Regional Oral History Office University of California the Bancroft Library Berkeley, California

Regional Oral History Office University of California The Bancroft Library Berkeley, California Marcella DeCray AN ORAL HISTORY OF MARCELLA DECRAY Interviews conducted by Caroline Crawford in 2004-2005 Copyright © 2007 by The Regents of the University of California Since 1954 the Regional Oral History Office has been interviewing leading participants in or well-placed witnesses to major events in the development of Northern California, the West, and the nation. Oral History is a method of collecting historical information through tape-recorded interviews between a narrator with firsthand knowledge of historically significant events and a well-informed interviewer, with the goal of preserving substantive additions to the historical record. The tape recording is transcribed, lightly edited for continuity and clarity, and reviewed by the interviewee. The corrected manuscript is bound with photographs and illustrative materials and placed in The Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley, and in other research collections for scholarly use. Because it is primary material, oral history is not intended to present the final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a spoken account, offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it is reflective, partisan, deeply involved, and irreplaceable. ********************************* All uses of this manuscript are covered by a legal agreement between The Regents of the University of California and Marcella DeCray, dated October 10, 2004. The manuscript is thereby made available for research purposes. All literary rights in the manuscript, including the right to publish, are reserved to The Bancroft Library of the University of California, Berkeley. No part of the manuscript may be quoted for publication without the written permission of the Director of The Bancroft Library of the University of California, Berkeley. Requests for permission to quote for publication should be addressed to the Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, Mail Code 6000, University of California, Berkeley, 94720-6000, and should include identification of the specific passages to be quoted, anticipated use of the passages, and identification of the user. It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows: Marcella DeCray, “An Oral History with Marcella DeCray”, conducted by Caroline Crawford, 2004-2005, Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 2007. Marcella DeCray (photo courtesy of Marcella DeCray) Discursive Table of Contents—Marcella DeCray Interview History ……………………………………………………………………............ 1 Interview 1, October 26, 2004 …………………………………………………………….... 3 Videotape 1 …………………………………………………………………………………..3 Early years in Philadelphia and family--First music lessons: piano (Leo Ornstein) and harp (Dorothy Baseler, Mildred Dilling)--Performing for church services and women’s clubs--Studies in France with Henriette Renie, 1947-1955--A year at Temple University, a year at Juilliard School of Music with Marcel Grandjany--Playing second harp in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra--Renie and harp technique Videotape 2 …………………………………………………………………………………. 24 First exposure to music: the Philadelphia Orchestra, recitals, recordings--Performing with the Philadelphia Orchestra, 1952-1963--Earning a bachelor’s degree at University of Pennsylvania, 1958--Performance tours and music management--Starting a harp department at Peabody Conservatory--Marriage and a move to San Francisco, 1963-- Thoughts on a soloist’s career--Establishing harp departments at American conservatories--Performing with the San Francisco Symphony as soloist and second harp --Remembering Josef Krips--Joining the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, 1964-- The contemporary music scene in San Francisco and the San Francisco Tape Center Interview 2, October 30, 2004 ………………………………………………………………45 Videotape 3 ………………………………………………………………………………….45 Performing at Carnegie Recital Hall, 1955--Thoughts about the solo harpist--The instrument: touch, dynamics, tuning, transporting--Sex discrimination in orchestras and performance as “slave labor”--Remembering Kurt Herbert Adler and other conductors-- Performance halls and acoustics--Performing with the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra Interview 3, January 27, 2005 ………………………………………………………………..63 Videotape 4 ………………………………………………………………………………….. 