes? What’s different, what’s the same?\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: Well, I can remember when I got out of school, the generation that was older than me were sort of lamenting. Because I’ve always been involved with pop music. And, you know, I’m not a jazz player. I wish I were, because I’m not really. I do play some in that arena, but that’s not my best area. But I’ve always been part of that. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506#t=2220.0,2280.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506/transcript/38497/annotation/39","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"I can remember a lot of players saying, you know, you should have been here earlier they had big bands were playing all over and so forth, and that was dying out.\n\nAs I was coming up, rock and roll was taking over with these little five- and six-piece guitar bands with a saxophone player and a singer. I mean, that thing was coming. And so, as I see now, that’s moving out and you’re getting more electronic things. I mean that’s a real threat to what we do -- live performance -- because especially orchestrally, they can get your sound electronically through a computer. And if you’re talking about certain areas where a lot of musicians made their money in terms of jingles and commercials and film scores and all sorts of background music, they can do that electronically now, so that cuts a lot of people out of work -- huge numbers.\n\n","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506#t=2280.0,2340.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506/transcript/38497/annotation/40","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"And in musical theater they have computerized ways of getting the sound into a computer and they can even slow the tempo down. The big problem used to be, okay what if the singer speeds up or slows up if it’s on tape. Well, now they can even control the speed of it without affecting the pitch. Something that’s called virtual orchestra, and I don’t know exactly how it operates, except someone sits at a computer and basically pushes a button to keep the tempo going. A musician does that.\n\nI mean, it’s very frustrating to see where it’s going sometimes. I don’t think there will ever be a time when they’ll just have everything electronically, because if that’s the case why don’t we just stay home and listen to records. I mean, I think you want to go to a concert because it’s live and it may have its faults, but it’s live. And you’re seeing people. That’s part of the fun, I think, is seeing people produce it.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: Right. And that edge.\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: Yeah. Actually, in a way I think classical music is safer than a lot of the other forms. Pop music is the one that’s most threatened I think, ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506#t=2340.0,2400.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506/transcript/38497/annotation/41","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"because so much of it is electronic already. So if they hear the sound coming out electronically, out of tapes or computers, it doesn’t bother them because everything is so mic’d and artificial in a sense.\n\nBut I think classical music, I can’t ever imagine anybody is going to see a classical concert if it’s on tape. You know, why go? So anyway, I think the electronic industry, that field now has really made a huge impact. \n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: So what are the kids worried about that you’re teaching? What are their concerns?\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: Most of them -- I think the same as I had. They want to know if they can find work as a musician. I don’t think a lot of them know how things work. One thing I say -- I make this point: when I was a student here in ‘60s, I think the Baltimore Symphony was not -- ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506#t=2400.0,2460.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506/transcript/38497/annotation/42","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"I mean, it was, I guess, a full-time job in the sense that it ran all season. Their season going from September until maybe May or something like that.\n\n\nBut the summer was very sporadic, if there was anything. And [it was] probably not a great job that you could really live off. But look at the scale of the symphony now compared to what it was then, and even more so the National Theater. Because when I came to Washington, I remember a lot of the symphony players in the summer would be looking around for anything. They’d do whatever they could to make a living, and now I think their starting salary is in the 90s. \n\nSo the thing is, the work has in some sense gotten smaller and less, but certain things have gotten better. Those who have survived are doing much better now. I mean are really making [money]. Your principal players in major orchestras are drawing nice salaries.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506#t=2460.0,2520.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506/transcript/38497/annotation/43","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"So it’s the B-minus musicians that are having a hard time.\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: Yes, or those that can’t be creative. If you can’t do exactly what you know. If you’re not going to get the job, the principal job in an orchestra, are you going to do anything else or are you just going to quit? So I think you’ve got to be creative. \t\n\nI also tell students don’t wait around for someone to come find you. You have to be more of an entrepreneur. Start your own group. Go out with some chamber group or something. You have to be out there playing in the field. A lot of music is networking. A lot of us, you know, we get referred for things. It’s not always done by audition. \n\nYou have to be in that community to know where jobs are and there’s a great deal. I tell them also, in an area like this, between Baltimore and Washington, you’ve got six million people. There’s a lot going on. There are a lot of concerts, there are a lot of weddings, there are a lot of parties, there are lots of things that they want musicians for. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506#t=2520.0,2580.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506/transcript/38497/annotation/44","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Now, I say I do those kinds of things not because I want to, but that keeps me going and so I can get to do a concert of Schoenberg music or whatever, the things I really want to do. But I can’t necessarily do that all the time, and make a living doing that. But I can, piece together playing some theater things and some other things and do very well.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: It sounds pretty good.\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: Yeah, I’ve been very lucky. I mean, I’m busy as I want to be. \n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: That sounds [like a] really happy situation.\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: I’ve been lucky. But I have been versatile. I’ve never done just one thing. I’ve always done a number of things, and that’s how I’ve been able to keep busy. \n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: Have you been involved in writing and arranging at all?\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: That’s one area I wish I -- I always tell my students if I had it to do all over again, I would have done that. No. To make a long story short. And I wish I had, but there’s a lot of opportunities. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506#t=2580.0,2640.