Path: nuchat!menudo.uh.edu!swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!not-for-mail From: dave.lampson@pulse.com (Dave Lampson) Newsgroups: rec.music.classical Subject: rec.music.classical Biographical Compendium Part 3 of 3 Date: 2 Sep 1993 09:55:58 -0500 Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway Lines: 1011 Sender: daemon@cs.utexas.edu Message-ID: <9309021428.AA07821@software.pulse.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu Sami Mitra (smitra@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu) ---------- I was born in 1963 in Calcutta, India, and did not listen to Western classical music for the first 16 years of my life. The earliest memories of such music that I have is the soundtrack of Dr. Zhivago! It's not that I come from an unmusical family. We listened to lot of Indian music. I never did get any training in any kind of music, though, and now I fear I'm too old. Anyhow, I got my first exposure to music of this genre during my later teens... through a Furtwangler recording of Beethoven's 5th, through Szell's cycle of Beethoven's symphonies, through a James Laughran/Halle version of Bolero and, most impressionably, through a Russian (Melodiya) recording of the Rite of Spring! My first listen to operatic music was through two cassettes recorded by a friend. One was a compilation of Mozart's arias, sung by Leontyne Price and friends. The other was the Karajan/Pavarotti/Freni Boheme. I came to this country for a Ph.D. in physics (am almost done and desperately trying to hook in that elusive job) at, fortuitously, Indiana University in Bloomington. This has really been the best choice for one to get to nurture one's dilletantish interest, as it were, even though the music school has done away with their Easter performances of Parsifal! So here I am, listening to more and more Wagner, and feeling that I should remove the flaw in that I should listen to more chamber music too. Oh well! Tony Movshon (movshon@nyu.edu) ------------ Born in New York, 1950. I'm a Professor of Neural Science at NYU, and a musical amateur. My parents were both very interested in music, especially my father, who wrote for OPERA, HIGH FIDELITY and MUSICAL AMERICA in the '60s and '70s. I successfully resisted serious music until my junior year in high school, when I became captivated by Mahler and then rapidly introduced myself to the classical literature with my parents' willing help. Turns out that I had learned more through the door over my unreceptive years than I thought, and I kept finding myself over the years hearing "new" pieces of music that I actually knew well. That still happens now and again, but I think it's just my memory failing. Although I wrote an occasional piece of criticism and dabbled in conducting while I was at University in England, I'm really just a listener. My grounding in theory is sparse, and I came to my interest in music too late to learn any instrument other than the guitar. Children flee and strong men weep when I try to sing. I remain fond of large late-romantic symphonic music, and of 19th-century German opera, especially Wagner. My main musical fantasy is to conduct Die Meistersinger at Bayreuth. But my top ten always includes Haydn, Mozart, Ravel, and Schubert. I'm blind to most of the baroque and to most post-1945 music, but I freely admit that those are character defects. Iain Neill Reid (inr@eccles.caltech.edu) --------------- Date of birth - 1 April 1957 Place of birth - Helensburgh, Dunbartonshire Nationality - Scots Education - Perth Academy St. Andrews Univ. (B. Sc. 1979, Astronomy) Edinburgh Univ. (Ph. D., 1983, Astronomy) Spent 4 years working at Sussex University/Royal Greenwich Observatory (when the latter was at Herstmonceux Castle, Sussex) and moved to Pasadena, California in 1986. Been working at Caltech/Palomar Observatory since then. No formal musical training. Musical Activities - I sing tenor in a local community choir and was party to the founding of an (informal) madrigal/renaissance music group at Caltech (Cantores Atri Mortis - The Singers Of The Black Death). Also took up the clarinet again a couple of years ago (after a lapse of some 16 years+). And I've been listening to music and collecting recordings since the early 1970s. Particular interests - Renaissance vocal music, Beethoven, Haydn, Berlioz, Sibelius, British music since the Victorian revival, French 17th C Particular idiosyncrasies - I'm a Toscanini-phile (as may have become apparent). I don't set him up as god, but his interpretations get closer to the heart of most pieces than most. And I think Haydn is one of the most under-rated composers around... Hugh C. Resnick (hresnick@midway.uchicago.edu) --------------- Born -- April 7, 1969. B.A.