63 Comparing orchestras: symphony, opera and ballet--Teaching and physics of harp playing--Remembering exceptional students--American Harp Society and World Harp Congress--Thoughts about recording-Teaching at San Francisco Conservatory of Music: faculty and master classes ii Videotape 5 ………………………………………………………………………………..82 Teaching and performing at the Aspen Music Festival and Music School, 1960s-- Telluride Music Festival and the festival scene Interview 4, May 3, 2005 ……………………………………………………………………99 Tape 6………………………………………………………………………………………...99 Launching the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, 1973--Remembering Darius Milhaud--Frank Zappa and the SFCMP--First performances of music by Ned Rorem-- The direction of new music: 1750 Arch Street and 321 Divisadero and the SFCMP-- The American Harp Society and the World Harp Congress Tape 7………………………………………………………………………………………...118 Private life, family--More about Mme. Renie and France--Thoughts about a harpist’s career 1 Interview History—Marcella DeCray Marcella DeCray was interviewed for the music series of the Regional Oral History Office to document her long career as a professional harpist and champion of contemporary music. She grew up in Philadelphia, studied piano with Leo Ornstein and harp with Dorothy Baseler and Mildred Dilling, among others. During several summers in the 1940s and 1950s she worked with Henriette Renie in Paris and in Etretat on the Normandy coast. France and the French culture have been significant factors in her life ever since. After studies at Temple University, a BA and graduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania, and while a student at Juilliard and still in her teens, DeCray auditioned for and joined the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, where she played second harp, performing under conductors such as Fritz Reiner and Fritz Busch. In 1952 she was auditioned by Eugene Ormandy of the Philadephia Orchestra and engaged as second harp. In the oral history she remembers the orchestra as “the holy grail of the music world” at the time, recollects European tours when the orchestra was received almost as royalty, and the many conductors who performed with the orchestra during her eleven years there, including Igor Stravinsky, Charles Muench and Sir Thomas Beecham. DeCray eventually married and settled with her husband in San Francisco in 1963, where for many years she performed with the San Francisco Symphony and Opera orchestras. She established the harp faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, as she had previously done at the Peabody Conservatory and elsewhere. She is still a member of the conservatory faculty and performs with the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra. Contemporary music was an abiding interest of DeCray’s in her Philadelphia years and she took an active role in the Bay Area’s vibrant new music scene of the 1960s. In 1973 she performed in composer Charles Boone’s Bring-Your-Own-Pillow Concerts, and with Boone and fellow San Francisco Symphony musician Jean-Louis LeRoux, she launched the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players. In the history she documents the history of the players, now in their third decade of performance. She also discusses first performances of works written for her by composers George Rochberg, David Sheinfeld and Wayne Peterson. The four interview sessions were conducted and videotaped in DeCray’s living room in San Francisco, a formal room that contains both concert and orchestral harps and a piano designed by her grandfather Alexander DeCray, who was in the piano business in Philadelphia. DeCray reviewed and edited the interview transcripts lightly. The Regional Oral History Office, a division of the Bancroft Library, was established in 1954 to record the lives of individuals who have made significant contributions to the history of 2 California and the West. The oral history methodology consists of research in primary and secondary sources, recorded interviews, transcripts, reviewing and editing by the narrator, library deposition of bound volumes, and in most cases digital presentation at http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/ROHO. Caroline Crawford Music Historian The Bancroft Library/University of California, Berkeley 3 Interview # 1 10-26-04 [Begin File DeCray, 01 10-26-04] ## Crawford: This is to be the oral history of Marcella DeCray, with Caroline Crawford interviewing for the Oral History Office, University of California, October 26, 2004. So Marcella, let’s start right at the beginning, your beginnings, with place and date of birth. DeCray: June 2, 1928, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Crawford: Good. What do you know about family names, and how far back? DeCray: Great grandmother or grandmother, I forget which, but they were all dead before I was born. So do you want me to tell you the names? Crawford: Just name and place, generally where you were. DeCray: My mother’s maiden name was Loeb, L-o-e-b. Her first name was Elsie. Her mother’s name was Bertha; her maiden name was Caroline Grau, and her father’s and family’s name was Ganz, G-a- n-z. My father was sixty-three when I was born. His father’s name was Alexander DeCray, and he was in the piano business, made that

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