I have requested a number of musicians to submit email postcards describing their summer activities, which I will then post here on the blog. Whether they are at festivals in Sun Valley or Aspen or Vermont, or giving private lessons in St. Louis, or bicycling through Nova Scotia, or just tending to the kids and the herb garden, I want to present a view into the musician’s life, however mundane or glamorous.
Diana Haskell joined the SLSO two years ago as assistant principal clarinet. She had previously been assistant principal clarinet with the Milwaukee Symphony for 12 years, so she’s got significant Midwestern cred, as well as St. Louis roots. Her grandmother played piano at silent-movie theaters here; her mother was raised here.
Two years ago, when I first talked to Diana, she mentioned chocolate at least three times. Another quality that made her forever endearing was that when I asked her about her graduate studies at Juilliard, she blurted out, “I quit!” and then laughed a lot. In truth, she explained, she finished her studies but quit her career. She was working at an amusement park when her former instructor, D. Stanley Hasty, insisted she audition for a position with the Savannah Symphony. She won the job, and has stayed in the business ever since.
When Diana came back to the SLSO after the summer of ’04, her news was she had gotten married. Her husband lives in Milwaukee with his children from a previous, so the two live the long-distance marriage – not uncommon for folks in the orchestra biz.
So when I suggested that Diana report from a marital summer in Milwaukee, she responded “It would have been great to be with my husband, but I bought a house in Webster Groves that has work that needs to be done.
"It is CRAZY around here. Contractors, workers, jackhammers (I actually used one), six-foot-long drills. I hope to see my husband soon!”
Clarinet with the orchestra for nine months; jackhammers in summer. Such is the glamorous life.
