Opinion: Elizabeth Taber continues to put ‘some snap’ back in Marion

Nov 4, 2020

To the Editor:

In the time of Covid, the legacy of Elizabeth Taber endure and thrives. Not only was there a statue in her memory in Otober but there was also a pop up concert series at the Music Hall five Thursdays this summer. Elizabeth Taber built the Music Hall to provide musical performances for the people of her hometown and this year, the lawn of the Music Hall resonated with jazz, rock ‘n roll, the American songbook, the Beatles and the classics.

This was the brainchild of Phil Sadnborn, member of the Music Hall Advisory Committee, who gathered local musicians who entertained us with this vaired program: Charlene Monte, cello and her former student Sarah Nichols, cello; Gilda’s Trombone Quartet: Mike Rocha - tenor trombone, Phil Sanborn - tenor trombone, Mike Gallant - tenor trombone, Travis Blischke - bass trombone; The Monteirobots: Marcus Monteiro - saxophones, Nick Sanfilippo - keyboards, Chris Bryant - guitar, Eric Falter - bass, Pete Antunes - drums; The Tri-County Brass Quintet: Toby Monte - trumpet, Bill Kingsland - trumpet, Phil Sanborn - trombone, Liz MacKenzie - trombone; The Furtado String Quartet; Marilyn Melanson - violin, Teresa Ouellette - violin, Susan Bouley - viola, Judith Stoltenberg - cello.

Our profound thanks to them all. There was very little publicity but the crowd grew by word of mouth. The last concert was a lovely string quartet of four sisters who ended the series with a fitting song - “Over the Rainbow”

We think that Elizabeth Taber would be over the moon to see that her legacy is still providing music for her beloved community.

Chrissie Bascom and Margot Stone
Co-chairs of the Music Hall Advisory Committee