Wonder Women: Jane Little

This month’s edition of Wonder Women features a classical double bassist who claimed the spot in the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest tenure with a single symphony orchestra. That honor goes to Jane Little, a member of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra for an astonishing 71 years.

Jane was born on February 2, 1929, and she was drawn to music as a child. She wanted to play piano (like her mother…a talented pianist in her own right). Still, the family was impacted by the Great Depression, and finances did not permit a piano in the household. Instead, Jane went to a neighbor’s house and taught herself by picking apart songs by ear. She joined the glee club in junior high and planned to continue the glee club in high school. Her music teacher saw the results of her music aptitude test, a required exam for every incoming student. Jane had scored exceptionally high on the test, and the orchestra teacher asked if she would like to learn an instrument and join the orchestra. Jane had wanted to play clarinet, but the orchestra needed a bass player. At 14 years old, weighing less than 100 pounds, Little started double bass lessons. Within a few months, she was the principal bassist in her school orchestra.

By age 16, after only two years of instruction, she began her career in the fledgling Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra. The orchestra performed its first concert on February 4th, 1945. Within three years, the group had evolved into the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.

For most of her career, Jane performed using a rare Carlo Giuseppe Testore bass built circa 1705. The Atlantic Symphony shared on Facebook “Jane was married to Atlanta Symphony Principal Flutist, Warren Little for 41 years and has performed under all four of the ensemble’s music directors – Henry Sopkin, Robert Shaw, Yoel Levi and Robert Spano, as well as guest conductors, including Igor Stravinsky, Aaron Copland, Pierre Monteux, Leopold Stokowski, Sir John Barbirolli, and James Levine.”

Jane’s career as a bassist defied the gender norms of her generation. 1945 was a year that saw Truman become president; World War 2 ended with the surrender of Germany and Japan, war veterans began returning home, and the ground was laid for the beginning of the Cold War. The musical landscape was diverse; swing, big band, musicals, Latin music, and country were the dominant music of this decade. Big bands were about to be supplanted by the popularity of singers like Frank Sinatra and Perry Como. A 19-year-old, Elvis Presley gave his first live concert at Overton Park Shell in Memphis. These were times when women were often actively discouraged from playing orchestral instruments (see the historical context given for Inez Wyrick’s Wonder Women feature for more on this, and an archived 1966 article from Time magazine about female orchestral musicians.)

The war created something of an opportunity for Jane; women performed in orchestras as the men served in the war. Once the troops started coming home, female musicians were simply “dismissed” from playing in orchestras. Jane stayed on; she had worked hard to get into the symphony. Jane was so committed to staying on she even forwent having children, as doing so would likely force her into leaving the symphony.

Jane played in every season of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra under multiple conductors who worked to grow the organization. Later in her life, the organization did become a full-time orchestra. Early on, she had to hustle. The orchestra only paid $35 every other week. “The symphony was only 22 weeks out of the year,” she said. “So what do you do the other 30 weeks?” She was making her living teaching lessons, performing with Theater of the Stars (where she was the only woman in the band), performing with the Savannah Philharmonic Orchestra, and performing with various opera companies.

All that hustle paid off. Once again, defying the norms of her generation, Jane insisted on keeping her finances separate from her husband. She purchased her own stocks and real estate, maintaining her financial independence.

She received the world record for the longest tenure with a single orchestra in Feb 2016 and had planned to retire in June 2016. She died May 15th, 2016, collapsing onstage during a performance celebrating the Golden Age of Broadway, ironically during the final song, “There’s No Business Like Show Business.” She was taken to the hospital but later passed away at the age of 87.

Bassist Michael Kurth, who was playing next to Jane when she collapsed, said in a Washington Post interview, “She was unstoppable. She outlasted every era of this orchestra. The next, most longest-tenured member was here twenty years less than she was. There are no words to describe how remarkable she was. You think of superlatives, and you just run out.”

Since her passing, a Jane Little scholarship fund has been established by the ISB. The $10,000 scholarship for female double bass majors entering college as a freshman was made possible by the generous support of an anonymous donor. For more information on the 2023 Jane Little scholarship winner (sending congrats to bassist Maggie Carter) or to donate to the Jane Little scholarship fund, head to the ISB’s website.