Recorder “Power Couple” Tells Their Story and Why They Plan to Support ARS Through A Legacy Gift

Patricia Petersen, ARS Distinguished Achievement Award Winner, and her husband Douglas Young have had years of engagement with recorder players throughout the US. They have generously included ARS in their estate plans. Read this Q&A to see how they started with the recorder and their evolution since.
 
What is your "recorder story" – how you started your involvement with the recorder, and its community?
Doug: My mother gave me a soprano recorder and Erich Katz’s method book when I graduated from college. After about ten years I started to get serious about it with the encouragement of one of my sisters and the discovery of Ken Wollitz’s “The Recorder Book.” On moving to North Carolina for graduate school, I started taking lessons, joined the local recorder society, ARS, and eventually married the music director of the Triangle Recorder Society. Playing the recorder by myself and with others has brought me joy just about every day since I first started. I’m currently president of TRS.
Pat: Decades ago in Chicago, my boyfriend’s roommate lent me his recorder and the Nitka/Kulbach “Recorder Guide.” I soon bought my own (cheap) soprano and alto and taught myself to play. The New York group Music for a While tempted me away from the Free Theater to their new graduate program in early music at Sarah Lawrence. MFA in hand, I then moved into New York City and hung out my shingle, so to speak. I co-founded the short-lived NY Recorder Guild School, and began teaching at, and eventually directing, workshops, all the while continuing lessons and master classes with any number of teachers. Forty-some years ago I moved to North Carolina for a one-year residency, here I still am, having met the love of my life. Recorder and early music have been my living and my passion for many decades.
 
Why did you put the ARS in your estate plans?
We want to provide continuing support for organizations whose missions we believe in and those that have brought joy to our lives.
 
How was the process of making a legacy donation to the ARS? Anything readers should know?
It’s SO easy!
 
What is your hope for the future of the ARS?
When Pat served on the Board, the ARS had about 4500 members. Sadly, its size has diminished, and its membership is aging. We hope that ARS will grow, and especially attract young people who can keep the organization vibrant and moving forward.


For more information on leaving a legacy to the ARS, please see our Legacy webpage.