Pianist and Violinist Carolyn Gadiel Warner reflects on falling in love—with her husband of 40 years, Bruckner symphonies and her profession.
Pianist and Violinist Carolyn Gadiel Warner reflects on falling in love—with her husband of 40 years, Bruckner symphonies and her profession.
Featured Music
BRUCKNER – Symphony No. 8
4. Finale
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Welcome to The Cleveland Orchestra’s On a Personal Note, where we explore the many ways music shapes our lives. In difficult situations or moments of sheer joy, music connects us with our humanity.
My name is Carolyn Gadiel Warner. I’m a violinist and pianist. And I would like to tell you the story of my life in music and my life in The Cleveland Orchestra. My first day with The Cleveland Orchestra was October 9th, 1979. On that day, various members of the Cleveland Orchestra came to introduce themselves and among those, little did I know then, my future husband, Steve Warner.
We had some common friends and they all said to me, you’re going to meet Steve Warner, he’s now a member of The Cleveland Orchestra, but he graduated from Curtis and some Philadelphia folks knew him. So I imagined a tall, blonde, Viking-style individual. And then when he introduced himself to me; he’s this very handsome, short, dark-haired man, sort of Italian-looking and it was just the total opposite of what I had been anticipating.
Three weeks after I started, the Orchestra traveled to the East Coast. And Steve and I met in Philadelphia on the free day in New York. We both had family and friends in Philadelphia, so we made arrangements to ride the train home from Philadelphia back to New York that day. And the beauty of that train ride was that we never stopped talking.
Stephen and I were both hired for The Cleveland Orchestra by Lorin Maazel. Both of us had a huge amount of excitement about working with him. He was a commanding conductor, tremendously facile; his technique was extremely clear, very virtuosic and his command of interpretations was also on the very highest level.
Bruckner Eighth Symphony is a towering masterpiece. And it was new to me, and even though it was not entirely new to Steve, he was just as excited about it. So I think the level of excitement we had about that performance was the command of the interpretation that we felt Lorin Maazel had. In Carnegie Hall, he was also particularly inspired, and so it had probably an edge of more excitement in Carnegie Hall than it would have normally had and we both were just bouncing off of that. The crowd went totally mad in Carnegie Hall after that concert. And Steve and I, we just literally couldn’t stop talking about it, just in disbelief that we could be part of that incredible music making.
By the time the New Year had come around, I was qualified to play second keyboard to Joela Jones in the Orchestra. So I had to play an instrument called a harmonium, which is kind of a little mini organ that has a very sensitive touch. Steve was sitting at that time in the back of the second violin section and my harmonium was directly behind his seat. So during some kind of off moments, he leaned back to hold my hand across the harmonium and I leaned on the keys in doing so by accident.
And the thing about the harmonium is from my vantage point, I couldn’t really hear what was going on, but what was coming out of the speakers on the other end was really loud. And Robert Page, who was then our choral director was really upset, and the chorus was snickering their heads off because they could see what was happening. But Robert Page was, “Dang it! What’s that dumb harmonium playing here for?” So we were red as beets after that. So, holding hands, discussing wedding plans in the middle of a choral rehearsal was probably not ideal behavior and it did bite me in the butt at the time.
By the New Year, 1980, we were already a couple and in February we got engaged and on June 1st we got married, and that was 40 years ago. Young married life was a dream, all of it actually has been a dream, but those first early young years where we didn’t have children were footloose and fancy-free, we traveled a lot, both with The Cleveland Orchestra and on our own. Starting in 1983, we took annual trips of our own to France. And then we would drive into Italy and go down the Mediterranean. I just can’t even tell you, we both had traveling in our blood, so it was wonderful to be able to share those great trips.