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506/transcript/38497/annotation/45","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"People always need new material. People that can arrange and write, compose or whatever, are really very valuable. However, I think those people that do that need also do something else because sometimes you may not be getting any call as a composer.\n\nPianists, especially, are very much in demand if they can write and arrange and conduct and so forth. Great career you can have as a pianist. There’s so much a need, for theaters, for opera companies, for film work, for all the things that need pianists that can arrange or can conduct. And I’m not saying major symphonies, but can lead the group through a recording session, that kind of thing. There’s so much work there.\n\nAnd I talk sometimes to pianists at Maryland about this, and I don’t think they quite understand, you know, how all of a sudden they may get to be a conductor one day because they know the score. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506#t=2640.0,2700.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506/transcript/38497/annotation/46","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"As a pianist they have everything there and know exactly what’s supposed to be there. So you may, all of a sudden, be up having to lead this for a performance or recording or something like that. You can leap to it.\n\nI think maybe had I had more, that I might have been more interested in conducting. But I always felt like this was not what I was prepared to do. So I never pushed it any further. \n\nI had another situation a couple of years ago which I found rather amusing. I was on stage at the concert hall at the Kennedy Center conducting a concert. It was a full house. There was a singer, it was a folk singer, and she hired an orchestra when she traveled. She hired an orchestra so I had to get a fifty-piece orchestra, and we had to play an overture. So we did a Copland piece as an overture, and we had to have another number at the beginning of the second half. So I’m standing on stage because, well, you’re going to hire a conductor, which is more expensive, or just do it yourself. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506#t=2700.0,2760.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506/transcript/38497/annotation/47","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"You know, just enough to get the orchestra going. So here I am in tails and everything at the Kennedy Center. I had a blast. And I wasn’t nervous at all because I said I don’t do this. I knew enough to get by, but I wasn’t nervous because I was just enjoying it. You know, I don’t depend on conducting so I had no reason to be uptight about it. And everything was fine. \n\nBut I don’t know. I look at those kind of situations and I try to tell students you never know where you’re going to wind up. All of a sudden you’re the person. You’ve got to conduct it, or play something you never thought you’d have to do.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: We’re going to have to do a pause.\n\n[END PART 1] ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117506#t=2760.0,2820.0"}]}]},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117507","type":"Canvas","label":{"en":["Media File 2 of 2 - pims0091_WaltersE_02.mp3"]},"duration":545.0449,"width":640,"height":360,"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/public/images/audio-default.png","type":"Image","format":"image/png"}],"items":[{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117507/content/1","type":"AnnotationPage","items":[{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117507/content/2/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"painting","body":{"id":"https://aviary-p-peabody.s3.wasabisys.com/collection_resource_files/resource_files/000/117/507/original/pims0091_WaltersE_02.mp3?1624271002","type":"Audio","format":"audio/mpeg","duration":545.0449,"width":640,"height":360},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117507","metadata":[]}]}],"annotations":[{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117507/transcript/38498","type":"AnnotationPage","label":{"en":["WaltersE_2_OHMS_20220609 [Transcript]"]},"items":[{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117507/transcript/38498/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"ELIZABETH SCHAAF: Well, I was very interested in hearing that you've been involved with the business of music courses because that's something that they have started to do here which we never had in the '60s. And there's so much more opportunity here now. We never had workshops on how to deal with performance anxiety, or how to manage your career after you get out, or arts administration, which is now being taught here, too. \n\nEDWARD WALTERS: Oh, is that right? No, there was none of that, none of that at all. I think the school's changed. Oh, it's just changed so much.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117507#t=0.0,60.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117507/transcript/38498/annotation/2","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"I mean, there were wonderful teachers. [Leon] Fleisher was here and Stefans Grové. Did you have Grové?\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: No, I didn't, but I remember one legendary person everybody had was Louis Cheslock, who everybody had. And I can remember some of the teachers that I had a chance to play chamber music with, and it was nice to be exposed to, not your regular teachers, but some of the other teachers.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: Who were some of the other teachers that you worked with?\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: I'm trying to think. Well, the violinist.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: Berl Senofsky?\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: Yes, Senofsky and his wife. They were very nice to me. I got to play some chamber music things with them, and that was very nice because they were very nice to me and they liked my playing. I enjoyed working with them. It was a very nice experience. But I think at that point, I think the enrollment -- everything was sort of a down period for the school. Because I don't think it was nothing like it is now. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117507#t=60.0,120.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117507/transcript/38498/annotation/3","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"We barely had enough to, you know --\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: Cover the orchestra. Right. Right. .And now there are two full orchestras, and still people complain that they don't have enough opportunities. [Laughter]\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: See, it was nothing like that when I was here. I tell people now, I was there at the low point. What I hear is coming out of here now, and the numbers, we had nothing like that. We'd be lucky to have it. We didn't have enough horn players. Well, I can remember a year that we didn't have more than three horns in school. \t\n\nAnd then it got better, but still\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: But the students who were here were wonderful, wonderful. Richard Nahatski was here.\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: Oh, yeah.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117507#t=120.0,180.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117507/transcript/38498/annotation/4","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Oh, let's see, who else?\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: There was a horn player who was over in Germany. I can see him right now.