Former Haddonfield resident Loren Lind retired from the Philadelphia Orchestra after 43 years as one of the organization’s four flutists.
Loren Lind has travelled the world to play music, but for more than four decades, the Philadelphia Orchestra was his home. A flutist with the organization for more than half of his life, the 72-year-old Lind spent years catching PATCO out of Haddonfield to head to the Academy of Music for rehearsals, but after 43 years, Lind gave his final performance with the orchestra this August.
Despite being a quiet man in speech, Lind’s life has been anything but as his flute has taken him on a journey that circles the globe. His father was a professor at the University of Hawaii studying the ethnic makeup of the Hawaiian population. As such, Lind grew up in Honolulu, and as a child, his parents dragged him to the orchestra around six times a year.
“I didn’t want to go,” Lind said. “I wanted to be outside swimming or playing ball, and then I went and I just loved it.”
The first time Lind picked up a flute through his school’s music program was in sixth grade. He said the very first time he blew into the instrument he got a sound out — something far from the norm for beginners — and since that day, he has not stopped making music with the flute.
After spending a semester playing the flute through his school, Lind’s parents enrolled him in private lessons. Even up until college, though, Lind wasn’t certain he wanted to make a career of music.
“I was pretty passionate about it, but I was undecided as to what I was going to do,” Lind said.
During his college years, Lind went back and forth deciding whether he should study political science or music. The debate came to an end his junior year when he was drafted during the Vietnam War. He said living in Hawaii worked to his advantage because all of the major branches of the military had facilities nearby, so he auditioned for the Air Force band.
The audition turned into a two-year assignment in Japan playing with the band. It was in Japan of all places that Lind’s path first crossed with the Philadelphia Orchestra. He said the orchestra was on its first tour of the country, and he went to see it five times.
Lind ended up meeting the orchestra’s first flutist, and the two developed a friendship, so that when Lind’s time with the Air Force was up, he followed the flutist back to Philadelphia to study with him and finish his college degree. Lind graduated from Temple University with a bachelor’s degree in radio, television and film, which his wife, Pat O’Rourke, says is atypical of orchestra members.
“I think what’s significant about Loren Lind is that he does not have a degree in music,” O’Rourke said.
The choice not to earn his degree in music, Lind said, was one of practicality. He said he wanted to be prepared to earn a living some other way.
Upon graduating from Temple, Lind became something of a travelling music teacher around the Philadelphia region. In 1974, at the age of 29, Lind auditioned for one of the Philadelphia Orchestra’s four coveted flutists seats and made it into what Lind says is one of the top orchestras.
“You don’t get anything that’s really any better; you get equals in a few places,” Lind said. “It’s one of the great, great orchestras in the world.”
Three years into his time with the orchestra, he would meet O’Rourke. O’Rourke said a mutual friend was trying to set the pair up, but she wasn’t interested in being with a musician at the time, as she feared Lind might only speak about classical music. She said she was pleasantly surprised to be wrong, finding folk music and jazz in Lind’s library.
“He has an eclectic interest in music,” O’Rourke said.
The pair moved to Haddonfield from Center City in the mid-80s. On a journey home from the Shore, the two wound up driving through town and were drawn to the community. Lind said the city was getting dangerous at the time with the widespread sale and use of cocaine in the early 80s, so the pair decided to move with their son to the suburbs.
Lind said Haddonfield was the only community they looked at. He said the good school system and commercial district contributed to the choice, but the proximity to PATCO was the selling point. For his more than 20 years living in town, whenever he had a rehearsal or performance, Lind walked from his Haddonfield home to the train and walked to the Academy of Music. Lind and his wife moved to Collingswood more than 10 years ago, but the pair has kept close social ties to the community, as O’Rourke was one of the founding members of Haddonfield Child Care.
Over the course of his more than 40 years with the organization, it’s the people who stand out in Lind’s mind. He said some conductors made more of an impact on him than others, but the orchestra itself always felt like a family. Lind said travelling was his favorite part of being with the group. He said his flute took him to Europe, South America and Asia.
Around 10 years ago, Lind made the switch from a classic metal flute to a wooden one he has played ever since. He said as soon as he tried it for the first time, he made the switch as he liked the rich sound.
Three years after Lind joined the orchestra, he became an adjunct professor at Temple in the department of instrumental studies where he still teaches today. He said he’s up front with his students that they needed to be prepared to make a living some other way than music because the competition for a few seats is fierce, and the orchestra life takes tremendous hard work and dedication.
With his retirement from the orchestra on Aug. 17, Lind says there was a certain sense of relief in not having to practice or prepare for rehearsals anymore, but he feels grateful for having such a long career.
“I feel very, very fortunate,” Lind said. “There are only four flute players in each major orchestra. That’s not that many positions.”