(Music) -- Kenyon College, 1991 M.A. (Musicology) -- University of Chicago, expected 1994. Ph.D. -- hee, hee... you must be joking. My first real music experience came at the age of ten when I heard my church choir perform (my family was living in England at the time), so from the beginning I was hooked on the boychoir sound. Returning to the United States, I joined my church choir here, even though I was 12 years old which made me about 20 years younger than the next older person. Also was in choirs at school, did some musical theater but never could really get the acting part down. Did some composing for a prduction of Two Gentlemen of Verona. When I left high school, I made up my mind to do something "real-world" instead of wasting my time with music. Got to college, joined the choir, and was immediately hooked again, and so gave up any thought of being a Economics major. Sung in choirs, opera workshops, a cappella groups, founded a barbershop quartet "The uncalled four". Received an award for my musical activities. For a year after college, worked in the choral department at Carl Fischer, Inc. in Chicago. Sang with The Chicago Choirmen. Applied to and got in to the U of Chicago. Starting on my second year here in Hyde Park -- still loving music, although realizing that there is so much in the orchestral/ chamber music field that I just don't know and have to eventually. Favorite composers -- Britten, Josquin, Brahms, Beethoven (cliche, yes). Unfavorite composers -- Wagner... well, that's all I can think of. Reason -- "I recognize his genius, but that doesn't mean that I must like his music." Bruce Rodean (rodean@fc.hp.com) ------------ My mother is a pianist and organist. She's been a church organist forever or so it seems. I learned to play piano at a young age and can still read music but have not played seriously for some time. I took up the trombone around 10 or so and was part of a sibling orchestra--older brother on trumpet, older sister on flute, me on trombone, younger sister on violin, and youngest sister on bassoon--with Mom on piano conducting. I played trombone in a local stage band until braces forced me to quit. I'd classify myself as a seat-of-the-pants classical CD collector. I either like it or I don't. I categorically dislike opera (a friend once remarked that "it would be OK if they just didn't sing") and I find solo and small ensemble (e.g. quartets) works usually boring. I fanatically read reviews in Stereo Review, CD Review, and Fanfare (and even r.m.c) looking for stuff that might pique my interest. I also borrow recordings from the public library. My CD collection runs from Acoustic Alchemy to ZZ Top. It is mostly rock/pop, but classical is the second largest group with reggae a growing third. Jazz and new age are next, along with a few country artists and some soundtracks. I have CDs of the classical biggies (Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, Handel) but have also tried out some lesser known composers like Bantock, Martinu, Delius, and Zemlinsky. Terje Rydland (terjer@ifi.unit.no, terje.rydland@ifi.unit.no) ------------- Born on 6th of February 1953 in Sarpsborg, Norway. Presently working at the Dept. of Informatics (Computer Science), University of Trondheim, Norway. Married, 2 children (Martin age 6, Eva age 4) I started playing the trumpet at 6, back in 1959, and kept at it (without getting much better) until 1971 at which time I dropped it due to lack of interest. In 1972 I started studying chemistry at the University of Trondheim. At this time my interest in classical music was aroused, but I cannot pin it down to an actual event. My Norwegian teacher in college probably helped a bit, since he was (and still is) the most avid record (CD) collector in Trondheim. During the 60s and the early 70s my interest was mainly in pop/rock music, but I got fed up after Jimi Hendrix died in '71 and started exploring the world of classical music just after this. My first classical LPs I bought in '73. This was the complete Brahms symphonies (Vienna P.O./Kertesz) and Der Freischutz (Staatskapelle Dresden/Kleiber). I started subscribing to Gramophone and became a member