Tribute to John Teller
The Midcoast Symphony Community lost an irreplaceable member when John Teller, oboist and former executive director, passed away on Monday, April 28.
To honor his memory, Music Director Rohan Smith will begin the program for the upcoming MSO concerts on Saturday, May 17, and Sunday, May 18, with the second movement of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 in place of the Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson piece original slated to open the concert.
John Teller joined the MSO as an oboist in 1999 and served as the first ever executive director of the MSO for almost two decades beginning in 2000. John was far more than the Executive Director. He could accurately be called the heart and soul of the orchestra. He simultaneously filled the roles of orchestra manager, programming advisor, stage manager, carpenter, librarian, counselor to the music director, and of course, was a prodigiously gifted fundraiser and publicist. John tirelessly advanced the profile of the Midcoast Symphony with every possible large and small business and corporation in driving range, and with the chambers of commerce in the Midcoast region.
John stepped down from his role as executive director in 2018 but continued to personally greet audience members at the Orion up to and including the MSO’s March concert this season, and was for many people the face of the organization he helped develop into its current 80-musician ensemble.
Mary Hunter, MSO violinist and former board president, said “John was one of a kind. He was extraordinarily humble and endlessly generous, but brilliant at drawing musicians, audiences and donors into his boundless enthusiasm for the orchestra.”