Leopold Stokowski, when I worked with him, looked very much like he did when the star of 'Fantasia', with a sheaf of white hair, combed straight back from his face, and a navy blue pin-striped suit, navy shirt (silk, no doubt). He decided, in 1962, to form a new orchestra, the American Symphony Orchestra, and to pair an older, experienced orchestral musician with a young, enthusiastic student right out of school. That way he would have the best of all worlds (musically speaking), the one personality balancing the other. So the word went out, Stoki is looking for young musicians (and the underground word was "he will hire women!", and unusual attitude in 1962 New York City). First I auditioned for the assistant conductor, and then was invited to Stokowski's penthouse on Fifth Ave. for "publicity photos with the maestro". Dress nicely and bring your instrument was all we were told. Little did I know that as soon as the pictures were taken, his amazing blue eyes would fasten on me and he would say "and who is going to play for me first today--mademoiselle?" I felt like a lamb being led to the slaughter, but somehow I managed to perform the sonata I had been working on at the time, and read my way through the hand-copied orchestral excerpts he had in a book (prepared for such occasions).

I must have impressed him, because, after receiving the acceptance letter and appearing for the first rehearsal, I found myself on the second stand of violas, which, in his special seating arrangement, was directly in front of the conductor's podium. Whenever I looked up for the downbeat or whatever, there were his eyes, boring into me. My stand partner was Julian Barber, a black Jamaican violist with fabulous technique and a great sense of humor. Together we must have been a picture. One day, the maestro gestured to me: "mademoiselle, I want to speak to you". With trepidation I went up to the podium. He said, "You are wearing a nice blue dress today. You look good in blue. When you play in my orchestra, I want you to wear blue." And so I did, wearing that same blue dress to every rehearsal all year long (my wardrobe was very limited at the age of 20).

Toward the middle of the year, a few of the youngest members of the orchestra (I, at 20, was the baby), were invited to appear with the maestro on a live television talk show with a newspaper columnist, Hy Gardner. Stokowski was seated with the TV host at a table, and we were standing behind. I think the idea was to publicize the orchestra, but Hy Gardner was well out of his league, mispronouncing the maestro's name and asking him if he kept a scrapbook. "Why?" replied Stokowski. "Why should I save scrap?"

Eventually the subject of government aid to the arts surfaced, and the host received a diatribe from the maestro (in essence, he didn't want beaurocrats telling him how to run his orchestra). Then they turned to us. "What do you think, Pam?" asked Hy Gardner. I swallowed hard, and said "I am afraid I must disagree with the maestro on this subject" I went on to describe the difficulties of making a living as a musician and how much orchestras needed financial support to survive. As I spoke fervently, I also knew that Stokowski's eyes were boring into me and he was listening with attention. (I'm going to get fired for opening my big mouth, I thought). Apparently he enjoyed having a young person disagree with him, since I heard later he was quite proud of me. He was a great supporter of independent thinking, and bowing, of course. He was always chiding us "Don't use the same bowing as the person sitting next to you. I don't want you to play like machine. You act like machine, you get job in office. Not in my orchestra". Even today, I have great difficulty following other people's bowings.

I would have enjoyed playing under his baton for many years, but fate had other plans for me, or at least Kenneth Goldsmith had other plans, and the season of 1962-3 was all I was permitted. He was the first 'great' conductor I encountered, and was pleased to have had that experience so young. I was never really afraid of any conductor, perhaps because I had so much experience early on, positive encouters.