of the Musical Heritage Society in the US. I bought a lot of records during my studies, and now possess quite a lot of LPs and CDs. In 1979 I went to Prague to work at the University for 5 weeks. I met my wife in Prague and we were married there in 1981. Due to this I usually spend every summer holiday in Prague visiting her family. There are lots of outdoor concerts in Prague in summer. A favourite spot is Bertramka, Duseks villa in Prague where Mozart stayed when in Prague. I do a lot of record buying in Prague and so I have a large collection of Supraphon records with music by composers like Novak, Martinu, Fibich, Ostrcil, Foerster, Krommer and Myslivecek. Also the complete works by Bedrich Smetana. I like a lot of this music which is not much played in Norway. Generally my musical taste is in favour of opera and chamber music. Mostly I now listen to chamber music because I don't have the time to listen to a whole opera in one sitting. Earlier I concentrated on the classical/romantic period - music composed before 1750 and after 1900 didn't interest me much. Now this has changed, and it is the period before 1750 and after 1900 that I listen to most. Personal favourites from the baroque are Purcell and Monteverdi. I still don't get much from composers like Schoenberg, Berg and Webern, but I listen a lot to music by composers like Poulenc, Prokofiev and Schostakovich, and I have a soft spot for English composers like Elgar, Holst and Vaughan Williams. Lately I have been discovering the music of American composers like Copland, Piston, Ives and Schuman. My favourite opera composer is undoubtedly Richard Wagner, closely followed by Richard Strauss and Mozart. I have been to Bayreuth twice, but have so far not been able to be there for the festival. This is one of my projects for the next 10 years. My big discovery in opera lately is Beatrice et Benedict by Berlioz. A late discovery are the songs by Schubert. I am currently collecting the Hyperion series of his complete songs due to be completed in 1997. So music is my big hobby. Another hobby is wine where I try to specialize on the Bordeaux district. My third hobby (and also my job) is computers, and I spend many hours in the evening with my trusted Macintosh. Henry D. Shapiro (shapiro@unmvax.cs.unm.edu) ---------------- Associate Professor of Computer Science University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131 Office: (505) 277-3052 Home: (505) 268-8993 Musical Tastes: In approximate decreasing order of interest: chamber music (string quartets in particular) large romantic orchestral works (Mahler, Bruckner, etc.) Mozart and Wagner operas 20th century orchestral works (Shostakovich, Prokofiev, etc.) choral works ...all other forms of classical music... Musical Education: Amateur. Very serious listener. Since in chorus from time to time. Used to play flute and violin (high school -- 30 years ago). Greg Skinner (gds@cs.ucla.edu) ------------ I was born in 1961 in NYC. Greg Skinner was born in 1961 in NYC. He is currently employed as a staff programmer for the UCLA computer science department, doing systems programming for the Ficus distributed system research group. He earned an MS in computer science from UCLA in 1992. Currently, Greg's musical interests are in music theory as applied to songwriting/arranging, voice, and keyboards. He hopes to gain enough experience through UCLA extension classes, private instruction, and public performance to teach songwriting and voice. His other related interests are in engineering/production and practical solutions to the problems of making a living in and making time for music. Greg has performed with the UCLA Men's Glee Club under Mr. Donn Weiss. The Men's Glee Club features a repertoire of classical music, show tunes, anthems, spirituals, and international songs. He has also performed as a baritone soloist with the UCLA Campus Choir under Dr. Stephanie Henry. The Campus Choir's repertoire is classical music and spirituals. Greg's primary classical compositional influence is Bach. His primary non-classical compositional influences are R&B songwriters of the 60s and 70s, such as Gamble & Huff, Ashford & Simpson, etc. He also enjoys today's "new jack swing" grooves. Richard F. Smith (r4smith@student.business.uwo.ca) ---------------- Born, Vancouver B.C. in 1957 B.Mus. in Music History from University of British Columbia A.M. in Musicology from Harvard University Ph.D. (almost) from Harvard