Robert Michero

WHAT IS YOUR CONNECTION TO THE SAN GABRIEL VALLEY? 

I was born and raised in the San Gabriel Valley. I grew up in Alhambra and then South Pasadena. I have lived in different places because of the businesses I’ve been in outside and within the country. However, I’ve always gravitated back to my home grounds, Pasadena, California.

YOU’RE THE PRESIDENT OF THE PASADENA SYMPHONY ASSOCIATION. WHAT DOES THAT ENTAIL?

I am responsible to the board of directors for what we do in this organization. It is 95 going on a 96-year-old musical organization. It is an icon within the San Gabriel Valley. We compete with many other musical organizations. 

We are regarded as one of the best midsize orchestras in America and California. I report to the board, and they report to me and then to the CEO of the organization, who is an employee that runs all of our operations.

WHAT WAS IT LIKE GROWING UP IN ALHAMBRA, SOUTH PASADENA WHEN YOU WERE GROWING UP HERE? 

My mom and I were adopted by a family. My mother was ballet and ended up marrying this American Italian. 

He got shipped to Korea, and I never saw him again. When we came back from the East Coast, my mother rented a room in this huge house. It was at 119 North Electric Alhambra, off Main Street. 

It was a house owned by a family that had lost their farm in a fire during the Depression, and they settled in Alhambra. There were, like, eight rooms. It was about two acres.

And on this property, they had corn, peaches, fruit trees, rhubarb, a chicken coop in the back, four dogs, and eight cats. It was very unique. 

I was three years old when we moved in there, and as a result of that, there were three daughters with husbands with children. And I became the 3rd of the youngest of 7 kids. 

So I never knew I was an only child until my mother remarried when I was nine and a half years old. 

The guy she married was a paratrooper with 82nd Airborne, and he was a great guy. He was a carpenter, and I ended up pounding nails and learning a little bit about carpentry when we moved out of the house and into our own house in Alhambra. 

YOUR MOTHER WAS IN THE PERFORMING ARTS THEN?

The New York ballet recruited her at age fourteen. She ended up doing that at Juilliard, and then as an understudy, and then met my dad before he got shipped off to Korea.

I picked up the natural rhythm and athleticism from my mom, and because I was four, five, and six years old, like many kids, I’d be in the kitchen with Grandma Mimi pounding on pots and pans. And at the age of six, she said, enough of this. If you’re going to be pounding on something, you’re going to learn how to do it correctly. And so she enrolled me at Pedrini’s Music, which is a very famous musical store on Main Street, Alhambra. 

Tom Junior became my music teacher, and I’ll never forget what he said to me as I was pounding on the drum. ‘No. No. No. You don’t do it that way. If you’re playing music and percussion, you’re going to learn how to read music.’ 

So that’s what launched me into music. From there, I spent most of my life in music and sports. 

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT WHEN YOU WENT TO PEDRINI AND HAD TO STUDY NOW?  WAS IT ALL NOT FUN FOR YOU?

It was fun because I loved banging on the drums and making noise. But the academic side to it, just like learning how music was more difficult. Because I had a natural rhythm, I had a propensity for percussion, and then you have to understand dynamics. The dynamics are how hard you strike whatever it is to make the sound that you’re going to make. 

You look at a score and see what that dynamic is. So you have to learn that. Then you also have to learn tempo from a monochrome, which gives you four, four-time, three-quarter time, half time, whatever. And then, of course, you have to learn the notes because, in percussion with a number of percussion instruments, Maremba or Tiffany, you tune those heads of the Tiffany drums to a particular pitch or key. So, you have to learn that. 

WHERE DID YOUR PATH GO AFTER HIGH SCHOOL? 

I wasn’t the best student in high school. And our starting 5 all had scholarships one way or the other to college. So I had to take an English class at PCC and get a B or above to go to college. So I did. And my instructor was Doctor Joseph Hall; he was very famous for other reasons. 

