By Bart Barnes
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 14, 2003
Chester Petranek, 87, former supervisor of music for the Montgomery
County schools who also was founder and director of the Montgomery
County Youth Symphony and the Montgomery County Symphony, died Nov. 7 at Hillhaven Nursing Home in Adelphi after a stroke.
For 47 years, Mr. Petranek was conductor of the Youth Symphony and the
County Symphony, both of which he founded in 1946. He retired from the
county schools in 1976 after 30 years of service. During that period, he
taught music at 13 elementary schools and three junior high schools. He
also taught band and orchestra at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School. He
was named supervisor of music in 1960.
To his aspiring young musicians, Mr. Petranek was known as a tough and
demanding disciplinarian who tolerated no foolery. "The kids have to
learn that I'm the conductor and that the conductor's in charge. That's
the way it is in the professional world. This is very serious in terms
of their future," he told The Washington Post in 1982.
He was known to boast that the 100 or so young musicians playing in his
youth orchestra constituted the "best youth orchestra in the whole area
. . . possibly in the whole United States." To win a seat in that
orchestra, candidates had to pass a personal audition with Mr. Petranek.
That generally included a prepared recital and an on-the-spot exercise
in musical sight reading. Many failed to make the cut.
Those who passed could expect at least two hours a week of rigorous
rehearsal and practice of music by the likes of Brahms, Beethoven,
Wagner, Dvorak, Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, Mozart and Haydn. They would
perform at such venues as the Concert Hall at the Kennedy Center and in
auditoriums throughout the region. The best of them would go on to
careers as professional musicians with such ensembles as the
Philadelphia Orchestra, the Cleveland Symphony, the Metropolitan Opera
and the Chicago Symphony.
Mr. Petranek , a Silver Spring resident, was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa,
and graduated summa cum laude from Iowa's Coe College, where he majored
in viola and violin. Later, he received a master's degree in supervision
and administration from George Washington University. During World War
II, he served in the Army, where one of his assignments was directing
the band at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.
He remained in this area after the war, commenced his career with the
Montgomery County public schools and organized the Montgomery County
Symphony and the Youth Symphony, essentially to give the musically
talented an opportunity to showcase their abilities.
In the 1950s, he studied conducting under the famed Pierre Monteux, who
led the San Francisco and Metropolitan Operas, the Boston Symphony and
several European orchestras.
For 21 years, until he stepped down in 1976, he played viola in the
National Gallery Orchestra and also played in other orchestras and
chamber ensembles in the area. In 1966, he founded a summer music camp
at Deep Creek Lake in Western Maryland, supported by state and federal
funding. The operation evolved into the Maryland Center for the Arts.
Mr. Petranek was a former president of the Maryland Music Educators
Association and a member of the American Federation of Musicians.
His marriages to Mabel Wirth and Doris Gazda ended in divorce. His
companion, Helen Turner, died in 2000.
Survivors include three children from his first marriage, Stephen L.
Petranek of Chappaqua, N.Y., Gary Petranek of Colesville and Kathleen
Moody of Key West, Fla.; two children from his second marriage, Andrew
Petranek of Los Angeles and Doriann Petranek of Tucson; eight
grandchildren; and 17 great-grandchildren.
