"Yeah, I have to watch him," wife Geri adds with a smirk.

Like many couples married for several decades, the Actors are quite familiar with one another. More than just sharing quips, however, they also share many of the same interests.

Both Actors are members of the Palo Alto Philharmonic (PAP), a nonprofit community orchestra now in its 50th season. Geri is the president and one of the viola players; Lee is the assistant conductor to conductor Gideon Grau. He is also a composer whose new work, Symphony No. 1, will be premiered by PAP on April 26.

Not only did they first meet and fall in love because of music, but they even began studying the art form at the very same age. Lee began playing the violin when he was 7; Geri began playing piano at 7 and violin at 9.

"My mother got a piano because she wanted to play. I loved playing it, learning it, everything. To me, the physical act of playing it is fun," Geri says. "I wanted to play the cello in school, but I was too small to play it, so I took up the violin."

"When I was growing up, I had to beg my parents to get me a Beethoven symphony collection record for my birthday. They just weren't into it at all," recalls Geri, as Lee comments that neither of his parents were particularly involved in music either.

By her college days at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, N.Y., Geri had shifted to the violin's slightly larger cousin, the viola, which she played in the campus orchestra and has concentrated on ever since. At the time, she says, there wasn't anyone to play the viola, and she also liked the timbre of the instrument and how it complemented her alto singing voice.

Lee has his own reasons for choosing the violin. "My perception was that violins got to play the more important parts of a symphony," he says with a grin.

"I have more of an interest in music and how it works than in performing it, though. The thing that told me I wasn't cut out to be a performer was when I got a scholarship to a summer string program at the University of Cincinnati. We had to practice 12 to 15 hours a day," he recalls. "I found it to be very boring and repetitive. To reach a high level, you have to train—just like an athlete does—and I didn't want to do that."

It's a good thing he served as concertmaster of RPI's orchestra, however, or he might never have met his wife.

"Lee was making all sorts of smart comments about the people coming in," Geri recalls of her first meeting with her future husband. "So I made smart remarks about his remarks."

"We both found each other to be obnoxious!" Lee says, smiling at his wife, to which she adds: "Later, for some reason, I decided Lee would be an interesting person to know."

Between RPI, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and San José State University, the Actors hold a fistful of degrees: she in physics and materials engineering; he in electrical engineering and music composition. While both have performed in symphonies throughout their lives, they've also consistently managed to juggle heavily technical pursuits—not to mention raising two sons.

Lee, for example, spent some 20 years in the field of video and computer game design, which included creating games' soundtracks and musical effects. "I found designing video games to be as creative as composing music," says Lee, who now concentrates solely on conducting and composing.

"I like learning and preparing great pieces of music. Most of a conductor's work takes place before he ever steps in front of an orchestra. You have to get to know each piece intimately," he says of what draws him to this challenging position.

Geri has worked 24 years in high-tech industries, particularly dealing with research and development and semiconductor fabrication. She later got into product and business development. After a layoff two years ago, she became an independent marketing and business consultant to high-tech companies, which also affords her time to dedicate to the Palo Alto Philharmonic and her viola playing.

"Performing makes you sharp and focused. Without it, you wouldn't have a reason to practice and keep getting better," she says.

Lee says he's particularly excited that PAP will be premiering his Symphony No. 1, since it's a group with which he and his wife are so familiar.

"When we were rehearsing my own piece, it was like it had left the nest and acquired wings," he says, smiling.

For more information about PAP, call 408.395.2911 or visit www.paphil.org.