No. 761 Frances Darger, 2012

File — Box: 73, Folder: 4

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

Frances Johnson Darger (b. 1924) played sixty-nine seasons with the Utah Symphony. Born and raised in Salt Lake City, she grew up in a very musical home with four sisters. Her mother was an opera singer. She learned violin and played in the Stewart School Orchestra, graduating in 1939. A friend of Walker Wallace, Darger attended East High School and then took a bachelor of arts in English from the University of Utah. She joined the Utah State Symphony in 1942, at the age of 17, and talks at some length about her experiences playing in the symphony, along with a brief stint in California, during World War II. She married her high school sweetheart, Bob Darger, after the war, and worked for the Salt Lake Tribune Telegram doing a society page column. Darger remembers Maurice Abravanel’s arrival in the late 1940s and discusses his impact on the Utah Symphony and its growth into a full-time orchestra at some length. Darger performed the Call of the Champions with the Symphony and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir at the 2002 Olympic Games, and remembers excellent cooperation between the LDS Church and the Symphony over the years. She also sang in the chorus and traveled around the world both playing and singing. She most fondly remembers playing with Van Cliburn and David Oistrakh in the Symphony’s early years.
Project: University of Utah project.
Interviewer: Anne Palmer Peterson

Dates

2012

Conditions Governing Access

Twenty-four hour advanced notice encouraged. Materials must be used on-site. Access to parts of this collection may be restricted under provisions of state or federal law.