01/06/2026
30 years ago today (January 7th) we survived the North American Blizzard of 1996. Our client - formerly Concerto Soloists, now the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia - decided to go ahead with their Sunday afternoon concert at the Church of the Holy Trinity on Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia. (Marc Mostovoy was the director at the time, and both he and Bernard Harvard at the Walnut St. theater held the only two events that weren't cancelled!)
The snow was already coming down when we left NE Phila to head into the city and record the concert. By the time the concert was over around 4 p.m, there was already well over a solid foot of snow on the ground with blowing winds and huge drifts. There were more people onstage (about 20) than there were in the audience!
Bassoonist Norman Spielberg (god bless him!) helped shovel my Chevy Astro-van out of the driveway at CHT, and I began the insanely risky drive home. Market Street was a big empty canyon, almost a white-out, with no one on the road (except slow plows and police vehicles). I'll never forget that sight. I'm still surprised they let me get past them to the ramp for I-95 North. I followed a police car & snow plow the entire single-lane route to the Academy Road exit, and slowly picked my way home in single-lane, 2 and three foot deep snow drifts on each side of the road. They had only plowed the main streets, and one could only make right-hand turns at that point.
Unable to get down my own street, I ended up at the Immaculate Mary Nursing Center's parking lot at Holme Circle - a few blocks away from my home, and by sheer luck, had only just enough charge on my brick-sized cell phone to call my son to come out and rescue me. I was never so relieved and happy to see him and get home - he carried the DAT machine case, and I had the microphones & tapes in another; we waded through nearly 3 foot snow banks by then, got home and didn't get out for another two or three days.
What an ordeal! For a long time I couldn't decide if I was proud - or angry - to have had to get through such an insane, life-risking jaunt. (Actually, I'm STILL not sure which....)
They ended up dumping some of the snow into the rivers - there was literally nowhere else to put it! (See pic).
Here's the playlist from the concert. I am listening to a copy of the original DAT as I type this; might put it on YouTube unlisted if anyone wants to hear it!
Concerto Soloists at the Church of The Holy Trinity January 7, 1996
Serenade in F Major for String Orchestra, G. W. Chadwick
Adagio for Oboe & Strings, A. Cunningham, George Corbett, Oboe
Sinfonia No. 1 in B-flat Major, A. Filtz
"Devil's Trill" Sonata G. Tartini, (arr. Kreisler), Lisa Maria Vana, Violin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_blizzard_of_1996
