From left: Margo Kieser, principal librarian at the San Francisco Symphony (photo courtesy of San Francisco Symphony), and San Francisco Opera Orchestra Librarian Carrie Weick (photo by Matthew Washburn).
In Wednesday’s (12/4) San Francisco Classical Voice, Lisa Hirsch writes, “Before every San Francisco Symphony concert, you’ll see a black-clad figure distributing folders on the musicians’ stands. Most of the time, that’s Margo Kieser, the orchestra’s principal librarian and holder of the Nancy and Charles Geschke Chair. Although you’ll never see Kieser or one of SFS’s assistant librarians performing onstage, they’re absolutely crucial to the smooth functioning of the orchestra. Across Grove Street, San Francisco Opera Orchestra librarian Carrie Weick plays an equally important part. And for the Oakland Symphony, Marin Symphony, Monterey Symphony, and California Symphony … Drew Ford is the librarian. Unlike Kieser and Weick, Ford is also a performer, serving as principal cellist of the Stockton Symphony and section cellist in the Monterey Symphony and Fresno Philharmonic. On top of that, he is the personnel manager for Oakland and Monterey….Orchestra librarians … obtain scores and parts, consult with conductors and concertmasters, check the music for accuracy, ensure that page turns are realistic, and make corrections as necessary. They generally hold music degrees. At larger organizations … they’re in the same union as the instrumentalists … Asked what she’d like the general public to know about orchestra librarians, Kieser said, ‘We do this for the love of the music.’ ”
