An interview with Maria Pope
by Karen Wagner
One very rainy afternoon, I made my way downtown to Pope and Talbot’s headquarters. I was escorted into a giant conference room with an equally large conference table. Soon I would be joined by the Vice President and general manager of wood products at one of Oregon’s oldest lumber companies, Maria Pope who also happens to be the Oregon Symphony Association's Chairman of the Board [now Immediate Past Chair]. Maria was born in Portland and would remain here until she moved away when she was 14. After earning a bachelors degree in Art History at Georgetown University, an MBA at Stanford, and working in NYC and Tokyo for several years, she would eventually find herself moving back to her home town.
Pope and Talbot ships 30 rail cars and approximately 50 truckloads of product every day. Maria oversees five sawmills producing over a billion board feet of lumber per year. She made a point to let me know that each and every part of a log gets utilized in some way, whether it is to make lumber, paper, bark for fuel or even to make pet bedding with sawdust and shavings. Maria is a rarity in her industry dominated by men. In fact, when we talked she compared the lumber business to the male only orchestras of earlier times.
One of the things Maria really enjoys about her job is the fact that Pope and Talbot operates mostly in smaller communities. This would explain why our Oregon Symphony Outreach Program is so near and dear to her heart. As an undergraduate student in international relations and art history, Maria would eventually compose a thesis about two Italian artists, Fra Angelico and Fra Fillipo Lippi. Both Renaissance artists, it would have been impossible for Maria (and historians) to ignore that at that time music and art were completely intertwined. Maria pointed out to me that the community centers of the past were churches where great art and music coincided on a regular basis. In our incredibly diverse and ever-changing society, we are challenged to find more creative ways of getting music and art to the people. Before becoming Chairman, Maria served on the OSO Board’s education committee, citing that this is not only one of her favorite things that we do but one of the most crucial.
A self–proclaimed “pathetic musician”, Maria says that as a child she didn’t have a very good ear and always struggled with practicing. She wanted to play the flute but her mother said she would first have to master the piano. Neither would come to pass, but her interest would remain and she would go on to have solid music theory training in high school. “Whether you play well or not, having a musical background is really broadening”. Maria was asked to join our board 6 years ago, has served as treasurer and has almost completed her first season as Chairman of the Board. Maria feels strongly that “to have a true community that is an artistic/cultural center, there must be an orchestra” she also added that “classical music is most interesting to her as a form of art” and that “symphonic music moves people and that is pretty cool”. When attending concerts with her husband or her two sons, she finds that even though she is not listening critically, her listening skills have improved over the years. Certainly enough to know that the orchestra is reaching new artistic heights. She spoke of the waterfront concert and how she “had never seen a packed lawn listen so attentively”.
Maria feels that there are three basic parts that make up a great orchestra. First and foremost is artistic excellence which is already “creating excitement and has pulled the board together”. Second is capable executive leadership, and third, a dedicated and caring board. She is very optimistic and sees the orchestra’s future as “solid and very bright”.
I asked Maria who her favorite composers were. Her response was “Beethoven, because his music reaches and is identified with so many different people, times and places”. She enjoys the music of other composers but feels that “his music has great impact”. Overall she says “it has been a great year so far, highlighted by the Gospel concert, the Messiah and the Brahms festival.” She has also enjoyed Maestro Kalmar’s pre-concert talks, especially the one before ‘An Evening in London’ where the orchestra played Vaughan Williams’ Symphony #2. After he described it, she says she felt like she really got it.
Something about Maria that became apparent right away was that she loves what she does and has great passion for her work both at Pope and Talbot and with the Oregon Symphony. I left Maria’s office feeling a renewed excitement about being a part of this orchestra, and with hope for our future. I think the Symphony Association is in good hands.