<bt>Kim Pensinger Witman and Don Witman, 17-year residents of Dunn Loring Woods in Vienna, were 19 when they met in Elizabethtown, Pa., and fell in love. The Witman family have added two to their number since then, Lexi, who is 18 and a senior at Marshall High School, and Ben, an eighth-grader at Thoreau Middle School.
"My bachelor’s degree was in music therapy," said Kim Witman, "and I used to work in Connecticut in a psychiatric hospital." However, the desire to play piano was strong, and when the Witmans decided to get their graduate degrees, "We sold everything we owned and moved to D.C.," said Kim Witman. "We moved here in 1981, and my husband and I both did master’s in performance at Catholic [University], at the same time. We both got work at Catholic as teacher's assistants while we were getting our degrees."
"Kim got her shot in opera as a teaching assistant," said Don Witman. "I studied choral conducting."
While teaching at Paul VI High School in Fairfax, Kim Witman was doing freelance opera, starting out as a rehearsal accompanist. "Somehow we made ends meet," said Don Witman.
AFTER THEIR daughter, Lexi, was born in 1986, Kim Witman began working as a pianist and vocal coach for the Washington Opera in residence at the Kennedy Center.
"What that means on a practical level is that you learn all the operas and then you show up and play the piano for all the rehearsals prior to the last four, when the orchestra comes in," Kim Witman said.
As an assistant conductor, Witman wore many hats, from practicing the piano in the orchestra pit, to conducting warmups in the wings or backstage prior to a show.
In 1988, Kim Witman worked as a music administrator for the Washington Opera. "After I became music administrator, there were desk duties. I had to order music, talk to contractors for the orchestra, and balance the budget."
Witman's responsibilities grew when she became the general director of Wolf Trap's Opera Company in 1997, with responsibilities ranging from picking the directors to selecting the designers, conductors, singers, the chorus, and the orchestra.
"It's a small company, and one of the great things about working for a small company is you get to do a lot of things," Kim Witman said. "It's great. If you don't like what you’re doing, you just wait a week, and you’re doing something new."
On Saturday, May 7, Witman is accompanying New York opera singer Jennifer Aylmer in "Vocal Magic: An Evening of Brazilian Music" at the Barns of Wolf Trap. Also, in June, she is running "Falstaff" by Salieri.
"We like to have people who would never go to the Kennedy Center who would consider coming here and giving it a try, because it only costs 25 bucks instead of a hundred," said Kim Witman.
In her last performances with Jennifer Aylmer, she brought Brazilian music to McLean High school and The Fairfax retirement center in Fort Belvoir to create "something more accessible for people who don't usually get to hear vocal recitals," said Aylmer.
THE MUSICAL GENE was passed on to the Witmans' children, though "our kids come by this honestly," said Kim Witman. "They grew up in a musical family." The entire family played together last Christmas.
"We wanted to have a cool Christmas gift for family and friends," said Lexi Witman, 18. "My brother plays the string bass, and my father plays the trumpet. My mother was on the piano, and I was vocals. The Witman Quartet."
"So we took Christmas songs like, ‘Winter Wonderland’ and ‘Let It Snow,’" said Kim Witman. "We gave ourselves two hours, and whatever we got was what we had. That was a lot of fun." The family recorded the songs as a Christmas CD.
Music can act as a nexus for any family. "Sometimes she'll have the urge to play, and I'll have the urge to sing. It's a great mother/daughter bond that I really enjoy having," said Lexi Witman.
The Witman family music also extends outside business and family and into the community. "We sing at our church, St. Peter's Episcopal in Arlington," said Don Witman.
Every other year, Kim Witman directs a musical. Last year's was "Joseph and the Technicolor Dream Coat." Lexi Witman also has an upcoming theater performance in which she plays Louise in the Marshall High School production of "Gypsy." That show runs May 6, 7, and 8, at 7:30 p.m.. at Marshall, with a matinee performance on May 9, at 3 p.m.