Professor seeks fun in playing music

For nearly 30 years, Charlotte Mabrey has served as primary percussionist with the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra and worked as a professor for the UNF Department of Music.

After years of organizing a percussion concert that incorporates former students to guest perform, she recently performed at the final recital of “An Evening of 20th Century Music.”

Her ongoing devotion to teaching has led her to step down from her position as primary percussionist with the orchestra and focus more on having fun.

Percussion involves a variety of instruments. What does it entail, and which instrument is your favorite?
“We define percussion as anything that you can make a sound on by shaking, striking or rubbing, so often times it goes outside the norm where we consider a drum or marimba. Percussion includes anything – flower pots, parts of a car; we have played all of those. My favorite instrument is the marimba. It’s the most soloist of percussion instruments.”

When did you decide to make a career out of music?
“When I started college at LSU [Louisiana State University] back
in 1970, there was nothing else at all that I was remotely interested in or felt that I could do every day for the rest of my life. And it was a different time; it didn’t seem like making a living as a musician was impossible. I think nowadays it’s nearly impossible. It always kept my interest as something I wanted to do.”

What was it like moving to Jacksonville from the North, and what were your intentions?
“I consider myself from the North, and I moved to Jacksonville because of an opening with the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra. It was a one-year position that tuned into a 30-year position because the man who left the post never returned.  One of the things I had to adapt to when I started teaching was that this is the Sunshine State, and so my students would come to class in swimming tops after surfing for two hours. Up in Illinois, we had gray winters, and so there is not this sense that there is so much more going on outside of what we are doing. It was a different mentality.

How has your experience with the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra influenced you as a music professor at UNF?
“It’s been invaluable. What I bring back from the symphony is an immediate day-to-day kind of lesson. The conductor is not there to teach me how to play my part; the conductor is there to tell me when it’s wrong and what changes need to be made. It brings a laboratory-like setting to my teaching. It also gives my students a sense that I know what I’m talking about.”

After 25 years of performing, this past summer brought your final concert of 20th Century Music events. Where did the idea came from?
“I started by doing the performances in the Boathouse, and the idea was to present the concert in a round and have the audience in the center. It was enough of a hook that younger people and older people wanted to try it. We had several in the Boathouse and outgrew it, then we had several in the foyer of the Robinson Theater and outgrew that, then to the stage in Robinson and did several there. When Lazarra opened up, President Dan Hopkins invited me, and so that’s where we have been since.”

You recently told the Florida Times-Union you wanted to pursue drumming in a rock-and-roll setting. What does this change in tempo mean for you?
“I would like to go back to what it was, which was fun. When you are in symphony orchestra, the conductor never stops and says ‘fantastic!’ Their role is to constantly be on your back … so you become incredibly uptight. I want to remember that this is fun … So that’s where I’m headed, and I think it will make me a better teacher and musician.”

Compiled by Jonathan Morales.