Curtain Call
This summer we offer congratulations to three long-serving ASO members as they step off the stage and into retirement. Ronda Respess (ASO violinist since 1969), Tom O’Donnell (ASO violinist since 1973), and Paul Warner (ASO cellist since 1970).
Ronda Respess was born in Short Hills, New Jersey. Her mother was an accomplished pianist, who collaborated with Lily Pons and Marian Anderson during WWII. Ronda studied the violin and chamber music with an all-star roster of some of the 20th century’s best string teachers, including Samuel Applebaum, Josef Gingold, William Primrose and Janos Starker.
Ronda graduated from Indiana University in 1969, the same year she auditioned for the ASO. This was the second year of Robert Shaw’s tenure. Ronda says, “I didn’t realize at the time how progressive he was, hiring many women at a time when there were almost no women in orchestras.”
During her first few seasons with the ASO, Ronda also worked towards completing her master’s degree at Georgia State University, where she studied alongside longtime ASO colleagues Jack Bell and Brice Andrus.
Some of Ronda’s most cherished ASO memories: the famous Beethoven 9 concert in East Berlin on the first ASO European tour (“very poignant”), President Jimmy Carter’s inaugural concert, and performing in the 1996 Olympic Games opening ceremony, as her daughter Ginny played in the closing ceremony as an ASYO violinist!
And what about serving under three Music Directors? “I am forever indebted to Shaw for introducing and immersing me in the beauty of great choral music. Levi’s Mahler symphonies — I loved playing these and I especially loved performing with him again on March 11, 2020. I told someone that, if that was the last concert I ever played, I would be happy — and ironically, it was. Zukerman was my 19-yr-old idol. How much better could that be for a finale? I’m also grateful to Robert Spano for introducing us to so many great new composers. I loved playing in Ainadamar and Dr. Atomic. These years of Spano’s musical introductions ranked up there with Shaw’s Chorus. I couldn’t have had it better anywhere else or under the batons of anyone else.”
Ronda’s retirement agenda? “Live to be at least 100 and haunt the stage now and then. Spend a lot of quality time with my family and friends. Work to make Franklin Pond Chamber Music (Ronda’s other passion, a training program for young chamber musicians) even better and, hopefully one day, move to a venue so we can continue to grow unencumbered, teach as much as I feel I can or want to, and travel when and where I want.”
Paul Warner hails from Saginaw, Michigan. He began studying piano at age 7, and continued lessons through his first two years of college. “My mother sang in the church choir all her life and never allowed me to quit piano. But when I was in fifth grade, I heard the cello in a school assembly, and I knew I had found my voice.” So, he began cello studies at age 10, and by the time he was in high school, he was playing in four local orchestras. He also remembers helping his father in their basement workshop, the radio tuned to classical music on the college radio station in East Lansing.
Paul attended Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore on a full scholarship, but confesses, “I wasn’t terribly ambitious. I just never quit.” He was offered a job with the ASO in 1970. “I had officially planned to retire in April, looking forward to one last performance in Carnegie Hall, which was unfortunately cancelled. The March 11 Yoel Levi concert may turn out to be the last concert in my professional career. Levi was my favorite conductor.”
More Paul Warner trivia: he taught himself to play recorder and made his professional recorder debut with the ASO under Maestro Dennis Russell Davies in the 1970s.
Paul spends much of his free time traveling, either on two wheels, or with sails, or even wings. He got his first motorcycle, a 350 Yamaha, moving up to a Honda 750, then a Gold Wing GL 1000. He’s toured the Maritime provinces, driven across Canada all the way to Orcas Island, down the Pacific coast to San Francisco, then back across the U.S. to Atlanta. He’s taken his motorcycle on several tours with the ASO. Paul also enjoys taking to the air. In a “small world” coincidence, his flight instructor was former ASO Assistant Principal Clarinet Norman Baker. He’s flown small aircraft on ASO tours as well, both in Florida and New England. Paul says, “Landing at Miami International Airport was an adventure.”
I’m sure the bike, sailboat, and plane will see a few more miles with Paul at the controls.
Tom O’Donnell couldn’t be reached for this article, but we thank him for his 47 years of service and wish him well in his next chapter.