I remember one tour to the West Coast, which was absolutely beautiful that it included a concert in Portland, Oregon. And from there, Frank Cohen, who’s a good friend of ours and who was principal clarinet for many years, told us about a hiking trail, right on the coast near Eugene. I remember several orchestra members and we hiked on this trail that was indescribably beautiful above the ocean; it was kind of a misty day, so that made it even more spectacular in a way.
And then, of course, we enjoyed wonderful food, we went to New York, we went to Los Angeles and San Francisco. And then we went to like funny places like Peoria, Illinois, and some Omaha, Nebraska — which I remember there was a mall in near the hotel where we stayed in Nebraska and it had a Western clothing shop and half the orchestra was in this mall on the free day buying cowboy boots and cowboy hats. So I just have countless memories like that of just our colleagues and we just having the greatest time together, eating out, hiking, doing different significant sight-seeing and just enjoying life.
So our son Ari was born on September 14th, 1988. The first really significant tour that he traveled with us on was a four-week tour to Europe in May into June of 1989, he was eight months old, turning nine months old. And we prepared for that for months, we bought several cartons of diapers to take along, at that time, you were allowed to put that in your wardrobe trunk. And then we had bought a car seat because we knew that we would drive the tour. So we drove the whole tour, we didn’t take any orchestra transportation except to Europe, which was Brussels, our first stop, and then from London, which was our last stop.
Otherwise, we were in a car for three weeks with a nanny and we had an absolutely wonderful time. We weren’t tied to a schedule, we just of course had to be there in plenty of time to get settled and get dinner and go to a concert, but it was a total feeling of freedom. Ari became an excellent traveler, of course, he was jet lagged, so we were up all night many times, but we managed and we had a great deal of fun. And again, Ari was the Orchestra baby, so the older children fawned over him, they just loved him to death. They entertained him, took him out in the stroller, he looked around like, “Hey, this ain’t Cleveland” — he was very observant about where he was. He grew up with The Cleveland Orchestra and I can’t imagine a better way for a child to grow up. Those were really fun years, those weekends at Blossom with Ari.
We would be looking out from the stage, watching this little baby romp around with his babysitter on that hillside, looking down into the pavilion. And we both just smiled at the sight of this adorable child, just having this incredibly — this free run in the safe environment on this grassy hill at Blossom. You can imagine what a young child hearing this great music, of course he’s not knowing what we’re playing or knowing how great it was, but it got in there — there’s no question in my mind that it was definitely a piece of his young life, which was significant.
Forty years have come and gone, actually 41 years. Forty years of marriage in which also have come and gone so quickly, it’s quite unbelievable to me to actually say 40 and know that it applies to me. But in any case, the 41 years in The Cleveland Orchestra coupled with the same 40 years or parallel 40 years of marriage to Steve, are my life, basically. I had a very interesting life beforehand, which obviously cultivated my being able to place myself in The Cleveland Orchestra. I had wonderful travels beforehand, wonderful teachers, wonderful chamber music experiences and orchestral experiences with student orchestras, and so did Steve.
These 40 years of our major adult lives have just flown by. And from my personal standpoint, I can’t imagine having had a better life anywhere. It was a life of culture, of security, of love, of companionship, of comradery, and of course, great music making both orchestral and chamber music.
I think back on those years, and I think how lucky we are to certainly be in The Cleveland Orchestra and then raise a child in the midst of not only the wonderful people who really befriended us and loved Ari in their way, and then expose him in addition to the amazing music that I know will stay with him for the rest of his life. My life has been defined by The Cleveland Orchestra, it led to meeting my husband of 40 years and it gave me an education and experience in music, which I know I could have never duplicated anywhere else.
Carolyn Gadiel Warner chose Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony, a towering masterpiece fit for an epic love story. Stick around and get swept off your feet by the finale. Recorded live at Severance Hall in 2010. And if you were enjoying what we’re doing with On a Personal Note, please subscribe anywhere you get your podcasts and consider giving us a rating and review. If you've already rated us, thank you for helping to spread the word. Follow us at clevelandorchestra.com/podcast.