BANGOR, Maine — Friends and colleagues of former Bangor Symphony Orchestra conductor Peter J. Re say the city’s iconic musical organization owes much of its success to the high standards he set half a century ago.
Re, 97, died Sunday at the Maine Veterans Home in Scarborough. He led the 120-year-old symphony from 1964 to 1975.
“Everyone at the Bangor Symphony Orchestra was saddened to learn of Peter Re’s passing this week,” the group’s executive director, Brian Hinrichs, said in an email Wednesday. “He is largely credited with ushering in the modern BSO — a professional orchestra that maintains a strong community focus. As a conductor, educator and composer, Maestro Re left an indelible impact on countless musicians, students and audience members.”
The symphony will honor Re — pronounced Ray — when it opens its 121st season on Sunday, Oct. 9, by performing one of his compositions — “Celebratory Overture.”
“There is a good chance there would not be a Bangor Symphony today if it weren’t for Peter Re,” said Norman Minsky, a Bangor lawyer and philanthropist who served as the symphony’s president from 1969 to 1970.
Minsky said that before Re’s arrival, most people who attended the symphony did so because they felt obligated to support it. After his arrival, people started seeing improvement and came “because they wanted to go.”
“He came to every symphony event,” Minsky said.
Re and his wife of 70 years, Elizabeth, who everyone called Betty, lived in Waterville, but they made frequent trips to Bangor. She always drove. Betty Re died two years ago.
Peter Re never liked to eat before a performance and instead preferred to attend post-performance dinner parties hosted by symphony fans.
Minsky said he was a “delightful, charming, urbane individual,” and that his leadership helped make the orchestra “a pleasure to listen to.”
Billy Miller, a retired Bangor pharmacist, has been a percussionist in the symphony since 1957. He remembers being involved in the search for a new conductor that brought Re to Bangor. The symphony recruited Re, Miller said, sending him a tape of the orchestra playing and asking him to come to the Queen City.
“He brought us up to another level,” Miller said. “It was like magic. The orchestra sounded so much better just at that first rehearsal under Peter.”
Re retired as professor emeritus from Colby College in 1986 after teaching music there for 35 years. He regularly organized Bangor Symphony performances at the college, combining two of his biggest passions. A New York City native, Re attended The Julliard School and earned degrees from Yale and Columbia universities before taking the job at Colby.
Re’s family and friends will gather for a remembrance from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday at Veilleux Funeral Home at 8 Elm St. in Waterville. A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday at Notre Dame Catholic Church in Waterville.
Follow Nick McCrea on Twitter at @nmccrea213.