In Tuesday’s (6/23) Info Edmonton (Alberta, Canada) an unbylined article reports, “There are long careers, and then there is Broderyck ‘Broddy’ Olson’s career. After 65 years with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, Olson is retiring from the organization he joined in 1961. According to the … orchestra, that tenure makes him the longest-serving professional orchestra musician in North America…. Through all of the decades that followed, Olson remained in the orchestra’s first violin section…. Olson’s father, Ray LeRoy Olson, was a founding member of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra when it was established in 1952. Between the two men, the Olson family has been connected to the orchestra for nearly its entire existence…. Over the course of his career, Olson performed thousands of concerts and witnessed some of the orchestra’s most significant milestones…. Olson saw the ESO evolve from its early years into a nationally recognized organization, including the opening of the Winspear Centre in 1997…. ‘Broddy’s dedication to music, his colleagues, and our community is extraordinary,’ said Anne-Marie Leenhouts-Petrov, President and CEO of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and Winspear Centre…. Retirements are common. Sixty-five years with the same orchestra are not. Olson’s final bow closes a chapter that stretches across nearly the entire modern history of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra.”