University. Dissertation--"The Prix de Rome Cantatas of Claude Debussy" M.B.A. (1/2 way through) from University of Western Ontario, where I toil still. Lived in Vancouver, Boston, Paris, London (UK), Toronto and lately London Ontario. Given a choice I'd have stayed in Paris forever. A magical place. In between Universities have worked as a graphic artist and teacher of computerized graphic art. Also had a brief but interesting stint in real estate finance for a major Canadian shopping centre developer, but hope not to repeat it. Want to work for a record company when I grow up and hope to grow up soon. That's why the MBA. Next year will be doing a research project on classical record marketing in Canada. Can't wait. Wife is a pianist and piano teacher and doing doctorate in Piano Performance and Pedagogy at Northwestern at about the same speed I am completing mine at Harvard. Very Slowly. We have a 16 month old wunderkind whose name is Jeffrey William Alexander Smith, but whose middle initials suggest Wolfgang Amadeus to me. Collection of about 3,000 records and another two hundred or so CDs. Favourite composer? Probably Bach, whose works are so astounding as to defy description. The ones I most like to listen to though are probably Debussy or Ravel. Harold Smoliar (harold.smoliar@db1.speech.cs.cmu.edu) --------------- I am 35 years old. I have been the English hornist of the Pittsburgh Symphony since September 1979. Before that, I was the principal oboist of the Orquestra Sinfonica Brasileira of Rio de Janeiro for one season. I graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia in 1978 where I studied the oboe with John de Lancie, now former principal oboist of the Philadelphia Orchestra. I am married to an oboist, Virginia [formerly Proschan] who received her Masters from Temple and studied with Richard Woodhams, principal oboist of the Philadelphia Orchestra. We have twin daughters who study the piano [they are 7 years old]. I play jazz piano for fun and profit, occasionally, in the Symphony Jazz Quartet, a group that I organized. [Brother of Stephen Smoliar - see below. ed.] Stephen Smoliar (smoliar@iss.nus.sg) --------------- Born July 8, 1946, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania I cannot remember if I learned to read music before or after I learned to read English. I DO remember doing both before I got into school thanks to the encouragement of my parents, who also got me started on children's concerts, local Gilbert and Sullivan, and the occasional ballet. I did not take to my childhood piano lessons and moved on to clarinet, saxophone, and choral singing during my school days. I gave them all up when I entered MIT figuring that I would have to put all my time into studying and joined the campus radio station as my primary extra-curricular activity, giving them their first program of 20th century music. Life at MIT was a matter of trying to be a good student and trying to apply what I learned to music. This culminated in my doctoral thesis under Marvin Minsky, "A Parallel Processing Model of Musical Structures." After that, my life became a losing battle to raise support for the sort of music research I wanted to do, the University of Pennsylvania probably being my greatest scene of disappointment. I gave up on the academic world, did software engineering research at General Research Corporation in Santa Barbara and artificial intelligence for Schlumberger in Ridgefield, Connecticut (not too far from Ives' house). I became part of the bulletin board community after I moved to the Information Sciences Institute in Marina del Rey, and that part of my world has followed me to Singapore where my multimedia research has finally allowed me to return to serious thoughts about music. In the midst of all this, I returned to the piano with a more serious attitude. The academic side of me still worries about publications. Work based on my thesis appeared in the JOURNAL OF MUSIC THEORY. My work at Penn found its way to COMPUTERS AND THE HUMANITIES and COMPUTER MUSIC JOURNAL. My most recent article will be appearing in IN THEORY ONLY, and I am doing my best to keep up with the conference and workshop scene. Also, I now have a Macintosh which talks to my Yamaha Clavinova (I could not take my Baldwin to Singapore), primarily in Max. [Brother of Harold Smoliar - see above. ed.] Max Stern (lms@torreypinesca.ncr.com) --------- I was born in 1939 in Cleveland, Ohio, the