AN ASO LOVE STORY
Some love stories begin with grand gestures. This story begins with a couch, a bowl of granola, and snail mail. But before there was an encounter in a mail room, there was a little boy with a horn in Annapolis, and a young girl who wanted to play….bagpipes.
Annapolis Roots
Tony Valerio is a true Annapolitan. One day in fourth grade, he happened to be sitting on City Dock in downtown Annapolis when he met Senior Chief Musician Jim Gollmer, the principal hornist of the United States Navy Band. They hit it off immediately, talking about music, brass instruments, and the French horn. That chance meeting lit a fire in Tony that shaped the course of his life. His love for music was inspired by other teachers like Joyce North at Rolling Knolls Elementary and Tom Risher, who taught horn at Bates Middle School.
He was mentored and supported by Michael J. Svec, the music instructor, band director, and chair of the music department at Annapolis High School. In fact, it was Mr. Svec who facilitated opportunities for Tony to perform as a teenager with the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Tony is a graduate of West Virginia University (BM), where he performed in the marching band.
He returned to the area for graduate school, earning a Masters of Music from Peabody Conservatory (MM), where his path would soon intersect with his future wife, Kimberly.
Flutist with a Future
Far from the Chesapeake Bay, in Naperville, Illinois, a suburb outside Chicago, Kimberly Valerio grew up in a household that wasn’t especially musical. She wanted to play the bagpipes. Her parents, wisely or conveniently, claimed no one nearby taught them. The flute seemed a solid alternative, and by fifth grade, it was clear she had found her instrument. That year, she performed a flute solo with her school’s choir. Even today, she says she can still vividly recall the moment on stage with the choir when she understood something fundamental: music wouldn’t be a hobby. It would be her future.
Kimberly was driven, competitive, gifted, and fiercely committed. Her teachers, including her mentor Mary Louise Poor, pushed her hard. “I could bike to lessons with Mary Louise, and she became very important to me as a teacher. I wanted to impress her. I would sometimes leave her house crying after her lesson, but she was the very best teacher in the tri-state area, and I was motivated to prove to myself and to her that I could do better.”
Kim’s father was her biggest champion. Whenever he went away on business, he would return with a musical score or recording and the simple request: “Play something for me”. In high school, Kimberly participated in band but wasn’t very interested graduating early to make time for college auditions. She was offered a scholarship to Peabody, a college she felt instantly connected to and quickly decided to attend.
From the Peabody Mail Room to the ASO
It was at Peabody Conservatory that Tony and Kimberly’s music careers intersected, and where their love story began. Specifically, in the campus mail room. If you’ve met either of the Valerios, or if you’ve seen them together, you can imagine this unfolding like a movie.
Tony was an upperclassman with not a little swagger, commuting from Annapolis. Kim was a freshman, a beautiful young woman passionate about her flute, and new to the East Coast. Tony’s habit was to sit in the common area downstairs, eating granola. Kim noticed. A lot. She’d find reasons to pass through—usually to pick up her mail, sometimes just hoping to catch a glimpse of Tony. Mutual friends finally stepped in to orchestrate an introduction.
Their first date came soon after. The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra was scheduled to play Tchaikovsky. Dave Bakkegard,* Tony’s first teacher at Peabody, was scheduled to perform a huge solo that evening. Tony and Kimberly were both excited to attend. Their first date was a major success, and soon grew into a love story and a life together. For these two musicians, careers unfolded alongside each other, sometimes in parallel, always in harmony.
Growing in Harmony
Tony graduated from Peabody first and immediately joined the United States Naval Academy Band. He served for 24 years, retiring as a Navy Chief Musician in 2013. At his outdoor retirement ceremony at City Dock, Tony was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal, along with letters of appreciation from President Barack Obama, Gov. Martin O’Malley, and Michael D. Stevens, the Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy.
Kimberly balanced auditions, teaching, and relentless practice, determined to earn her place in the industry. She performed with several prestigious regional and national orchestras, travelling often for concerts and festivals. In fact, she was in Breckenridge, Colorado when the conductor and composer Dr. Leslie B. Dunner told her about a flute opening in Annapolis. Dunner served as the ASO’s fifth Artistic Director from 1998-2003. “I had just finished my season with the National Repertory Orchestra, and I decided that flute opening in Annapolis was all I wanted. I was fully and completely focused on earning the spot,” said Kimberly.
Serendipitously, there were at the same time two horn positions open with the ASO. Tony was called for his audition the day before Kimberly’s appointment. She waited, hoping for his success, focused on her own. He won. The pressure was on.
Kimberly had worked more than seven years for this exact moment in her career.
She won too! Today, Kimberly serves as the ASO Principal Flute, while Tony is the ASO 4th Horn and a member of the Annapolis Symphony Academy faculty where he serves as Director of the Aquarius Wind Ensemble.
More Than a Job
Over time, performing for the ASO became more than just a job for the Valerios—it is the center of their community. A place where musicians celebrate together after concerts, where sections feel like families, where staff, donors, and artists all pull in the same direction. Tours to Spain. Galas. Duets. Late nights at Fox’s Den downtown with other ASO musicians. Classes, rehearsals, recitals, and performances for their son, who studied viola at Annapolis Symphony Academy.
Their marriage, their music, their family, and their shared experience with the ASO became a sound that grew. As the ASO matured and improved as an ensemble, so did Tony and Kim together.
Life has expanded far beyond the concert hall. These days, both Valerios teach and perform. Tony is a founding member of the Bayfield Brass, a local chamber ensemble with more than 30 years of performance in the region, from concerts and community events to Midnight Madness and their 25-year run at the Maryland Renaissance Festival. Kimberly maintains a studio and teaches private lessons.
Now…and Forever 💕
We spoke to the Valerios for this profile last year on a dreary day in late November. We sat in the front window at 49 West Coffeehouse in downtown Annapolis. We greeted friends and neighbors who popped in, and talked about all things Annapolis and music and the ASO, overstaying our parking meters and anxiously keeping an eye out for the West Street parking warden. As we spoke, their faces took on a special light — a shared expression that recalls the moment they first met and the many moments since when music deepened their love.
As Kimberly and Tony approach nearly 30 years with the ASO and thirty-seven years together, they talk about the idea of someday leaving the same way they arrived—together, bowing out in the style they’ve always lived: in love, in tune, and on their own terms.
*Dave Bakkegard is ASO Associate Principal Violin II Kristen Bakkegard’s father.