The New York Years
1965-1968

The move to New York happened for Rodney during July,1965. Rodney moved into an apartment at the infamous Ansonia Hotel on 73rd & Broadway(see: Ansonia Apartment Hotel New York City) to share room mate costs with his opera vocal coach and friend, George Posell. Not only was George Posell an amazing coach, accompanist and stage director with the Goldovsky Opera Workshop, but also was known and respected as a vocal coach and rehearsal accompanist with New York's Metropolitan Opera. Margaret was accepted at Juilliard(see: The Juilliard School) but had not yet moved to New York as she had one very important engagement to perform. She had the dubious honor of being the vocal soloist with the Texas All-State Orchestra on their tour to Europe, which included Germany, Luxembourg, Switzerland and France. The two love birds were able to see each other at Kennedy Airport while Margaret was en route back to Houston from Europe. It was only a month later when Margaret actually moved to New York. During that year of 1965 in New York City, both Rodney and Margaret experienced history when all the lights in New York and many parts of the Northeast went out. In Rodney's case, it was just a matter of being alone in his apartment when it happened, however, Margaret was trapped in the Juilliard library when the New York blackout occurred.

Rodney auditioned for the Metropolitan Opera Studio and was accepted. However, he was somewhat disappointed with the Met Studio as he didn't get as much work as he had first anticipated. Both Rodney and Margaret later auditioned for professional chorus work, which fell under the jurisdiction of their performing arts union, The American Guild of Musical Artists or AGMA. In fact both Margaret and Rodney joined two other performing arts unions while living in New York. The other two unions AFTRA(American Federation of TV and Radio Artists) and Actors Equity Association which Margaret and Rodney also joined are part of the conglomerate which consist of the "4A's". They were able to sing with the concert choruses at many of the famous New York performing arts centers,(ie. Philharmonic Hall(now Avery Fisher Hall), Carnegie Hall and Town Hall) along with singing on famous label recordings, ie. CBS Records, RCA and Decca under some of the more international noteworthy conductors and choral directors. Perhaps the most memorable of all concert chorus engagements and experiences was performing with the very famous Robert Shaw Chorale under the leadership of Robert Shaw himself. Rodney became engaged as a soloist for the Shaw Chorale Handel Messiah tour in 1966 which covered both parts of the South and Midwest. Margaret then was engaged as a soprano with the Chorale on the same tour. Later that same year Rodney toured with the former New York Pro Musica and performed Renaissance music in several mid-western states,which also included Michigan.

Rodney wanted to do more opera, but at that time there was a lack of the grass root opera companies in the US that presently exist. Rodney was encouraged by a noted New York agent to audition in Europe and more specifically, Germany. In the meantime both Rodney and Margaret auditioned for summer stock musical theatre in Brunswick, Maine and were accepted. This turned out to be excellent experience for both as they were constantly having to learn new shows all the time while performing simultaneously a run of another show. The Brunswick Music Theater(now Maine State Theater) was excellent training ground, even for those singers who were basically interested in performing only opera.

Margaret and Rodney made plans to "tie the knot" on December 19, 1967. A few months earlier, after completing their second summer stock engagement in Brunswick, Rodney decided to audition in Europe and landed a contract with the Osnabrück, Germany opera house(Theater am Domhof, Osnabrück). Osnabrück had a population then of about 160,000 people(in recent years it's population has almost doubled). It is located in the northern tier of Germany between Bremen to the north and Münster to the south. The roles were lucrative which were offered. They included lead baritone roles in Verdi's La Forza del Destino, Offenbach's Tales of Hoffmann, La Boheme and one other unknown German opera La Buffonata by Killmayer. Lucrative roles, however, but not lucrative pay. Rodney felt at the time it was more important getting the experience of performing these roles on a seasonal basis even though it was at a German"Provinz Bühne"rather than in a larger house where the pay would have been greater. All the operas would be sung in German, regardless if they were originally composed in Italian or French. Rodney signed his pre-contract agreement and before flying back to New York, did a little token of European sight-seeing.

There was a lot of excitement and congratulations when Rodney returned to New York. He was going to return to Germany, but not as a student this time rather as a professional artist. Margaret and Rodney were married in December as planned and spent their honeymoon in Houston. After they were married in an ecumenical ceremony at Ascension RC Church in New York about a block away from Margaret's apartment, they drove Margaret's old Plymouth Valiant from New York along with her parents, brother and sister all the way to Houston, Texas. They had two flats en route, but the Valiant made it. It was a family honeymoon correctly defined, but nevertheless a honeymoon. There was considerable celebration in the Bayou City for the newlyweds beside the Christmas and New Years' parties that went on as well. Once returning to New York, the couple set up house in Margaret's small Manhattan apartment located on W.108th Street and Broadway.

