JUNE DIRECTOR NAGEL

Nagel heirs endow Portland Chamber Orchestra post

$100,000 gift endows concertmaster's chair; Arlene, Harold Schnitzer make additional grant

By JEWISH REVIEW

article created on: 2008-10-01T00:00:00

H. W. Brelje, President of the Portland Chamber Orchestra’s Board of Directors, and PCO Music Director and Conductor Maestro Yaacov Bergman announced a gift of $100,000 from the family of the late June Director Nagel.

The announcement was made to an audience of about 500 prior to the start of the Orchestra’s 62nd season opening concert.

Lance Director Nagel and his sister, Trudi Nagel Morrison, established the June Director Nagel Concertmaster Endowment to honor their mother and her work with the Portland Chamber Orchestra.

With an additional grant from June Nagel’s sister and brother-in-law, Arlene and Harold Schnitzer, the orchestra’s important concertmaster chair is funded in perpetuity.

June Director Nagel, a long-standing patron and donor to the orchestra, was also a founding member and violinist with the orchestra. When the Portland Chamber Orchestra presented its first concert on May 27, 1947, under the direction of Boris Sirpo at the Neighbors of Woodcraft Auditorium, one of the works performed that evening was Antonio Vivaldi’s “Concerto in D for Four Solo Violins.” June Director Nagel was one of the four violin soloists. She appeared as soloist with the orchestra two years later in another Vivaldi work, “Concerto in A-Minor.”

Seven years later, fifth-grader Lance Nagel performed the same concerto with the orchestra playing his mother’s violin. An aside in an article from the Feb. 27, 1956, Oregon Journal newspaper mentions that his younger sister Trudi was “proud” to be able to hear her brother perform.

June Director Nagel returned as soloist with the Portland Chamber Orchestra to perform the Mozart Violin Concerto No. 5 and later appeared during its 25th anniversary season, performing Pietro Nardini’s “Concerto for Violin and Orchestra” under Maestro Paul Bellam.

An active Board Member and faithful attendee of the concerts, June Director Nagel continued her passionate love for music. She became a personal friend of Maestro Yaacov Bergman, and frequently commented on her pleasure in seeing the direction that Bergman was taking the Orchestra with innovative programming and multi-media events.

With the newly endowed chair, Maestro Yaacov Bergman said, “I wish to express my deep gratitude to June Director Nagel’s family, children Lance Nagel and Trudi Nagel Morrison and sister and brother-in-law Arlene and Harold Schnitzer, for their magnanimous gift to establish the June Director Nagel Concertmaster Endowment.

“Their generosity inspires us in our quest for artistic excellence, and helps to ensure current and future stability of the Portland Chamber Orchestra.”