CHRIS ANDRES

Chris was born in Essex, England near the end of WWII. Her memories of the war years include a land mine shattering the glass in her home and the bombing of her school.

After the war, Chris took piano lessons and learned to play the violin and recorder at school. At age 11 she won a music scholarship for promising young musicians to the Royal Academy of London where she studied piano and violin. When she was 14 she played in a quartet with Jacqueline du Pre, who later became one of the world’s most famous cellists.

Chris traveled to Berlin with a youth orchestra during the food airlift…Berlin was cut off by the communists. Crossing over at Check Point Charley Chris got lost in East Berlin. The kind people who helped her get back into West Berlin by train were not allowed there themselves.

At eighteen Chris was accepted as a student at the Royal Academy where she earned a music degree. She met and played with some famous musicians including Yehudi Menuhin, violin, Sir John Barbirolli, conductor, and Ravi Shankar, sitar. As if that wasn’t enough excitement for her, she was also in a movie about musicians, tried gliding and took sailing lessons.

After teaching music in Essex for two years, Chris emigrated to the USA in 1967 to teach music in a private school in Sherman Oaks, where most of the students were children of the movie industry…She experienced culture shock! Maids, chauffeurs actors, directors. She met her husband, Dante, at a dance in 1967 and they married in June 1968. They had two daughters and moved to Tustin in 1972.

Chris joined the Tustin Tennis Club about 30 years ago and played for the Tustin Acers for many years. She was captain twice and co-captain three times. She was on the team in 1992 when they won first place, and again this year when the team went undefeated to win the championship.

She has held positions as Membership, Secretary, Publicity, Tournament Director, Getaways, Newsletter, and has been Vice-President for 6 years. With all these responsibilities she still managed to win many Club tournaments.

Her hobbies, besides tennis, are gardening, ping-pong, and playing the violin. Last year she played in the Chapman Chamber Orchestra. One of her favorite things is to travel to other countries, especially to England and Ireland where her two sisters and brother live.

Her vision for the TTC is to add a walking group, a ping-pong group and travel group.