But Joe found out that I was when I was a kid; I got into backpacking and that avenue through one of my uncles who was a member of the Sierra Club, and I would be climbing up on the roof, playing paratrooper because of my stepdad. And he was related to my stepdad’s family. And he said to my mom, we need to get Bob. 

We need to get him outdoors and do some other things. So around 14, I made a trip to Yosemite. And at 15, I was enrolled in a youth mountain climbing group. And that got me into the mountains and doing what I did. I then became a little Mary. A little Mary is someone who would help the cooks on the wagon trains. 

I became a little Mary for a pack of stations out of Red’s Meadow when I was young. And that got me into the mountains, backpacking, and nature, all of which are very important to me to this day. 

And so that was another avenue of enlightenment for me and excitement. And for years, all of our best friends, my first wife, and I would go backpacking every summer. 

HOW DID YOUR COLLEGE CAREER HAPPEN? 

Well, I went back and forth to different colleges. I did the summer at PCC. I went to the University of Arizona. Then I transferred from Arizona back to Cal. I graduated from Cal State LA and then went to UCLA. And then eventually, I did different executive programs at Anderson at UCLA in Economics And Finance. 

During that time, I needed to make money. And because I worked at Thomas Wines And Spirits when I was fifteen, that got me into wine and spirits from dealing with customers and the owner, Thomas Hebert. That led to a friendship and a business association between Tom Evert and Gary Foster, the famous jazz musician.

DID YOU SPEND A LOT OF TIME IN FRANCE?

I did. I was recruited by Webb Hanson, who is very famous in the lore of the wine and spirits business. 

He recognized me because he had come into Thomas Wines And Spirits years before with Patrice Debois, who owned Chateau Sons George in Monton, Santameleon. Webb remembered me and said, ‘What are you doing here?’ And I said, ‘I was recruited.’

So he said come to my office. And I wasn’t sure who he was, but I knew he was important. And I walked over to his office and sat down. And he said, so what’s your favorite wine? And I told him and asked him what his favorite wine was. 

And for the next half an hour, we had a conversation about wine. So Webb Hansen says to me, you’re going to become the 1st wine manager for Young’s market company. 

Then basically, he said you need to take the job and move over to the wine department to be at Young’s. 

I went back about two days later, and Webb Hanson walked me into Vernon Underwood’s office, which was very intimidating. Mr. Underwood says, ‘I hear Hanson wants you to join the wine division.’  

Then Mister Hanson explained to me what I was going to make. And rather than $9 an hour, It was, like, $1800, $2000 a month, a car allowance. I remember looking at it, and he goes, ‘travel and entertainment expenses too.” And I’m going, “wow,” and that’s how it started.

HOW DID YOU GET INTO THE PASADENA SYMPHONY?

Well, music, to me, is a variable potential in our life. It’s an art form. And I’ve always said whatever you put on or in your body is very different from just about every other product we purchase or is part of our life. And that’s because it has to do with our senses. What we perceive, how it makes us feel. Wine is something that we taste. It’s a food, like all foods. And we all have unique things that we like and don’t like. 

Music is sensual because we see it played and we hear it played. When that happens, it becomes part of us.

Music is a very important aspect of our life. As I went through my career, I always had music there. For example, when I was managing director of San Antonio Winery, We were one of the sponsors for the Pasadena Symphony and the Pasadena Pops. 

So the tie-in from business and running businesses Eventually led to me being asked to join the board of the Pasadena Symphony.

SGV III

1. The Arroyo Seco with JPL at the headwaters
2. The Los Angeles County Arboretum. 
3. The Ambassador Auditorium

IF SOMEONE WANTS TO WATCH A PERFORMANCE, WHAT’S THE BEST WAY TO GET INFORMATION ABOUT THAT?

The best way to go is to go to our website, www.pasadenasymphony-pops.org.

It will have a lot of information about the concerts, details on seats, and parking.