Musical Legacy

Don Hermanns

Bass

Don Hermanns is no stranger to diverse accomplishment, having toured with Emerson, Lake & Palmer; written arrangements for symphonies as well as for Englebert Humperdinck; performed in movie soundtracks, operas and symphonies all over the West; and served as a consultant to educational projects like the award-winning video The Nature of Sound. A bassist for the Oregon Symphony, Don has become more personally involved in the community by serving as a teacher and mentor to two other Portland musicians of wide-ranging achievement, Kay Robbins and W. F. (Willy) Weeks.

Don explains, "I enjoy the fact that Kay and Willy, both highly accomplished in other areas, pursue and enjoy opportunities to participate in the music-making process."

A Ph.D. in Russian Language and Literature who is currently teaching at Mt. Hood Community College, Kay Robbins has taught Russian for both government programs and universities as well as serving as a translator at job placement centers. Despite the demands of her career, she has also pursued a professional life as a musician, playing bass with several orchestras, including the Monterey Symphony. In Portland, where her first involvement was as a member of the Portland Junior Symphony (now the Youth Philharmonic), she belongs to three separate orchestras. She is also a music educator, taking audiences on "musical journeys" of compositions from Bach to the 20th century. Hermanns, Kay says, "is an inspiring, patient, encouraging teacher. His unique bass training method to improve intonation and technique has worked marvelously for me."

Willy Weeks playfully adds that "while you may not be able to teach an old dog new tricks, Don can always teach an old bass player how to play new licks." A retired geophysicist, Willy is an award-winning researcher who has also taught at Dartmouth and at Washington University in St. Louis. Though he might reasonably have been considered quite busy enough as a scientist participating in over 40 field programs in the Arctic (as well as three in the Antarctic) and writing more than 300 papers about the polar regions, he too has led a parallel life as a musician, playing in symphonies and chamber orchestras wherever he has lived. In Portland, he plays with the Mittleman Jewish Community Center Orchestra and the Beaverton Chamber Symphony. Though he does not take regular lessons, he meets with Don several times a year for guidance on particularly complex pieces; lately, they have been working together on the Prokofiev Quintet.

"It’s evident that with music there’s no deadline," says Hermanns, who has worked with both Kay and Willy for three years. "You can start or continue at any time and it still can be very rewarding. It sometimes takes life experience and maturity to appreciate music." Don greatly enjoys his work as an educator and also teaches at Reed College. Another recent bass instruction project was the creation of Don Hermanns’ Accompanied Rudiments Course, a six-CD set of recorded piano accompaniment for scales, intervals & arpeggios. Because of an extraordinary word-of-mouth response, (only 10 copies remain from) the initial production run has sold out and the new edition is on the way.

Don has lived in Portland for four years with his wife, (the) Portland-born pianist Susan D. Smith, and their children, Alan and Scott. "What really strikes me about Portland is the well-developed appreciation and interest the community has in the arts," he says. "Between the festivals and the art museum and the literary community and the galleries…it makes it tremendously appealing to live and work here. It’s something that’s really impressive."

And clearly the involvement of musicians like him helps to keep it that way.

For information on Oregon Symphony Education and Community Programs, please call 503-228-4294 or e-mail educate@orsymphony.org.

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