It’s the holiday season and that means you may be listening to Christmas music on loop. The Show talked to someone else who spends a lot of time this time of year listening to it.
Julie Mahoney, conductor of the East Valley Pops Orchestra, leads the orchestra made up of mostly retirees and snowbirds who are playing Christmas music all over town this time of year. She's been with them for for 31 years and says it includes some of her favorite performance moments.
Mahoney joined The Show to talk about it, beginning with her history in music, which has always been a part of her life — from piano lessons starting at age 4, to majoring in music in college, to becoming a music teacher. She also has always been involved in community orchestras. and that's how she ended up leading the east valley Pops Orchestra, which she has been doing now for 31 seasons.
Full conversation
JULIE MAHONEY: I had joined a string quartet, and the second violinist was involved in this orchestra, which at that time was called the Citrus Gardens Concert Orchestra. And so, because she was my friend, and she'd say, “Oh well, the Citrus Gardens orchestra putting on a concert. Would you like to come?” Of course, I'll come and support my friend.
And so I'd heard the orchestra once or twice. Well, one day, Olive, this string quartet member said to me, “Now, Julie, would you be interested in conducting our orchestra?” And I didn't think about it very long. I said, Well, sure, I'd be interested. So they set up an interview for me to meet with some of the board members who were, as I recall, it was three gentlemen.
And it's funny, because as I left the house that day, my husband said to me, “Oh, they're not going to want a youngster like you conducting the orchestra,” because I was like, 40, and these are all retirees, probably mostly 60s, 70s, whatever. I just shrugged my shoulders and said, "well, hey, I'm going for the interview. We'll see what happens."
Well, it's kind of interesting, because when I got home, I said, "well, Skeets" I said, that's my husband's nickname. I said, "I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna conduct the orchestra." And I laughed and said, but you know what? I don't think they had any issue at all of my age. I think they were just a little hesitant about having a woman conductor.
LAUREN GILGER: Well, and that's rare, right? Women are not often conductors.
MAHONEY: Well, 30 years ago, more rare, not unheard of, but yes, 30 years ago, more rare. Today, more and more at the professional level, more and more female conductors are coming to the fore and being recognized as outstanding conductors.
GILGER: How’d you overcome it? How did you convince them it didn't matter?
MAHONEY: Well, here was the deal I struck because I didn't want to be saddled with a sad orchestra that wasn't going anywhere. So what I told these gentlemen was, let's have this be a one year trial period, and if I feel like I'm not making progress, then I'll just say, well, thank you, you're a great bunch, but I'm going to step away.
On the other hand, if all of you feel like she's not working for us, she's not a good fit, then you can just say thank you for your service, we're going to look elsewhere. So that was the deal we struck. And I mean, honestly I don't, I mean I'm not really bragging, but I mean they were just so happy to have a person who really knew what they were doing.
And I like to say, I have a great way of working with people. I keep things positive. I'm not overly critical. I never say, “oh, that sounded awful,” and they were encouraged, and they worked hard and they got better. Well, every year they just got better and better.
GILGER: And now it’s your 31st season.
MAHONEY: Exactly.
GILGER: So tell us more about this particular orchestra, because it does sound unique. It turns out there are actually kind of a lot of bands, orchestras like this around town, but not very many made up of mostly retirees like this one.
MAHONEY: Well, that’s true, and there certainly are a number of community orchestras, but we are an orchestra of mostly retirees, and with many winter visitors as well, about a third of our membership is winter visitors. But also out in the East Valley, there's lots of these, well, I call them park bands because the RV parks, the mobile home parks, or even the retirement communities, they'll have their own little concert band. But we're the only orchestra, and we're kind of unique in that we're a road band. We haul all our equipment in a trailer, and we go to this park and that retirement community and this senior center, and we're traveling all over the place to put on our concerts.
GILGER: That's great! So tell us about conducting an orchestra full of retirees, mostly seniors. Are there some challenges in that? Are there some really beautiful things?
MAHONEY: Well, both. Both definitely. The challenges are probably just to a certain extent, endurance, you know, for the for the senior citizen who might have arthritis in their hands, for example, or maybe have some breathing issues or heart issues. You know, it can just it can be a long rehearsal, a long two hour rehearsal for them.
Also, we have different challenges physically, with eyesight, hearing, that's always a big issue. Hearing, we have a few people that have issues hearing, and so I'm always mic’d for our rehearsals. So those would be some of the challenges, but, but the pluses are the enthusiasm that these retirees have.
I mean, there are a lot of members of this orchestra. It's like their whole season revolves around playing in this orchestra. It's just like the biggest part of their season. And for many of them, it's the only group they play in, or maybe one of just maybe two. But the love of music, just the joy they have playing and performing. I mean, that's a huge plus.
GILGER: Yeah, yeah. I mean, who is it? Who plays? Is it? A lot of former musicians, people who have played all their lives. Have they been professional musicians in the past?
MAHONEY: We have a lot of retired music educators in the group. Yes, indeed. But we have people that maybe played an instrument all through school, and then they went to college and majored in engineering or whatever, and got married, raised their children.
Now they're retired, and they're going, “well, what am I going to do with my retirement? Well, say I've got this trumpet in the back of my closet, I've got this violin under my bed. I'm gonna dust this off and see if I can still play this thing.” And so a lot of them are people that are returning to their instrument after a long absence.
GILGER: Yeah, that's lovely. What about for you, Julie, like, what has this meant to you? 31 years is a long time to spend doing anything, and it sounds like you're really passionate about it.
MAHONEY: Oh, well, yes, ask anyone in the orchestra. I love it. I love doing it. Well, I wouldn't do it if I didn't love it, because it's hard work. When I lost my husband seven years ago, it was just just a great place for me to return to with all these people, I mean to me, they're not just orchestra members. They're my friends. You know, they're, they're my huge circle of 65 friends, or 70 friends.
And it was invaluable in helping me cope with the loss of my husband, the friendship, the support, but just being able to kind of escape in the music to turn all my thoughts toward rehearsing the orchestra, making them better, and then I could forget about my grief temporarily.
GILGER: Yeah, yeah. So let's talk about the music a little bit. You were in the middle of this holiday concert season when lots of folks will be out playing lots of holiday music. What does that mean for you? Are there certain songs you always play because you have to and you love them, or do you mix it up?
MAHONEY: Well, fortunately, there's a wide variety of Christmas music available. There's so much to choose from. So it's not like we're doing the same thing every single year, and really that's more for our own sanity than for the audience, you know.
But the one piece that we do tend to repeat, if not every year, but we've played it a lot, is the Manheim Steamroll arrangement of Stille Nacht. Well, Silent Night, which they entitled Stille Nacht. Absolutely gorgeous. I think I could maybe say it's my favorite Christmas selection of all. Of course, I listen to them at home on CD, and I'm fortunate to have a fabulous principal cellist, Margaret Cowger, and my associate conductor plays the keyboard, and they have this beautiful duet at the beginning, just the two of them.
I mean, the audience is totally silent. It's just so beautiful. And then the orchestra kind of quietly comes in, and it's just a fabulous piece. So that's my favorite. That's the one we play the most.
