Barbara Schaal Thompson (Pittsburgh, PA) After graduation from BHS in 1960, I attended Northwestern University (Chicago, IL).  I wanted a big city and a big school of music and was really pleased with my choice.  I had a wonderful piano teacher there, accompanied all of the cello majors, majored in performance AND music education, because my father told me to.  It was a good choice.  I did teach public school music for three years after I graduated in 1964, the same year that I married a graduate student clarinet player, Tommy Thompson.

We moved to Beaumont,Texas, for one very hot and humid year.  Tommy taught at Lamar State Institute of Technology in the music department and I taught music in a country elementary school.  The second year we spent in Chicago where I taught at North Shore Country Day School -- quite a change from Texas.  The third year we moved to Pittsburgh, PA, where he got a job in the Pittsburgh Symphony.  I taught another year in a city of Pittsburgh school before retiring to have two sons, David and Peter.  When they were both in school, I looked around for a job and found no teaching jobs.  I started working for a non-profit, "Gateway to Music," which presented school assembly programs with members of the Pittsburgh Symphony.  It began my career in arts management.

In 1984, after twenty years of marriage, I found myself divorced and needing a job.  I think some "higher being" provided the employment that I have had for the past 22 years.  I went from being unemployed to being the Executive Director of Three Rivers Young Peoples Orchestras -- an impressive title for very little pay!  I realized shortly after accepting the position that, unless I raised the money, I wasn't going to get paid. 

For me, it has been a good life.  I get to combine two things I love the most -- music and young people.  I have learned that participating in a youth orchestra changes the lives of its members.  I work with a great staff and have always liked to "be the boss."  I also get to drive the fifteen-foot box truck to all our concerts.  I just announced to my Board of Directors that next year will be my last.  I'm excited about that.  I want to return to all the great National Parks that I visited with my family when I was really young.  I plan to camp and hike around a little bit.  I plan to stay in Pittsburgh.  It's a friendly, cheap city that has really become my home, especially since I have two grandchildren here.

I'm looking forward to our 50th Reunion.  Bonnie Slama and I are driving from Pittsburgh to Cleveland.  Go Steelers and Penguins!!