PORT ANGELES — “The Marriage of Figaro” led to the marriage of the maestro and the soprano. In Port Angeles, of all places.
Adam Stern, music director of the Port Angeles Symphony since 2005, met Kamila Dameron about 10 years ago.
He got to know her mother, Denice Grant, while rehearsing the Rainier Lyric Opera — a Seattle opera company now disbanded — in “Figaro,” the Mozart opera. Grant was the rehearsal pianist, Stern the conductor.
Grant was looking for a piano teacher for daughter Kamila.
Stern, a Grammy award-winning music producer, composer and an accomplished pianist, took the job.
A decade went by.
Dameron grew up, went on to study German and Russian at the University of Washington, and also continued her exploration of musical instruments — which included the piano, cello, trumpet, flute and now voice.
She also baby-sat Stern’s children from his previous marriage.
Dameron and Stern became friends, made music together — and fell madly in love.
She was in her 20s, he his 50s. In fact, when the pair decided to marry, they thought it would be fun to wed on Dameron’s 24th birthday.
That happened to be the same day that Dameron was scheduled to sing the solo in Ralph Vaughan Williams’ “Pastoral Symphony” with the Port Angeles Symphony Orchestra. Stern would be in town, too, conducting.
They decided on a 2 p.m. wedding outdoors.
Risky in March in Port Angeles, but the weather Saturday turned out to be glorious, with a bright-blue sky.
As for the place — well, they chose an unusual one.
“One of my many quirks is that I love cemeteries,” Stern said Sunday morning, as he and his bride sipped coffee at the Blackbird in Port Angeles.
Years ago, someone told him that famed writer Raymond Carver is buried at Ocean View Cemetery on West 18th Street in Port Angeles, so he visited.
“I remembered it as an idyllic, tranquil spot.
“So jump-cut to several years later,” to learn that Dameron is “a Raymond Carver scholar,” Stern said.
“Scholar? I just love his work,” Dameron cut in.
It was to be a quintessentially Port Angeles wedding.
Dameron and Stern, with Teresa Martin officiating, tied the knot at Ocean View Cemetery. With their immediate family beside them, they stood near Carver’s grave, with the Strait of Juan de Fuca vista spread out before them.
The wedding party went to The Blackbird Coffeehouse at 336 E. 8th St., for a light supper, and then on to the Port Angeles Performing Arts Center, where they and the orchestra played to a packed house.
Following Vaughan Williams’ “Pastoral,” the pair took their bows. Stern kissed the soloist’s hand as the crowd rose for a standing ovation.
Performing Vaughan Williams is always a “wonderful experience,” Stern told the audience. “And as if the day were not already an embarrassment of riches, Kamila and I were married about seven hours ago.”
The audience responded with a warm round of applause.
Their honeymoon began with a late dinner at Michael’s downtown, and then a rainy Sunday morning. The couple won’t be going on a big trip for a while, though, since Dameron is busy with teaching and studies — she teaches piano and music theory at the Children’s Workshop in Seattle and is a student of voice teacher Natalie Lerch at Cornish College of the Arts — and Stern is busy as music director of both the Port Angeles Symphony and the Seattle Philharmonic.
When asked about their age difference, Stern joked: “Is there an age difference?”
Seriously, though, this pair just fit together, and they knew it.
“Fortunately, Kamila is 57 in a lot of the ways I’m 24,” Stern said.
Will Dameron be appearing again as a soloist with the Port Angeles Symphony?
If the conductor asks, she said, Dameron will certainly give it serious consideration.
Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5062, or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
