S: Today is March 7, 1993, and we are in Winter Park in the office of Mr. John Tiedtke,
 on the corner of Holt [Avenue] and New York Avenue. I am asking Mr. Tiedtke
 about his involvement in different arts organizations in Winter Park and in Central
 Florida. Mr. Tiedtke, I would like to thank you very much for participating in this
 interview.

T: I think I should start with what I know, the symphony. Before World War H there
 was a Winter Park symphony which was run by a Mary Leonard, and it operated until
 the war and then went out of operation. My wife and I came to Winter Park in the
 spring of 1949. We decided that we wanted to stay and live here, and I thought if
 we were going to do that, then it would be nice to have the symphony come to life
 again. So I invited the old board [members] up to my office to see if they wanted
 to get it started, and most of them did not. But one woman, Jessica Dyer, was quite
 excited over the idea and said, "Well, let us have another meeting in a couple of
 weeks," so we did. When we met the next time, she had begun to dig up people and
 eventually we had Bob Carr (who is the Mayor), Joy Holley, Helen Ryan, Dr. Spivak,
 and Rose Phelps, and we began putting together an orchestra. They were all
 Orlando people, but the orchestra, the group that she got together, got Yves
 Chardon, then the principal cellist of the Metropolitan Opera orchestra.

S: In New York?

T: Yes, and they got him to come down and put together a pickup orchestra in the fall
 of 1949 for a trial concert. He did and it went very well. It was an exciting evening
 and everybody thought it was a great idea to get the orchestra going again. So we
 employed him, and he put together an orchestra.

S: Just [for] detail, do you remember what was on the program?

T: No.

S: Okay. But I read in an earlier article that Mr. Chardon was a cellist and he had
 asked some of his colleagues from Julliard [School], is that right?

T: I do not remember. I do not think he could have gotten any of them to move here,
 but he might have. I do not know where he got his players, but I would doubt very
 much if he could have brought any from Julliard, but he might have for all I know.

S: Okay, that was just in an earlier article I got somewhere. Do you know if any of the
 players present that night would still be among us today?

T: I have no idea.

S: Mr. Alphonse Carlo, who died recently, was active in that time.

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