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Ann Hobson Pilot (born November 6, 1943) is an American musician and the former principal harpist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Boston Pops. She has performed with the National Symphony Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Symphony, and as a soloist with many orchestras in the United States. She was one of four African American musicians who were the first to play in United States symphony orchestras during the 1960s. [1]
Ann Hobson was born on November 6, 1943, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in an African American family. Her mother was a concert pianist. [2]
She began studying the harp when she was 14. Though she achieved a concert caliber by her senior year of high school, she encountered obstacles due to her race early on. The Maine Harp Colony rejected her application to study there during the summer because of her race. Following her graduation from the Philadelphia Girls High, she was able to attend the Maine Harp Colony, where she met pioneering woman harpist Alice Chalifoux. [1]
After returning from Maine, Hobson studied at the Philadelphia Musical Academy. She later transferred to the Cleveland Institute of Music where she could study with Chalifoux. She received a Bachelor of Music degree there. [3]
Hobson was selected to play as master harpist in the National Symphony Orchestra in 1966, its first black member, replacing Sylvia Meyer. [4] She continued with the National Symphony till 1969. [1] [2]
Hobson was the second harpist with the Pittsburgh Symphony before joining the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1969 as Assistant Principal Harp and Principal Harp of the Boston Pops. She was named Principal Harpist of the BSO in 1980. [2]
In addition to solo appearances with the BSO and Boston Pops, she has appeared as a soloist with many American orchestras. She has played at the Marlboro Festival, with the Boston Symphony Chamber Players and the contemporary music ensemble Collage, and is founder of the New England Harp Trio. Honors she has received include Sigma Alpha Iota’s Distinguished Woman of the Year Award in 1991, the Philadelphia College of Performing Arts School of Music Alumni Achievement Award in 1992, and the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Cleveland Institute of Music in 1993. In addition to New England Conservatory, Pilot is on the faculties at Boston University, Tanglewood Music Center, and the Boston University Tanglewood Institute.
Pilot retired from her position as harpist of the Boston Symphony in 2009 ending a 40-year career in the orchestra. [5]
Besides her concert career, Pilot was also a music teacher. She taught at the New England Conservatory from 1973 to 2013. [6]
In 2020, she delivered a TED (conference) Talk: "A Black Harpist's Story". [7]
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The Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is an American orchestra based in Boston. It is the second-oldest of the five major American symphony orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five". Founded by Henry Lee Higginson in 1881, the BSO performs most of its concerts at Boston's Symphony Hall and in the summer performs at Tanglewood.
Erich Leinsdorf was an Austrian-born American conductor. He performed and recorded with leading orchestras and opera companies throughout the United States and Europe, earning a reputation for exacting standards as well as an acerbic personality. He also published books and essays on musical matters.
The Boston University Tanglewood Institute (BUTI) is a summer music training program for students age 10 to 20 in Lenox, Massachusetts, under the auspices of the Boston University College of Fine Arts.
The Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM) is a private music conservatory in Cleveland, Ohio. The school was founded in 1920 by a group of supporters led by Martha Bell Sanders and Mary Hutchens Smith, with Ernest Bloch serving as its first director. CIM enrolls 325 students in the conservatory and approximately 1,500 students in the preparatory and continuing education programs. There are typically about 100 openings per year for which 1,000-1,200 prospective students apply.
Charles Schlueter, born in Du Quoin, Illinois, is the retired principal trumpeter of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Schlueter studied with William Vacchiano at the Juilliard School. Prior to his 25 years as principal of the BSO, he also held positions with the Kansas City Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, and the Minnesota Orchestra.
Charles Moïse Léon Salzedo was a French harpist, pianist, composer and conductor. His compositions presented the harp as a virtuoso instrument. He influenced many composers with his new ideas for the harp's sounds, and was influential in New York's new music scene through his work leading the International Composers' Guild with Edgard Varèse.
Ralph Gomberg was the principal oboist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra for 37 years (1950-1987). His brother Harold held the same chair with the New York Philharmonic for much of the same period (1943-1977).
Alice Chalifoux was the principal harpist with the Cleveland Orchestra from 1931 to 1974 and was its only female member for twelve years. Chalifoux learned to play the harp from her mother, studying music at local schools before studying under Carlos Salzedo at the Curtis Institute of Music. She was an authority on his music and took over the Salzedo Summer Harp Colony after his death. She had a reputation as a specialist in orchestral harp technique and a master teacher. She taught at the Cleveland Institute of Music, the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and the Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory of Music. She continued teaching harp until her death in 2008, at the age of 100. Chalifoux received two honorary degrees for her work. In her personal life, Chalifoux married John Gordon Rideout in 1937 and had one daughter.
Yolanda Kondonassis is an American classical harpist. She is considered one of the world's premier solo harpists and is widely regarded as today's most recorded classical harpist.
Lucile Lawrence was an American harpist. At the end of her life, she was a faculty member of Boston University and the Manhattan School of Music, as well as teaching privately.
Doriot Anthony Dwyer was an American flutist. She was one of the first women to be awarded principal chair for a major U.S. orchestra. She was the principal flute for the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1952 until 1990. She was second flute for the National Symphony Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. She was an adjunct professor of Music at Boston University.
Eunice Alberts (1927–2012) was an American contralto who had an active career as a concert soloist and opera singer during the 1950s through the 1980s.
Edna Phillips, later Edna Phillips Rosenbaum, was an American harpist long associated with the Philadelphia Orchestra and a teacher at the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music. Her most lasting contribution to the instrument was a body of works she commissioned as a soloist, including the concertos of Alberto Ginastera, Nicolai Berezowsky, Ernst Krenek, and Ernst von Dohnányi.
Anna Maria Mendieta is a professional harpist from the United States. She is best known for pioneering the harp as a contemporary tango instrument. She is an orchestral musician and a teacher.
The Missouri Chamber Music Festival and Adult Chamber Music Intensive (ACMI) was founded in 2010. The goal of the MOCM Festival concerts is to present the fine art of small ensemble music to a wide audience through an accessible, community-based festival. The ACMI workshop is the educational portion of the festival, placing adult instrumentalists in chamber ensembles with Festival artists for coaching and performance.
Franziska Huhn is a German harpist. Currently, she lives in the United States.
The Classical Pops Festival is an annual outdoor festival held each December at the Apes Hill Club in Barbados. It draws inspiration from events such as Tanglewood in Massachusetts and the BBC Proms in the UK. The festival showcases a unique orchestra composed of principal players and members from various well-known symphonies.
Judy Loman is a harpist and harp teacher, born and educated in the United States and active in Canada. She was the principal harp of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra from 1959 until her retirement in 1991, and won a Juno award for Best Classical Album in 1980. She taught at the University of Toronto and established a summer school for harpists. Loman was appointed a member of the Order of Canada in 2015.
Elizabeth Rowe is an American flutist and leadership coach, known for being the principal flutist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 2004 to 2024 and for a gender discrimination lawsuit.
Malcolm Lowe is a Canadian and American violinist and teacher. He held the Charles Munch chair as concertmaster of the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1984 to 2019, making him the second-longest-serving concertmaster in the orchestra's history.
