Friday and Saturday, Nov. 27 and 28 at 7:30 p.m. at Orcas Center

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— by Margie Doyle —

More, like old-fashioned Orcas-style philanthropy — that’s what the Olga Symphony has given to their friends and neighbors all these years, since the early 1980s, as they play for goodwill donations that they then turn over to island people and organizations.

This weekend will be the 17th year that Olga Symphony — now Gordon Koenig, Melinda Milligan, JP Wittman, Anita Orne, and Dave “Z” Zoeller will perform for the benefit of the Orcas Center, a continuation of an event that originated with the Holiday Magic Shows of the 1990s.

So maybe we should go back to those days, long long ago, when a no-name band played at the Olga potlucks. In 1983 Gordon Koenig joined Lesley Liddle, Gail MacDonald, Tim Cardinale and Bob “Bubba” Olson.

As Gordon Koenig tells it, one night at the potluck, someone said “Why don’t you call yourself the Olga Symphony?” and thus a name was born.

“The sweet things was, right from the beginning, whenever we got paid for playing, we always gave the money away,” says Gordon. And so the community, individually and as organizations, have benefited over the years, from a new roof for Marty Harder, to the Public Library and children’s charities.

“It’s always been that way: we took the element of ‘getting paid’ out of the equation.”

And for the last 17 years, the Olga Symphony Holiday Show has benefited the Orcas Center. Back in the 90s, it was called “Holiday Magic”  and was hosted by Ted Barbieri. Then Gordon and Anita became the emcees, and in 1998, it became “The Olga Symphony and Friends.”

The crew then — Phil Burbo — lights; Paula Capitano — cookies and underwriting; Betsy Wareham — artist wrangler; continue to this year’s show, with the addition of Kevin Dickey, soundman,  in recent years.

They’ve been joined “by lots of interesting friends,” says Anita, such as Sandy Bradley, Allison Post, Calun McKinnon, Mark Minkler, Brandon Vance, John Kaltenbach, Peter Vinson, Sharon Abreu, Martin Friedmann and Laila Storch, Martin Lund, Susan Osborn, Mandy Troxel, Dimitri Stankevich, Greg Books, Nancy Malzon and others.

They continue to make music “for the fun of it” says Gordon. Each member of the Olga Symphony has day jobs, and like most islanders, many of them have two or three kinds of professions:

  • JP — Electrical Contractor
  • Gordon — retired air tanker pilot, dressmonger and music teacher
  • Melinda – midwife
  • “Z” – paramedic
  • Anita – music teacher, videographer, sheet metal worker

Anita says the Olga Symphony exists in part because “it’s a way to give more than we could give as individuals,” One year they were able to give over $10,000, when they’d released one of their CDs. Gordon figures that over the years, they’ve given about $75,000 to the community. “Now it’s quieted down, but we do bring in several thousand dollars. ”

They play string band and folk music with some swing tunes: “It’s a pretty eclectic mix, though eclectic is probably too specific, ” says Anita. Making up the Olga Symphony this year:

  • JP on the fiddle, bass, kazoo, and singing
  • Anita on the bass, guitar, banjo, ukulele, dobro, shaker egg and saw
  • Z on the guitar, bass concertina, shaker egg and singing
  • Melinda on percussion and singing
  • Gordon on the bass, guitar, ukulele, mandolin and singing

They promise, “We make it our own,” with a combination of old favorites, new covers and some revival numbers from past performances. “There’ll be some never-hear-of surprises, too.”

Memories of the early years include the time the Olga Symphony was playing at the Beach House at Rosario Resort, when “Z” was called to a fire — in the laundry building of the resort. He told the audience, “I’ve gotta go, but I don’t gotta go far,”  Anita recalls.

“I remember the time I was a little surprised how many kids knew “The Pajama Song.’ The fact that we’re playing for second and third generations of our audiences is very cool. And it’s heartwarming that we have the same crew — it makes it so easy, year to year.”

An added draw is the invitation to the audience to put on their “glam” and dress up, as does the Symphony. Anita and Melinda each have two new dresses for this show. The men will change from Black Tie to White Tie attire as well. “It’s a great excuse to dress up, and you have more fun when you’re dressed up.”

Some tickets are still available online at orcascenter.org and people are advised to purchase them in advance as the show always sells out.

Gordon says, “I’ve always like that it’s been about the music and having fun; we’re just normal people. Making music is more than just the music.”

Anita adds, “It’s the dresses.”

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