Arts & Entertainment Community

As a performer and a teacher, Mary Manning lives life fully in tune

Mary Manning’s middle name could easily be “Music.”

Growing up in Tacoma, Manning was surrounded by music. Her music-loving mother managed the Tacoma Youth Symphony Orchestra and was the organist at her church. So it was natural for young Mary and her siblings to start making music too.

Mary was the youngest of the six Manning kids. Her sisters all sang in the choir, and one played flute. Mary and her brother played violin and cello.

“When I was very little I wanted to play harp,” Manning recalled. “But mom and dad said it would be too expensive. Little did they know how much they would spend on violins!”

She played in the school orchestras at Mason Junior High School and Stadium High and credits her teachers with nurturing her love of music. She studied at Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio, where she earned a bachelor of music in performance in 1987 and won the Louis and Annette Kaufman Prize for an Outstanding Violinist.

Mary Manning warms up on her violin. Photo by Charlee Glock-Jackson

Long resumé

Even before she graduated from Oberlin, Manning played in numerous orchestras and festivals. Her resumé includes the American Federation of Music Congress of Strings in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1982 (as concertmaster); the Waterloo Festival in New Jersey in 1985; and the Carmel, California Bach Festival, 1994-97. She was a coach at the Tacoma Youth Symphony summer camp for several years in the mid-1980s.

In 1982, she won first place in the Washington State High School Solo Contest, and the next year she was a soloist with the Tacoma Youth Symphony.

She also has a long and varied list of freelance performances, including playing with the Brandenburg Collegium; Smithsonian Chamber Orchestra; Early Music Guild of Seattle; Seattle Pro Musica; the Seattle Bach Choir; symphony orchestras in Tacoma, Spokane, Olympia and Spokane;  and repertory singers throughout the Northwest.

Manning and her violin even appeared in a national TV ad for Folgers Coffee, and she played in a back-up band for Jimmy Page and Robert Plant. She has also toured with music groups in  Austria, China and Cuba.

Love of teaching

In addition to all the time she spends performing in orchestras and string ensembles, Manning has long been one of Gig Harbor’s most popular and sought-after private music teachers.

She started giving private lessons in her home studio in 1990. Her students regularly fill the chairs in the violin and viola sections of the Tacoma Youth Symphony Orchestra, Pacific Lutheran University Orchestra, Peninsula Youth Orchestra (which she co-founded in 1998) and other groups.

“I love to see the sparkle in their eyes when a student is just starting out — the joy that they show when they make the first sound on their instrument,” she said. “It’s such an inspiration. And I love seeing their progress, as they grow as people and as musicians. Playing music is a very personal journey, and it’s a privilege to observe them as they move forward on their journey.”

Over the years, Manning has taught summer fiddle classes, coached at music camps, served as a sectional coach for strings and been music librarian for orchestras in which she played. She currently teaches about 17 students, ranging in age from third grade to the mid-70s. They’ll present a recital in December.

Marry Manning tunes a student’s violin before his spring recital performance. Photo by Charlee Glock-Jackson

Although she has had many solo gigs, Manning said she really prefers playing in orchestras and ensembles. “There’s a camaraderie in playing with a group, and think you can sort of tap into a universal feeling in the composition – how the composer is saying ‘Isn’t this life beautiful that we all share.’ It’s also be very challenging, which I love.”

She plays with Northwest Sinfonietta, and has also played with Tacoma and Vashon Opera orchestras, the Tacoma Symphony, Seattle and Portland Baroque Orchestras and the Pacific Baroque Orchestra of Vancouver, British Columbia.

Standard and baroque violins

In most of those groups, she plays first or second violin using a standard instrument. In baroque groups, however, she plays her special baroque violin.

Hailey Stigter, left, plays violin under the tutelage of Mary Manning. Photo by Charlee Glock-Jackson

Unlike a standard violin, a baroque has no chin rest and is slightly larger. Its tone is richer and warmer.

The strings are also different. Baroque strings are made from unwound, dried sheep gut, compared to standard violin strings that are usually made of steel or synthetic nylon, sometimes wrapped in metal. The neck of the baroque instrument is slightly different from a standard violin, and, Manning said, “you can’t do a proper a vibrato on a baroque instrument.”

That, in part, was what led her to take up the baroque violin in the first place. “A vibrato is like an ‘ornament’ and one of my violin teachers told me that I just couldn’t do a proper, sustained vibrato when I played. So they suggested I try a baroque violin,” she said.

A standard (left) and baroque violin. Photo by Charlee Glock-Jackson

Peninsula Youth Orchestra

In 1998 Manning and two other local string teachers founded the Peninsula Youth Symphony Orchestra to give their students an opportunity to play in a large group. Many Peninsula School District middle and high schools have bands, but opportunities for strings are fewer. PYSO aims to fill that gap.

The program grew to include young musicians from Gig Harbor, the Key Peninsula, Port Orchard, Olalla, Bremerton and Tacoma. It even offers a program for beginners. Manning was the first director and led the organization six years. These days, she coaches the PYSO quartet.

Other interests

When she’s not teaching or playing music, Manning is an avid birdwatcher. In fact, that’s how she and her husband, John McMillan, met — birding in the wetlands near the Seattle Arboretum.

Manning is also involved in environmental issues. Along with fellow members of the Crescent Valley Alliance, she helped establish the native plant garden near Crescent Creek Park and the Masonic Lodge.

Her latest “crusade” is what she calls “BYOC” – short for Bring Your Own Cup – encouraging people to bring their own cup when they go to local coffeeshops and eateries. Several local businesses are already supporting the idea.

Manning is also active in civic issues and served on the Gig Harbor Arts Commission for several terms.

Free performance Friday

Manning, violinist Gwendolyn Taylor and cellist Margaret Thorndill will play an hour of classical and other music starting at 4 p.m. Friday, Oct. 30, at Gig Harbor Audio on Judson Street. The free performance includes Haydn’s “Divertimento,” Cole Porter’s “Begin the Beguine,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and a selection of seasonal tunes including “Tarantella” and “Monster Mash.”