Despite all the faces making music together when the Virginia Symphony Orchestra paired with its chorus, JoAnn Falletta could always spot one.
The longtime, legendary conductor was drawn to the robust alto section where Minette Cooper beamed.
“She would stand out because she was glowing,” said Falletta, the Grammy-winning pioneer who spent 29 years as music director of the Virginia Symphony. ”She had this incredible love for music. Looking at her just made my spirits soar.”
Bettie Minette Cooper, who died last month at 87, was a transformative figure in Hampton Roads arts through six decades of largely volunteer service. The number of boards she served on and the leadership positions she held fill eight pages.
Yet Cooper was never about advancing her own career.
Her dedication to elevating the arts locally reflected her vision that inspiring young, diverse audiences was essential to education and community growth. She was equally passionate about sustaining arts programming for future generations.
Anna Heywood Green is the CEO of the Virginia chapter of Arts for Learning, which connects children to the arts. Cooper shaped the nonprofit, previously known as Young Audiences, as its three-time board president. She worked as a staffer for years without taking a salary and served on the national board.
“Whenever we would talk about funding loss, her first question wasn’t, ‘How does that affect the budget?’” Green said. “It was always, ‘How do we get the money back to serve those children? Who do I need to talk to?’ What was always important to her was that we were serving students who would not otherwise experience the programming we offered.”
Cooper's son, Erik, was introduced to the arts as a youngster, learning piano like his siblings, Jeff and Brooke. He regularly accompanied his mother, president of the Virginia Symphony from 1986 to 1988, to orchestra concerts. After listening together for a while, she would trust his ear while she checked the acoustics.
“Mom would basically ask me to be her eyes and ears, listening to the musicians,” Erik said. “She would walk the halls to find where the dead spots might be. Acoustics were important to her.
“She rolled up her sleeves with all the arts she did around here.”
Minette Cooper’s friendship with Green dates to 1996, when Green started her career at the Virginia Stage Company’s box office. Cooper was on its board and instrumental in the revitalization of the Wells Theatre, home to the stage company.
Green remembers Cooper, dressed to the nines, standing in the middle of the stage front undergoing renovation.
“That’s exactly who she was – impeccably dressed and elbows deep being part of the work," she said.
Cooper grew up in Mississippi and lost her mother when she was 10, but she had already inherited her love of music. She attended Smith College in Massachusetts and finished her degree in musicology at Barnard College in New York. By then, she had married Charles Cooper, a Columbia University law student whom she met on a blind date. They were together for 66 years until his death in February.
He was from Norfolk, which became their permanent home.
“I’ve learned that one of her stipulations for moving to this area was that she was used to a vibrant cultural social life in New York,” Green said. “If she was going to come here, there needed to be something here, so that’s what she dedicated herself to.”
Erik Cooper said his mother’s commitment to making music accessible to everyone stems from her teenage years in Vicksburg, where she grew up. Minette Cooper attended boarding school in New York during high school, returning home for the summers when she volunteered at a health clinic. The inequities she witnessed left an impression.
“She saw these young African American women who were dealing with the stresses of childbirth without having true medical help around,” Erik said. Once she moved to the northeast permanently, she fully recognized the disparities between the rich and poor in the South.
Cooper also contributed to the sustainability of local arts, even as performances evolved. She enjoyed community theater, “even if she didn’t get it,” Green said. “Those were her words, not mine. She wanted to make sure that we as a community were embracing and moving forward and always being thoughtful about each other as nonprofits.”
Chuck Woodward recalled meeting Cooper for the first time 40 years ago while working as a pianist for Virginia Opera. He was auditioning for Young Audiences and she was on the panel adjudicating the educational programming. He was impressed by her insightful comments. A few years later, he became music director at Ohef Sholom Temple, where the Coopers were members.
Cooper was the temple’s first female president in the mid-’80s, back when a paid quartet provided the music for services.
“It had been that way forever,” Woodward said. “Until Minette came to me and said, ‘Can we sing?’”
Cooper and two others began singing during summer services. Her influence led to the start of the congregational choir, which remains active.
“The Friday before she died, she was singing in the choir,” Woodward said.
Nothing fazed Cooper, either. Longtime friend Jennifer Priest remembers fondly how Cooper was “particular about particular things in her life: strong coffee with half and half and a lot of sugar, along and only the freshest crayfish.
“She understood life; she understood people,” Priest said. “I could ask her personal advice on anything. She might want a little bit of time to think about it, but she would give you guidance. And my experience was if you followed it, things would work out right.”
Erik recalls he and his siblings crabbing from a pier one day in Ocean View. As the afternoon wore on, they were eager to take their crabs home, where Cooper was preparing for an elegant evening out. Only the Cooper children didn’t realize they wouldn’t be allowed on the city bus carrying live crabs.
“She had this nice, beautiful dress on and she came down and picked us up,” Erik said. “We ended up cooking the crabs when we got home. That explains who Mom was as much as anything.”
Woodward shared 10 pages of individual tributes to Cooper during her memorial service. One from Christy Havens, chief operating officer of the Virginia Symphony, reads: “If I had to pick one word to describe Minette, it would be fierce. She was a fierce advocate with high standards, never shy to demand better for education. If she thought we had missed the mark, balancing learning and entertainment in a family concert ... boy, would I get an earful the next day! And then we'd get it right next time, and she'd say so with the same intensity, making sure we knew why it was good so we could build on that.”