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A classical love affair
By MELIA BOWIE, Times Staff Writer HUNTER'S GREEN -- Life's not easy when you're battling Broadway for an audience. I
"It's the 800-pound gorilla," laments classical musician Don Owen, with a weary smile. If Mozart and Julie Andrews went a round in celebrity boxing, the singing governess from The Sound of Music would cream the Austrian composer. Still, those who love the classic orchestral works carry on -- devoting decades to their craft so the historic scores will continue to transcend both time and pop culture. Such is the challenge for Owen and his wife Justine LeBaron, who co-founded the Florida Orchestra's brass quintet 23 years ago. Full-time musicians with the orchestra, the five members also perform as an independent chamber group to supplement their income and foster music appreciation. The quintet's current members, Rob Smith, Ken Brown, Dwight Decker, Bill Micklesen and LeBaron, excel in a repertoire of musical genres from Renaissance and Baroque to Ragtime. Owen, although still with the orchestra, has retired from the quintet. The Tampa Bay group performs privately throughout Central Florida at museums, schools churches and once for the groundbreaking ceremony of Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater. "It's a little extra work for us and it's a great deal of fun," said LeBaron. When you play with a 12-piece brass section in an 80-member orchestra, "it's satisfying to have a more intimate setting." After two decades together, the quintet is thought to be the oldest chamber music group associated with the Florida Orchestra. For LeBaron and Owen, that distinction is the icing atop a career filled with rewards. But the job is not without challenges. "Making your living in the non-profit arts sector is not for the faint of heart," said LeBaron. The MuseEarly on in their childhoods, Owen and his wife realized that music was not going to be just another hobby. There was compulsion to excel at it. "I think when you are either a visual artist or a musician, it's something you have to do; you can't escape it," said LeBaron, 56. "A painter has to paint, a sculptor has to sculpt." They had to play. "I've studied music for 55 years; since I was 10. Always the trumpet," said Owen, now 65. Music is what brought the couple together after their first marriages ended. Each had two children when they met. Owen played trumpet with the orchestra. LeBaron, on the French horn, sat in front of him. "You could say I fell in love with the back of her head," he likes to joke. Married 19 years, they have shared their classical love affair onstage with Tampa Bay for more than two decades. LeBaron likes to introduce a bit of Brahms or Strauss into her audiences' lives. Owen, who has memorized more symphonies than most people will forget, no longer hazards a guess as to his favorites. "Whichever one I'm performing," he said, smiling. For fans the two musicians are entertainers, for the faithful they are teachers. Professors of music as well as practitioners. Owen taught full-time at the University of South Florida for 38 years before retiring recently as director of the graduate school of music. LeBaron continues to teach at Florida Southern College in Lakeland giving lessons on performance and persistance. "It's not an easy road but it's a rewarding road," she said. Holiday HoursWorking Christmas Eve is a given. So is New Year's Day. Nor is Super Bowl Sunday sacred, Owen sighed. "Almost every year we play a concert. They hang the score in the wings for us," he said. When the Super Bowl came to Tampa in 1991, the Florida Orchestra accompanied it. Whitney Houston sang. "We were in the middle of a football stadium with airplanes flying overhead," LeBaron said. On weekends when the neighbors are donning bright shorts and brown sandals for an afternoon of sailing, the couple is decked out in tuxedos and black evening gowns; backstage at the Performing Arts Center. "It's a different lifestyle," said Owen. "It's like nothing else on earth." They can pinpoint the room with the best acoustics in any house they occupy. When they pop a classical CD into the stereo, odds are LeBaron or Owen are the performing artists. (The Florida Orchestra has released three compact discs thus far.) As professionals, they occasionally critique each other during at-home practice sessions. But they rarely play together unless it is with the full orchestra -- there aren't too many masterpieces featuring French horn and trumpet duets. As parents, said LeBaron and Owen, they emphasized music over movies, malls and pop culture. "We sort of insisted our children play," said Owen, explaining his desire to imbue the next generation with an appreciation for the arts. Although their kids studied, "it didn't take" professionally, he confessed. Instead, the children chose careers as electricians, bank tellers and executive assistants. Two of them dabble in rock bands. That kind of counts, right? Besides, there are enough people competing for the few select spots in the nation's orchestras. Amateur musicians can become avid fans -- something of greater value to an embattled arts sector. "We keep fighting the arts fight, especially in these times," said LeBaron. It may not be the money-making behemoth that is Broadway, but "great art and great music heals." -- Times Staff writer Melia Bowie can be reached at bowie@sptimes.com * * * The Florida Orchestra will perform Pines of Rome with conductor Pavel Kogan this weekend. Shows are scheduled for 8 p.m. on Friday at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, 8 p.m. on Saturday at the Mahaffey Theater in St. Petersburg and 7:30 p.m. on Sunday at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater. For more information and ticket prices call the Florida Orchestra at (813) 286-2403 or (800) 662-7286 or visit www.floridaorchestra.org.
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From the Times Marlene Sokol |
