On April 10, 1953, Conductor Werner Janssen led the San Diego Philharmonic Orchestra in a concert aboard the carrier Kearsarge, anchored at North Island.
From the Evening Tribune, Saturday, April 11, 1953:
Music Warm, Night Chill Aboard Carrier
The Carrier Kearsarge, back from the fighting in Korea, completed another mission last night and came through with colors flying.
The San Diego Philharmonic concert on the flight deck was played in the teeth of a chill west wind, but the musicians and the Navy men and their guests met the weather’s challenge and the final result was an evening of warm music.
The lucky ones were bundled under blankets, looking very much like the crowds at a Minnesota football game, but Werner Janssen conducted as if it were opening night at Carnegie Hall.
This was the orchestra society’s salute to the Navy and the musicians kindled a flame of melody that warmed the crowd.
Janssen lead the orchestra through a program of light classics that included Debussy’s “Claire de Lune” and the stirring “Finlandia, by Sibelllus.
Carl Palangi, San Francisco bass-baritone, offered “Old Man River,” “Road to Mandalay” and the romantic “Some Enchanted Evening” from “South Pacific.”
Palangi will be the soloist with the Philharmonic at its concert tomorrow night at Russ Auditorium.
The concert aboard the Kearsarge, which began at sunset with the national anthem, was made possible through co-operation of the Musicians Association of San Diego and the American Federation of Musicians, Local 352, through a grant from the Nation Music Performance Trust Fund.
When the musicians had put away their chilled strings and brass, the crowd went below to the hanger deck for hot Navy coffee and dancing to the music of a service band.
Janssen did agree he should have programmed the “Fire Dance.”
From The San Diego Union, Saturday, April 11, 1953.
Carrier Concert: Philharmonic Tries Its Sea Legs
By Constance Herreshoff
There were several unusual things about the concert played last night by the San Diego Philharmonic on the flight deck of the USS Kearsarge. In the first place, so far as is known, this was the first symphony orchestra concert ever played on the deck of a Navy ship.
Second, the weather was “not fittin’ for man nor beast.” An icy wind, blowing fiercely from the West, chilled the audience to the marrow. The hands of the musicians were ice-cold and their music backed and filled in spite of heroic efforts to pin it down with clothes pins.
This was a night when earmuffs, buffalo robes and warming pans were need. Smudge pots would have been welcome.
Last night’s weather was unusual for San Diego, where Heaven on Earth conditions generally prevail.
The idea of a twilight orchestra concert on a ship was a honey, and let us hope it will be tried again some warm, balmy evening.
Attendance was estimated at more than 2500 by a ship’s officer. The number of people listening from nearby yachts could not be ascertained. Guests were service personnel and a lesser congregation of civilians.
