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A Note from Kim Corben

A shuttered hall,

a silent orchestra,

changing currents,

still this captain keeps

her eyes steadied

on the horizon.

On any given morning Kim Corben rises early in the town she has called home for over 31 years, and she checks in with

the tides. Perhaps she’ll zip along the waterfront, sun glinting off her red Buddy scooter, scanning the docks for familiar fishing
boats before parking on Court Street. The cuteness factor of her ride, which is classified as a motorcycle, still makes her smile. “I
like doing the unexpected, but that’s nothing new!” she laughs.

As a two-time cancer survivor, Kim knows all about life’s curveballs, but rather than dwell, she counterbalances that
reality with a full throttle approach to just about everything she does. “Personally I had a lot on my plate going into 2020. I had
undergone successful surgery and began a treatment plan. I was looking forward to feeling pretty good in time for our two sold
out spring pops concerts.”

Covid changed that forecast. The Phil’s last performance, the
Sunday afternoon family concert on March 8 began with a traditional “I like doing the unexpected,
th
greeting between Concertmaster Ana-Maria LaPointe and Conductor Steven
Karidoyanes. Instead of shaking hands, they bumped elbows. “At that but that’s nothing new!”

moment, we really had no idea where this was headed,” reflects Corben.

Within a week of the concert, the hall closed like all public buildings in Plymouth, and staff worked from home, though
a planned relocation of the Phil offices—a few blocks down Court Street—happened May 1. Corben worried most, and still
does, about the musicians, whose livelihoods depend on performance. She spent those early days researching and sharing all

the resources she could find to assist. Aside from the recent Senior Serenade by the brass quintet (see page 34), the orchestra has
not performed. The concert hall remains dark.

Executive Director Corben is all too familiar with spread sheets and the balancing it takes to run a nonprofit. In a good

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