Verdery Cunningham

Looking Back on the Dawn of a Great Orchestra

On February 4, 1945, the Atlanta Youth Symphony performed a sold-out concert at the cavernous Atlanta Municipal Auditorium, with Henry Sopkin conducting musicians aged 11 to 25. In the 75 years that followed, that ensemble – soon to be renamed the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra - has morphed into one of the world’s finest orchestras: the soundtrack of a great city, a cultural beacon, a recording powerhouse, and a source of considerable pride.

One of the musicians from that historic night was Verdery Roberts, now Verdery Cunningham of Sandy Springs, at the time a 16-year-old junior at Atlanta Girls' High. Of the 112 musicians on stage that night, two of whom were her sisters, Mrs. Cunningham is the lone survivor we have identified.

The substantial program that night began with the National Anthem, then proceeded to the overture from Rossini’s L’Italiana in Algeri, Schubert’s "Unfinished" Symphony, the Waltz from Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings, an arrangement of Bach pieces called Prelude, Chorale, and Fugue, Borodin’s In the Steppes of Central Asia, Morton Gould’s Hillbilly from his Americana Suite, and Sibelius’s Finlandia.

By the time of that concert, the Roberts sisters had become well known in Atlanta’s music community. Frances, the oldest and the only one not a part of the Orchestra, played the accordion and piano. Antoinette played cello as well as guitar, Katherine played violin, and Verdery, the youngest, had become an oboist, alternating on English horn. When Verdery was 9, the girls were already performing together as a quartet and in various ensembles all over Atlanta. A newspaper clipping about the quartet mentions that "their tastes run towards waltzes and overtures, but they don’t entirely spurn such numbers as St. Louis Blues."

In the early years, Verdery played clarinet. "But when I got to O’Keefe Junior High School," she explained, "the orchestra director, Mr. Seitz, asked me if I would switch from the clarinet to an oboe. My clarinet was a shiny metal one [an alternative popular at the time], and I hated it. And I thought: 'Oh, I can get a wooden instrument! So that was that.'" Thus, Verdery became the “only oboe” in local ensembles: many of them. Verdery's husband of 69 years (70 next June), Dr. Robert Cunningham, who met Verdery at O’Keefe, recalls that during those years he heard her play at musical theater performances, including Annie Get Your Gun at the old Erlanger Theater on Peachtree. And while still at O’Keefe, Verdery would join an important new group, the "In and About Atlanta Orchestra," where she played alongside Katherine and Antoinette.

The “In and About Atlanta Orchestra” was led by Miss Marcia Weisberger, music teacher at Girls’ High School, which Verdery ultimately attended. “Miss Weisberger was a wonderful teacher, with high standards. She used a long baton, and if things didn’t go right, she would beat that poor little stick until it broke off, getting shorter and shorter.” Most of the musicians for the AYSO were recruited directly from her orchestra; she had trained and nurtured them.

Leaders of the influential Atlanta Music Club, including Mrs. Josephine Sanders, its president, saw the potential to "grow an orchestra," from talented young musicians: the basic idea behind the AYSO. Working with Miss Weisberger, who shared their vision, they ultimately persuaded Henry Sopkin to head the new ensemble. Sopkin, a highly regarded youth orchestra conductor in Chicago at the time, had twice guest-conducted at “In and About” concerts. Three earlier attempts to form a symphony orchestra had failed. But Sopkin was intensely committed to the project: "he had that ambition; he really did." He even took a steep pay cut to take the position.

"But," Verdery explained, "the Sopkins couldn’t find anywhere to live: the war was still going on, and there was really no housing at all." So Sopkin, with his wife and two children, moved in with the Roberts family. "We were in a 2-story house in the Morningside neighborhood. The 2nd story had 2 bedrooms and one bath, so my sweet daddy [Ben Roberts, a stockbroker with Courts and Company] was the motivator and invited them to come, and my sweet mother went along with it. Daddy didn't know Mr. Sopkin, but he was very interested in the music program. He played the 'fiddle' – not a violin. And there were no other volunteers. I had to move downstairs, where my brother also stayed – the older sisters were in college. I practiced my oboe in the breakfast room."

Newspaper articles describe an audition process, but according to Verdery, "By playing the oboe, I was always a step ahead. There was never any doubt that I would be playing in it, so I never had to audition. I was it."

"Most of us were in high school, and the adults had jobs, so the rehearsals were held in the afternoons, there at the Municipal Auditorium. And my sisters had to arrange to come over from Athens, where they were attending UGA. We called the Municipal Auditorium ‘the big barn.’ And of course, the acoustics could not have been good. It was set up for wrestling and all kinds of shows."

Antoinette went on to the Juilliard School on scholarship and returned to Atlanta to marry a colleague of Dr. Cunningham. She and Katherine, who remained in Atlanta, have since passed away.

Beloved ASO bassist Jane Little, Verdery’s classmate and dear friend, remained in the Orchestra for a record-shattering 71 years before dying on stage in 2016 while playing Irving Berlin's There;s No Business Like Show Business.

Verdery was offered a music scholarship to UGA, but she wound up going to Stetson University in DeLand, Florida, where she continued her studies and played in the orchestra. She returned after a year, married Dr. Cunningham, a physician, and raised a family. They became enthusiastic supporters of the Orchestra, attending concerts regularly and making gifts to the Annual Fund. Only in the past few years have they had to cut back on attending concerts due to mobility concerns, but they have continued as donors, cheering the Orchestra’s astonishing growth and progress through the years.

The Orchestra that began with children never forgot them. In 1974, Robert Shaw, Sopkin’s successor, organized the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra, which today trains Atlanta’s most talented high school musicians, many of whom go on to careers in music. Other educational initiatives have followed, including the nationally recognized Talent Development Program, Family Concerts, and Concerts for Young People.

These efforts were cited by the Cunninghams as major reasons for their financial support over the years. As Verdery put it:

I want today’s young people to have the kind of opportunities I had.

Verdery Cunningham