subscribe | advertise | about | contact | home

Toby Saks: Making Sweet Music for Seattleites
by Karen Reed-Matthee

Come summer, the home of Toby Saks and her husband, Dr. Martin Greene, becomes a kind of clubhouse for internationally renowned musicians from all over the globe. Not only does the founder and artistic director of the Seattle Chamber Music Society bring the musicians together in carefully choreographed ensembles to perform July and August concerts, she opens her house to them, and even persuades friends and neighbors to provide rooms for the visiting artists.

Saks hires a cook to feed her visitors well and offers support and guidance, especially to younger musicians. “She’s definitely Mama Toby,” says Connie Cooper, the chamber’s executive director for 11 years.

“It’s very lively,” says Saks. “Very energizing. The musicians enjoy the camaraderie and the food, and we’re able to nourish each other during the rehearsals.”

The Seattle Chamber Music Festival is now in its 26th year. Saks and friends saw the need for a “home-grown” festival in 1982, six years after she had moved here from New York to join the music school staff at the University of Washington, where she is now a professor of cello. From modest beginnings, the festival has become the “go-to organization for chamber music,” says Cooper. “Toby’s phenomenal strength is in selecting musicians … she has an innate sense of how people will work together.”

Saks, who had performed in the U.S. and abroad as a member of chamber music ensembles, felt Seattle was primed for its own festival. “It was a gap in our city.” Now the festival offers several programs throughout the year, frequently to sold-out houses; is covered in live radio broadcasts by KING FM; and has a reputation, says Saks, “as fine as you’re going to find anywhere in the world.”

In July, the Summer Festival at Lakeside School in North Seattle presents 12 main series concerts, each preceded by a short recital for solo instrument; the Emerging Artist concert, which highlights young, up-and-coming musicians; and a family concert. In August 2005, the festival expanded its venue to the Eastside, presenting five main series concerts and pre-concert recitals, and a family concert at The Overlake School in Redmond. The Chamber Music Society's Winter Festival at Benaroya Hall in downtown Seattle presents three to four main series concerts and pre-concert recitals in January, as well as a popular family concert. And to encourage audience appreciation and understanding of chamber music, the festivals offer free or reduced-cost programs designed to bring people of all ages in close contact with the musicians and their music.

Not only has the festivals' audience grown substantially over the years, its tastes and expectations have broadened as well. In the first years, only the most popular pieces guaranteed sold-out performances, Saks says, noting that programs became more adventurous over time as concert goers learned to “trust the festival to know they will like what they hear or at least be challenged or stimulated.”

In moving to the Northwest, Saks discovered she could create her own opportunities for performance. “I could be an innovator,” she explains. Musician friends in Sitka, Alaska, where she had performed with the local chamber music festival, encouraged her dream of a Seattle festival. Before, Saks says, she was of the more typical musician’s mindset that “if one is a fine player and wins competitions, a manager will take you on and find you work … Be good and concerts will magically appear.”

Saks had already proved she was good. She was born in 1942 to a working-class immigrant family and began music lessons at age five. After studies at the Juilliard School with legendary cellist Leonard Rose and prize-winning performances at both the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow and Casals Competition in Israel, she was selected in 1970 as the third woman member of the New York Philharmonic.

By 1976, Saks was ready for a new kind of challenge. Drawn to teaching and the Northwest where she had hiked and camped with her first husband, she gladly accepted the offer of a teaching position at the UW. She saw the opportunity for a healthier, outdoor-oriented lifestyle for her son and daughter, Mischa and Claire Berlinski, now both grown and artists in their own rights as published novelists.

As a professor, Saks has focused on one-on-one mentoring to graduate and undergraduate cello students. She also teaches exceptionally gifted high school students. “Toby is terrific in trying to discover the newest and the best talent,” says Craig Sheppard, professor of piano at the UW. “She attracts talent into her cello class and maybe even at a broader level.” The notoriety of the Seattle Chamber Music Festival and Saks’ association with it, he says, give the music school a higher profile in the community.

Through developing and teaching a variety of innovative programs, Saks has encouraged an appreciation of classical music in non-majors as well. Courses such as The Concert Season, taught to 500 enrollees each quarter in the 1990s, resulted in increased attendance at music school concerts. And giving students a chance to perform onstage enlivens the classes she volunteers to teach in music theory.

Because of her reputation as a cellist, a teacher and an organizer, Saks has been invited to judge music competitions locally, nationally and internationally, and has served on the board of directors for Chamber Music America. Her responsibilities are many, but she has no difficulty juggling, claiming, “It’s not hard to work in things you love to do.”

Karen Reed-Matthee is the editor and cofounder of Seattle Woman.

©2007 Caliope Publishing Company