On Saturday, March 5, 2022, the Quad City Symphony Orchestra will honor Carol Pedigo Phoenix with the Distinguished Service Award in recognition of her 52 years of service as a violinist and associate concertmaster of the QCSO.
“We are thrilled to honor Carol Pedigo Phoenix with the QCSO’s Distinguished Service Award in recognition of her service to the QCSO over the course of her 50+ year tenure as a member of the orchestra,” said QCSO Executive Director, Brian Baxter. “She has been a part of so much of our storied Symphony’s history and we are deeply appreciative of her contributions during that time. Congratulations to Carol!”
From Monmouth, Illinois, Carol grew up in a musical family. Her mother was a choir director and public-school music teacher who taught piano and voice. Her father, a postman, sang in the choir. She began her piano studies at age 5 and violin at age 9. In high school, Carol was a member of the school choir, violinist, and then concertmaster in the orchestra, oboist in the band, and she accompanied her fellow musicians on piano.
In 1967, she earned her Bachelor of Music Education from Illinois Wesleyan University studying piano, voice, and violin. She was a member of the University’s orchestra and Select Choir and continued to accompany both instrumentalists and vocalists.
Upon graduation, she taught orchestra at Williams Junior High School and the surrounding grade schools in the Davenport Community School District. In 1976, she was granted a sabbatical to continue her studies at the University of Iowa, where she studied violin performance with Leopold LaFosse, with whom she studied privately for 10 years. Upon earning her master’s degree in 1977, she continued her service as a public-school educator for 25 years, retiring in 1992.
In addition to her position with the QCSO, Carol was a member of the Augustana College Orchestra, the Clinton Symphony Orchestra, and the Friends of Chamber Music under the direction of Bill Henigbaum. She also performed for productions presented by the Genesius Guild, the Quad City Mozart Festival organized by Dr. David Rayl, Black Hawk College’s Gilbert and Sullivan productions and served as concertmaster of their yearly presentation Amahl and the Night Visitors, the Handel Oratorio Society, and many local choir programs.
A member of the American String Teachers Association and Music Educators National, Carol attended numerous workshops throughout the world, including studying string pedagogy with Paul Rolland, Baroque performance practice with Eduard Melkus, and Classical performance practice with H.C. Robbins Landon. She also participated in an intensive study of Baroque & Classical performance practice and performed in the first Haydn Festival in Eisenstadt, Austria in 1976.
Carol was a member of the QCSO from 1968 to 2020. She will be presented with the Distinguished Service Award at the QCSO’s Masterworks V: From East to West performance on Saturday, March 5, 2022, at 7:30 pm at the Adler Theatre in Davenport, IA.