We thought our audience would love to know more about our volunteer board members. In today’s interview, we feature Tom Herbst, Vice President and Treasurer. You will likely see Tom in the box office pre-show, making sure ticketing goes smoothly. Make sure you say hello!
1. What inspired you to join the FCM board?
It’s been so long I can’t remember!
2. What aspect of being on the board to you find most rewarding?
Somehow getting the season to happen!
3. What are the most memorable FCM concert for you, and why?
A couple of the special series that we have done: the Borodin Quartet doing the Shostakovich Quartets this year (2015) and the Melos Quartet (with Linda Lee Thomas (piano) and Eric Wilson (cello)) in a summer Schubert series in 1982 or ’83–both just wonderful music making, that got more intense with each concert.
Also lots of great individual concerts have stuck with me, including a brilliant Talich Quartet performance of a late Beethoven that was just definitive for great ensemble playing. Also memorable in another way was an Amadeus Quartet performance from the ’70’s (I think), where the group kind of lost the thread (can’t remember what piece they were playing) such that the first violin stopped everything and said, “we begin again from the trio”.
4. What was your first exposure to chamber music?
I can’t remember.
5. What instrument do you play or wish you could play?
I had about 7 years of piano and many more of trumpet, which would now qualify as the only instrument I might still be able to play –but that I haven’t actually played for many years. My son has had my trumpet for at least 20 years now.
6. What have you learned from this position (serving on the board), that you’d like to share?
How to scan ticket barcodes with a smart phone and do basic bookkeeping? Volunteers?
7. What do you want others to know or understand about FCM?
I think that it’s really great that we are an independent volunteer organization. By independent, I mean not dependent on government grants, which means we are, and have to be, supported by our members who want to hear the music, and that our focus has stayed on presenting the music we love.
What would you like to know about our board of directors? Leave your questions in the comments and we will be sure follow up on future interviews!
Tom has always been a ‘doer’. Next to Eric Wilson, Tom has been a mainstay of the FCM for as long as I can remember. Glad to see that Tom is been given the recognition he so deserves. Michael Spedding, who managed tickets distribution until he retired at the end on the two seasons back, was never given the kudos he richly deserved. Never too late to be made an Honourary Member.