NEWS

North Caroliniana Society Award will go to Maxine Swalin on her 100^th birthday

CHAPEL HILL -- Maxine Swalin, who with her late husband, Dr. Benjamin F. Swalin, revived the North Carolina Symphony Orchestra two-thirds of a century ago and built it into a national treasure, will accept the North Caroliniana Society Award on her 100^th birthday, May 7.

The award annually recognizes a North Carolinian who has made extraordinary contributions to the state’s history, literature and culture. It was first given to playwright Paul Green in 1978, and subsequent recipients have included Sen. Sam Ervin, Institute of Government founder Albert Coates, retired UNC president William Friday and his wife Ida, philanthropists Mary and James Semans, businessman and scholar Archie K. Davis, CBS newsman Charles Kuralt and author Doris Betts.

A native of Iowa, Martha Maxine McMahon graduated from that state’s university and received musical training at several other institutions, including Radcliffe College and the Julliard School of Music. In New York she met her future husband, Benjamin Swalin, then a graduate student at Columbia University.

The couple in 1935 moved to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where Ben Swalin taught in the music department. They soon learned that the North Carolina Symphony Orchestra, established in 1932 by Lamar Stringfield, was struggling for survival following Stringfield’s departure from the state and the loss of federal funds. In 1937, the Swalins led a movement to revive the orchestra as a permanent institution to enrich the cultural sensitivity of the citizenry, particularly school children.

With the help of Paul Green, Joseph Hyde Pratt, and others, the Swalins succeeded in 1939 in reorganizing the N.C. Symphony Society, with Dr. Swalin as unpaid director. At his side was Maxine Swalin, who served as pianist and accompanist to soloists and player of the celesta in the symphony. In the new organization, she became coordinator of the work with children with Mrs. Adeline McCall and more recently as an executive assistant to the director of the orchestra.

"‘Executive assistant’ was a modest description of Maxine Swalin’s role in the growth of the orchestra, for she was instrumental in the organization of local chapters that arranged for concerts throughout the state, and she handled virtually all of the business arrangements as the orchestra grew in size and recognition," said Dr. H.G. Jones, society secretary and retired curator of the N.C. Collection at UNC Library. "In 1943, with the passage of a ‘Horn-Tootin’ bill carrying an annual appropriation from the general fund, the N.C. General Assembly officially recognized the nation’s first state symphony orchestra. From that point on, public support grew, but fund-raising was always a vital consideration to the Swalins."

Under Ben Swalin’s conductorship and Maxine Swalin’s astute management, the symphony gained recognition and conducted thousands of concerts, often in makeshift settings, throughout North Carolina, Jones said. A $1 million grant from the Ford Foundation in 1966 led to raising an additional $2 million, and when the Swalins retired in 1972, the state could boast of a national treasure.

The story of the orchestra’s growth was told in Ben Swalin’s book, "Hard Circus Road: The Odyssey of the North Carolina Symphony," published by the symphony society in 1987. He died in 1989.

"Maxine Swalin told her own story in her autobiography, ‘An Ear to Myself,’ privately published in 1996," Jones said. "As she approaches her centennial, she likes to point out that when she was born the Wright brothers were still repairing bicycles in Ohio."

The lobby of Raleigh’s Meymandi Concert Hall is dedicated to Ben and Maxine Swalin.

The award ceremony will include a testimonial banquet at the Carolina Inn on May 7. Information concerning tickets, which must be purchased by April 29, can be obtained from the North Caroliniana Society, at Wilson Library, UNC Campus Box 3930, Chapel Hill, N.C. 27514-8890. The phone number is (919) 962-1172, and email, hgjones@email.unc.edu

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Contact: David Williamson, (919) 962-8596