Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1936-08-29
By Katharine Brooks.
TIME Washington Summer Con

ME- washington summer COn.
certs Association will enter the
seventh and final week Of its
u first season tomorrow. The
concerts have proven several things
that Washington wants the better
music through the Summer, that
residents of the District, those who
remain here the year around, will
patronize such programs, and that
such concerts are q benefit financially
to the musicians. Those given this
Summer have been on a cooperative
basis, but the association could not
undertake series through the Win
ter in that way, without capital.
On the eve of the close of this
series undertaken by the musicians
themselves, the National Symphony
Orchestra Association through its
vice president, DIR. William McClel-
land, announces that the association
and the Musicians Union have
reached an agreement and that the
National Symphony Orchestra will
resume its work in the late Autumn
The orchestra which has played at
the Water Gate this year is made up
of many members Of the National
Symphony Orchestra of last Winter
in fact, the majority of the musicians
are members of both organizations.
1t would have been more than un-
fortunate had the two groups moi
agreed to go on with the excellent
work which the orchestra has done
in the five years of its existence. To
have let the time, energy and money
expended in the development anc
growth of the orchestra in these
years be wasted and the organization
disintegrate would have been another
blot on history of orchestras Of the
National Capital.
THE present orchestra is the bes'
organization which Washington
has had, perhaps due to a larger
amount of money available, for such
men as Reginald deKoven and Helm
rich Hammer might have been as
successful had they had the support
Of the public that the National Sym
phony Orchestra has.
There have been many local or
chestras since the days of the George
town Orchestra, composed of amateur
musicians and conducted by the late
Ernest Lent, for many years the
leading cellist In Washington; the
late Josef Kaspar, who also was con-
ductor of the Washington Choral
Society for some years, and many
others prominent in the music life
of the National Capital of those days
The older orchestras had q further
handicap in the lack of an auditorium
suitable for concerts. The George
town organization gave its concerts
in the Congregational Church al
Tenth and G streets, where the Bos-
ton Symphony Orchestra gave its first
concerts in Washington, and later
when churches were not allowed to
use their untaxed property for COM
mercial entertainment, the orches-
tras were forced into the local thea
tiers. These were not always avail
able and were always expensive. The
late Heinrich Hammer resorted to the
use of the Knickerbocker Theater
now the Ambassador, at Eighteenth
street and Columbia road, for the
concerts of his orchestra. Now the
National Symphony Orchestra has
Constitution Hall, well nigh perfect
place for such concerts.
The concerts at the Water Gate
next week will bring as conductors
Sylvan Levin and Dr. Nikolai Sokolof,
the latter to conduct Wednesday and
Friday. Mr.. Levin, who is q Wash
ingtonian, made an excellent impress
sion as q serious young musician
when he conducted the orchestra at
the Water Gate earlier in the season,
and DR.. Sokolof is no stranger to
local audiences. He first conducted
the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra,
when it gave concert here just fol-
lowing the World War, DR.. Sokoloff