The late Atlanta Symphony Orchestra bassist Jane Little, who died May 15 after passing out onstage during the last seconds of the orchestra's encore, was celebrated Sunday as an "indomitable" spirit, during a special memorial concert by the orchestra and the ASO Chorus.
Little was 87 years old when she died, and had been playing with the ASO longer than any professional musician has ever played with a single orchestra. She started in 1945, at age 16, and continued through the next 71 years, despite being plagued lately with a host of health problems including a broken vertebrae and multiple myeloma.
The myeloma, a blood cancer for which she was being treated with chemotherapy, didn’t slow her down, said fellow ASO bassist Michael Kurth, who described her attitude as “resilience bordering on indestructibility.”
Russell Williamson, senior orchestra manager, said “It didn’t matter how much she hurt, she was always there.”
It was an evening full of humor, sadness, and fantastic music, heard by a substantial audience gathered at Symphony Hall. After the closing bars of the opening piece, Bach’s “Air on the G String,” the lights dimmed until a single spotlight picked out Little’s empty chair, left on stage as an eloquent expression of her absence.
But Little didn’t actually sit, said Kurth. A ball of energy, she preferred to stand, Kurth said, though age and infirmity conspired against her, so she accepted the support, grudgingly. “She kind of leaned against it,” said Kurth, 44, who stood next to Little on stage.
(You can see Kurth’s comments from Sunday’s event here.)
A highlight of Sunday’s event was a performance of the old Jo Stafford hit, “I’ll Be Seeing You,” arranged by Kurth for seven bassists. At the end, all seven whacked their music stands with their bows. It was a tongue-in-cheek tribute to Little, said associate principal bassist Gloria Jones. Little apparently had trouble avoiding the occasional accidental, “clack!” in quiet moments.
Little, a diminutive 4-foot-11, was fond of homeless cats and bedazzled jeans, even when that wardrobe choice threatened the integrity of her priceless 1705 Giuseppi Cantore double bass violin. “They had to be fancy jeans,” said friend and violinist Patti Gouvas. “They scraped on the back of the bass, but beauty was more important than the preservation of the bass.”
Jennifer Barlament, ASO executive director, praised Little’s “courage and persistence in the face of adversity… That she left us, after passing out on stage, doing what she loved with the people she loved, made her passing all the more poignant.”
Little was performing in a pops concert with the ASO on May 15 when she lost consciousness in the last seconds in the last encore of the evening, “There’s No Business Like Show Business.” Kurth and tuba player Michael Moore carried her backstage while the orchestra completed the song, and she was revived briefly, but died later at Grady Hospital.
The orchestra and 106 members of the ASO Chorus performed sacred and secular music Sunday, including a rousing version of Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus,” which brought the audience to its feet. During the hymn “For All the Saints,” conductor Norman Mackenzie gestured to the audience to join in, and the celebrants stood again to sing.
Last summer Little broke a vertebra in her back, and was out for months. “She fought back, to be back on that stage in February,” said Williamson. In February Little surpassed the record as the longest tenured musician with an orchestra.
On Friday the city of Atlanta gave Little the Phoenix Award, the highest honor given by the city. Also, a position in the bass section was named in her honor.
Violinist Ellie Kosek, who who helped set Sunday’s memorial event in motion, recalled long drives to Little’s North Carolina mountain getaway, listening to the veteran’s stories. “Who needed a radio when you had Miss Jane?”
Said Kosek, “My one regret is that I never wrote down the recipe for the salad dressing that she made. It was fantastic and she even got my children to eat kale.”
Jones said she was 14 years old and a neophyte bassist when her parents drove her to Atlanta from Greenville, S.C. to see Jane Little play. Little told her, “keep on practicing; we need more women in the bass section.”
Six years later Jones returned as a new member of the ASO.
In the benediction, Bill Britt, of Peachtree United Methodist Church, exhorted the listeners to do good. “Following in the example of Jane, do good to cats.”
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