eldest of six children. Our parents were both amateur musicians (oboe, clarinet, piano, cello), and music was always in our life: playing, singing, records, radio, and trips to Severance Hall. I remember, for example, that the Metropolitan opera broadcasts with Milton Cross were on our radio every Saturday. In other words, my parents provided a music-rich environment, and it's still one of the things I am most grateful to them for. My great aunt, Mollie Brudno, was an impressaria in Cleveland. Once, when I was pre-teen age, I went to a concert with Artur Rubinstein that she had produced. After the concert, I went down front, where Aunt Mollie asked, "Well, Maxie, how did you like it?" My reply, "It was pretty good", became a family legend -- the boy who thought Rubinstein was only "pretty good"! I took piano lessons for about six years, from age 9 to 15. At one point, my parents asked a teacher about my musical talents. "Well," said the teacher diplomatically, "Maxie will never be another Horowitz..." And so it turned out. I still play piano, but only for recreation, and I have been singing in one or another chorus essentially continuously since I was ten, including a brief membership in the Harvard Glee Club under Eliot Forbes. I also play guitar (I own a Takamine) and folk-sing, occasionally performing and/or leading a sing-along. And for the last two years, I have been getting into Square Dancing in a big way. I have never composed, but I once harmonized for SATB a melody that I found in a compendium of Jewish liturgical songs, and heard it sung by the chorus I belong to. I think it came out pretty well. If forced to identify my favorite composers, I would name Bach, Brahms, and Prokofief; but there are many others I love. In fact, my taste is fairly broad and eclectic, but the center of my musical universe is defined by those three names. By profession, I am a systems software programmer in the Large Computer Products Division of NCR. I am engaged to be married on September 20, 1992. David Straface (xavier@pf.adied.oz.au) -------------- Born 8 March 1965 in Moundsville, West Virginia, USA. Currently living in Perth, Western Australia and employed as a Senior Software Engineer, ADI - Electronics Division Though fiercely proud of his American history, David is through and through an Australian (physically, emotionally, spiritually and legally) having come to the sun-burnt country at the tender age of 7. In a case study for "blending in with the natives" the young Straface managed to exchange his deep southern drawl for a decidely English accent within the space of one year. His musical tastes have been described as Catholic (as in Universal) i.e., his ability to switch from Mozart to Guns'n'Roses and then to Handel's Messiah in the space of one hour has brought gasps of despair from classical buffs (shock your friends - amuse your enemies). He has an inability to digest Country & Western bar small doses of k.d. Lang. His favourite composer is Herr Mozart, arranger is Sir David Willcocks and favourite artists are (surprise, surprise) the Kings College Choir, Cambridge (esp. under Sir David). A passionate lover of the western choral tradition especially all male choirs (basses, tenors, counter-tenors and trebles), he is deeply interested in any news from other fans of the same. His favourite question is "Are there any other songs of Roy Goodman?". Carl Tait (tait@cs.columbia.edu) --------- Born 20 April 1962 in Manhattan. My family moved to Atlanta in 1964 and has stayed there ever since. I'm a Ph.D. student in Computer Science at Columbia University, hoping to defend my thesis - "File Systems for Mobile Computing" - and to leave Manhattan (permanently, this time) in Fall 1992. I'm also a computer programmer with IBM Boca Raton, and my Ph.D. studies have been supported by IBM's Resident Study Program. For reasons that remain unclear, the first musical instrument I chose to study was the bagpipe; lessons began enthusiastically at age 8. Over the next few years, I won several medals in both solo and band competition, but eventually got pretty tired of the instrument's limited capabilities. I started piano lessons at age 13, and initially planned to major in music in college. Ultimately, however, I switched over to computer science and received my bachelor's degree with honors from Harvard in 1984. While an undergrad, I studied piano privately with Gabriel Chodos, chairman of the piano department at