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: Carl Lott?\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: No, that's not it. \n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: No, he was later. Byron Barnes?\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: Byron Barnes. Yes. The trumpet player, Charlie Lewis.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: Charlie Lewis.\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: He was.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: Fabulous.\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: Charlie is doing very well up in Boston. Teaching in New England. He was on the Empire Brass Group.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: Do you know where he is now? \u2028 \u2028\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: He's in Boston. \u2028\n\n\u2028ELIZABETH SCHAAF: He's still in Boston?\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: I don't know if I have his number, but I know he's in Boston. Again, I think he teaches at New England.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: He was just a brilliant player. I always loved him and his wonderful warm sound. Just spot on. He just never missed.\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: There was a flutist by the name of Henry Hoffman. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117507#t=180.0,240.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117507/transcript/38498/annotation/5","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Do you remember him?\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: Yes. Very well.\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: And he and I went into the Navy Band together after Peabody. Then I lost touch with him. I thought he was in an orchestra out west, but I have never heard him.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: I didn't know you were in the Navy Band.\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: Yes.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: Oh, my goodness. What was that like? How was [it]?\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: That was great because, you know, that was during the Vietnam crisis, the Vietnam War. I mean, not only that, but you get to play in a band, and that's your full time job. And it was really good. A lot of people complained. Well, we didn't, we didn't play marches and ceremonies like that, and march. We just did concerts. But still the music selection, you play transcriptions of orchestral things which are not really playing the original parts, and some of the music isn't the greatest music, but, you know, ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117507#t=240.0,300.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117507/transcript/38498/annotation/6","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"I enjoyed meeting people from all around the country. And so I thought I learned a lot from other players who had come from other schools and studied with other teachers.\n\nSo that was really a good experience -- another growing-up process. Got to meet a lot of other people, and we traveled a lot. We had a tour, one tour every spring that we go on. I had never left the East Coast before, and so that was nice. So then, by the time I got out of the band -- I was there four years -- I had pretty much been in every state in the union and also got to go to Europe.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: Where did you tour in Europe?\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: It's interesting. Our tour was like if you came to a tour of the United States and you went to Columbus, Ohio; Richmond, Virginia; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. It was that kind of tour. So if that answers your question. [Laughs] ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117507#t=300.0,360.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117507/transcript/38498/annotation/7","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"I mean some of the places were lovely, but what we were doing, because it's a small group that they started, we were going to go over to entertain the troops, and we had to perform where they had NATO bases. Fortunately, we didn't have to stay on base, and we could stay in hotels in town. So you get a little more flavor of where you were.\n\nBut the bases, they're not really stationed like in London or some of the major cities. But we were in Scotland. We were in Naples, outside of Naples, Sicily, Spain. It was four major stops, but we had a chance to do some side trips. We went to Athens, Greece. And that was great. I had no idea that I'd ever get there. We had our own plane, by the way, that flew us around. We had a few days off, and the pilot said, you know, rather than sitting where we were on the base, he said, we're going to Athens, you want to go with us. So we just flew to Athens.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: Where were you in Sicily?\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: We were playing at a NATO base there.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117507#t=360.0,420.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117507/transcript/38498/annotation/8","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Is it near Palermo or over on the other side by Catania?\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: I really don't remember right now where it was. I'd have to go back and check. When we were playing, we didn't get a chance -- like we were in Naples, we saw very little of Naples. We wanted to go downtown, but we just didn't see much and you had to be careful. That was not a great time for walking around with uniforms on. So people would just tell us be careful where you go. But anyway, it was still nice to get to go to Europe and see a lot of the country. And so for me it was like, okay, when I have time, now I'll know where I want to go back to and that kind of thing.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: So with your schedule, how do you have time?\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: It's actually interesting because summers I tend to be busy at Wolf Trap. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117507#t=420.0,480.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117507/transcript/38498/annotation/9","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"So you really have to pick time, usually a week or two in the summer when I'm off, and my wife is off, and we can go places. I have winter break between terms in Maryland in January, but that's coming up, and I'm not sure what I'll do. It's not a great time of year because the weather is so cold.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: Great in Sicily.\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: Yeah, I may go back there. I'm thinking about it. But I like my schedule because we're busy like with Les Misérables and my school year just finished and so forth. So it's been very hectic the last few weeks. But then it'll stop and I'll have a couple of months where I'm not so busy. And that's when I can do some things I want to do -- practice more, do some things I need to do. \n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: Well, thank you so much for taking the time to come over here.\n\nEDWARD WALTERS: Thanks for inviting me.\n\nELIZABETH SCHAAF: It's really great to see another generation of the Walters family. ","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117507#t=480.0,540.0"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117507/transcript/38498/annotation/10","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"[Laughs]\n\n[END OF INTERVIEW]","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44175/file/117507#t=540.0,600.0"}]}]}]}