The year was 1968! Everything that would happen internationally and nationally would happen that year. Margaret and Rodney continued to perform their AGMA chorus work while living in New York and saving what they could for their transatlantic ocean liner crossing to Germany. We booked passage on the liner TS Hanseatic, part of the German Atlantic Line from Hamburg, Germany. It was a year of preparation deciding what to take and leave behind. Only a few months had gone by while living in the Broadway and 108th Street apartment that Margaret became pregnant with our first daughter, Jeanne. Jeanne would be born in Germany however, not New York City. Margaret continued to sing and the concert chorus work became more lucrative for us all the time. Then came the terrible tragedies which occurred in 1968. The first was the Martin Luther King assassination in Memphis and the second was Robert F. Kennedy's assassination in Los Angeles. It seems that when you are living in New York these tragedies hit you the hardest. Racial tensions were very high in New York. We found ourselves constantly looking behind our back when walking to the bus or subway.

As a professional concert chorister, both Margaret and Rodney were called upon to sing with a special select chorus on CBS Television at the TV Studio located on West 55th Street in Manhattan. Beside the chorus, famous personalities were also present when CBS taped the program. This was a video taped special in memory of Martin Luther King in which the concert chorus and noted personalities sang several selections in tribute.

Margaret and Rodney were able to get away to Detroit and spend some time with Dan and Lorraine Stenborg. Since Rodney's parents were unable to be in Houston for the wedding reception, they instead gave us a wonderful sendoff party right in their house. It was sort of a belated Wedding gift and Bon Voyage party combined. Many of Rodney's uncles,aunts and cousins along with family friends were present. The stay in Michigan was all too short and the couple had to return to New York. Rodney's and Margaret's folks would later meet for the very first time in New York just days before we sailed to Germany.

The summer months in New York were very unsettling. This was also the year of the big student protest moratorium at Columbia University, located only a few blocks from where we lived. Rodney and Margaret spent some very disturbed nights hearing police sirens going up and down Broadway. The only way we could sleep was by wearing ear plugs. This was also the year of political presidential conventions. Fortunately, New York was spared that priviledge, nevertheless there was concerted interest as to who would succeed President Johnson. While watching the campaign trail of Robert Kennedy on TV, the next great 1968 tragedy occurred, the assassination of Bobby Kennedy. Again, New York City would be in the centerfold of this tragic event as the body of the late New York senator would lay in state at St. Patrick's Cathedral on 5th Avenue. Rodney and Margaret were called upon again to be chosen to sing with a special chorus for a CBS TV tribute to the late senator. We would also be a part of the massed chorus that sang for the funeral at St. Patrick's Cathedral. The TV taping lasted all during the wee hours of the morning, the same morning when Rodney and Margaret later would be singing with the mass chorus at St. Patricks. THIS WAS TO BE AN EVENT THAT WE WOULD NEVER FORGET!

We experienced very tight security while we were escorted to the choir loft of the cathedral. The Secret Service agents ushered us past the flag-draped casket of the senator and at that same moment we experienced a very startling sensation. This was real, not TV. We were there! "We were dazed due to a combination of what was happening and not having any sleep. We don't really remember what we sang up in the choir loft, but we remember Richard Tucker from the Metropolitan Opera singing Schubert's Ave Maria not far from where we were standing. We both witnessed live, the emotional speech made by Senator Ted Kennedy. We remember the entire US Congress assembling together in the front pews of the cathedral as well as the arrival of President Lyndon Baines Johnson escorted by Secret Service agents(we still have a program of RF Kennedy's funeral somewhere in one of Margaret's old purses). To conclude the funeral mass as the casket left the cathedral, we all sang Handel's Hallelujah Chorus from The Messiah". These are memories that we are now ready to tell our grandchildren.

All the preparations were set in motion for our trip to Germany. We were fortunate to have a shipping firm located right across the street from our apartment to crate up all the possessions that would accompany us on the ship. The Schwenders and Stenborgs arrived about the same time in New York. The Schwenders rented a trailer to take certain things we didn't need back to Houston. We all said our goodbyes aboard the ship and drank champagne to toast the voyage. It would be about a year before we would see everyone again. As far as New York, we had wonderful memories as well as some really tense moments. We would never live in New York again, but certainly have visited the city a number of times. It is rather interesting that two of our grandchildren were born right In Manhattan in New York City, Jackson a six-year old boy,and Linnea who is two years old,two new "Stenborgs!" .The Derek Stenborg family live in Brooklyn

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