![](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/10\/ppherby.jpg?resize=200%2C200\")
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Today we lost a beloved colleague<\/a>, wonderful musician, and cherished friend in Martha Herby<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 There are many from within the orchestra (and from without) who were closer to her than I, and who knew her longer than I, and who spent more time with her than I did.\u00c2\u00a0 At times like this, it’s hard not to measure yourself against other friends and relatives of the person who has passed, to see if your grief is as deserving as theirs.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve seen some of the ugliest fights over what the deceased “would have wanted”.<\/p>\n In the end, that all doesn’t matter.\u00c2\u00a0 What matters to me is that someone who greeted me with warmth, wry humor, vitality and humanity on my first day of work 12 years ago (and who was on my audition committee) is now gone from the face of the earth.<\/p>\n Martha and I had a unique relationship in that we each felt that we could give each other shit without excuses or ill will or hurt feelings.\u00c2\u00a0 We just said what was on our minds and got along well for it, and we both knew exactly where we stood with each other on the topic at hand.\u00c2\u00a0 For all of her bluster and volume, she was a remarkably sensitive soul.\u00c2\u00a0 I knew, mostly without consciously knowing it, that this facade covered up a person of great depth, sensitivity, self-doubt, and love.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what I’ll miss the most.<\/p>\n And I’ll never again look at a rubber ducky without thinking of her and smiling to myself.<\/p>\n Rest in peace, Martha, I can’t believe you’re gone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Today we lost a beloved colleague, wonderful musician, and cherished friend in Martha Herby.\u00c2\u00a0 There are many from within the orchestra (and from without) who were closer to her than I, and who knew her longer than I, and who spent more time with her than I did.\u00c2\u00a0 At times like this, it’s hard not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[67,82,55,3666,62,3656],"class_list":["post-469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-orchestra-world","tag-classical","tag-flutist","tag-orchestra","tag-oregon","tag-symphony","tag-the-orchestra-world"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/sa8kC-martha","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":470,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/10\/06\/marthas-obituary\/","url_meta":{"origin":469,"position":0},"title":"martha’s obituary","author":"Charles Noble","date":"October 6, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Courtesy of Niel Deponte, OSO principal percussionist Martha Herby, 1951 - 2007 by Niel dePonte, Principal Percussion, Oregon Symphony Martha Herby, 55, became the Second Flutist of the Oregon Symphony in 1981 and also served as the Acting Principal Flute of the symphony on many occasions. She was a graduate\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":529,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/11\/10\/why-i-love-music\/","url_meta":{"origin":469,"position":1},"title":"why I love music","author":"Charles Noble","date":"November 10, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The way Georgeanne Ries' flute sounded during Debussy's Syrinx this afternoon communicated everything about her friendship with Martha Herby directly into the deepest recesses of those who listened at the memorial service today. And Martha was alive again, vital and intensely musical in a recording of her 1990 performance of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "music"","block_context":{"text":"music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6845,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2011\/08\/31\/carlos-kalmar-extends-contract-until-2015\/","url_meta":{"origin":469,"position":2},"title":"carlos kalmar extends contract until 2015","author":"Charles Noble","date":"August 31, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"At the start of most rehearsals, our personnel manager, Martha Warrington, stands up and gives us a heads up on information that we need to know. There were some new permanent members of the orchestra welcomed: Brian Johnson, double bass, and Ruby Chen, violin (Ruby had a one-year contract with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "conducting"","block_context":{"text":"conducting","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/conducting\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/carlos_kalmar4_portrait_bw-400x503.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":471,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/10\/07\/responses-to-tragedy\/","url_meta":{"origin":469,"position":3},"title":"responses to tragedy","author":"Charles Noble","date":"October 7, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I was reading this article in today's Sunday New York Times, about the New York Philharmonic's music director designate Alan Gilbert, when I was struck by the first paragraph, which describes how an orchestra he was guest conducting responded to the death of a colleague: ALAN GILBERT stood before the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1005,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/06\/06\/new-faces-at-the-oregon-symphony\/","url_meta":{"origin":469,"position":4},"title":"new faces at the oregon symphony","author":"Charles Noble","date":"June 6, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Four new musicians will be joining the Oregon Symphony next season - here's the rundown on each of them (courtesy of the Oregon Symphony's Carl Herko): Mark J. Dubac, second clarinet - Dubac has been principal clarinetist with the Green Bay Symphony in Wisconsin for the past two seasons and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "auditions"","block_context":{"text":"auditions","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/auditions\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7196,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2011\/12\/31\/another-best-of-2011-for-the-oregon-symphony\/","url_meta":{"origin":469,"position":5},"title":"another best of 2011 for the oregon symphony","author":"Charles Noble","date":"December 31, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"James Manishen of the Winnipeg Free Post has put up his top ten recordings of classical music for 2011, and the Oregon Symphony's Music for a Time of War made #3. See the other musical and arts genre lists here. 1. Glenn Gould,\u00a0On Television: The Complete CBC Broadcasts 1954-1977 This\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "recordings"","block_context":{"text":"recordings","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/recordings-music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}