the New England Conservatory. Currently, I'm working with Edith Oppens, mother of pianist Ursula Oppens. I play recitals and enter competitions as my schedule permits. I was one of only 23 pianists chosen to compete in the 1990 National Chopin Competition (an utterly terrifying experience), and played the opening recitals of the 1991-92 Guest Artist Series at Atlanta's DeKalb College. I've also been featured several times on Atlanta Public Radio station WABE. My musical tastes are pretty conventional: particular favorites are Chopin, Beethoven, Schubert, and Rachmaninoff. I enjoy listening to Bach, but find his music tedious to learn and nerve-wracking to perform. I like twentieth-century music of the Bartok/Prokofiev bent, but derive no pleasure from the "rocks falling on the piano" school. I've never been much of an opera fan, though my mother sang in the chorus of the Metropolitan Opera for five seasons before I was born. Timothy Takahashi (ttak@uhura.cc.rochester.edu) ----------------- (1966- ) Doctoral student in Mechanical Engineering, University of Rochester. Dissertation topic: The Dynamic Behaviour of a Disk Rotating near a Surface. Even when I was a very small child, I am told that I had a fascination for two things - things that went round and round, and music. At the age of 18 months, I was known to sit and listen to my fathers records while watching the record spin 'round and 'round and 'round. I became seriously interested in music in my early high school years. My parents had not encouraged any music lessons in my youth, so as I result I am one of the worlds worst pianists. However, I did get drafted into my High School choir after taking Music Theory as a sophomore. I have participated in various vocal groups ever since, currently a 8 year veteran of the University of Rochester (formerly Men's) Glee Club. Musical tastes: Bach through Rachmaninoff, early Jazz and boring mainstream Pop. Current kick, recordings from the 78 era. Favourite conductor: Leopold Stokowski. I have a medium largish record collection: 750 LPs, 200 78s and am firmly opposed to digititis and the CD. I have designed and built my own stereo electronics (vacuum tube), read rec.audio.high-end, and listen to acoustical 78s on a windup Victrola. My penchant for anachronism extends into other my other hobbies; favourite photographic toy - 1959 Rolleiflex; "pet" car - 1979 Volvo. P.S. If you think your CD player makes scraping sounds as if the disk is rubbing against something inside; you're right! Gregory Taylor (uunet!cs.wisc.edu!vme.heurikon.com!gtaylor%heurikon.uucp) -------------- Born 8/21/53 Louisville, KY Wore a patch over his right eye as a youth in lieu of surgery to correct a slightly crossed and lazy eye. The compensatory mechanism remains a constant thematic thread. Nonmusical parents, unless one counts Christmas records and the occasional Elvis movie at the drive-in - Bachelor's in Painting from Wheaton College 1975 - Work history since then has largely consisted of stints as a waiter/keyboard player in a North Carolina bar band/tech in cryogenics and quadropole steering magnets at Fermilab/Bell Labs/Cornell University Theory Center [writing grants, answering questions on networks in the days before they were intelligent/Astronautics Corporation/Heurikon Corporation [where I toil as a technical writer/editor] - Took occasional electronic music seminar when possible [Robert Ceeley at the New England Conservatory, Peter Rothbart at Ithaca College] Active in the "cassette culture" movement in the early 1980s [I even got my name in John Schaefer's book, but he lost my address] - wrote for OP and Option in the 80s - at the Institute of Sonology [89] in Den Haag until my wife's Fulbright money ran out and we headed home - Studied central Javanese gamelan with Sumarsam, Martin Fellowes Hatch [Cornell], R. Anderson Sutton, B. P. Minarno, and A. L. Suwardi [University of Wisconsin] - currently host a radio program of some 5 year vintage of late 20th century music with no respect for genres whatsoever on the local Pacifica affiliate. When I have a moment, I'm attempting to learn to work with Cmix in the splendid isolation of the midwest [thank G*d for decent correspondents like Paul Lansky, Bill Parod, Frances White, and email!]. My idea of a good time: Cornelius Cardew, John Tavener, Kaaija Saariaho, James Tenney, Sundanese music, Paul Lansky, Eno, Feldman, Terry Riley, Takemitsu, Thomas Tallis, Andriessen, Bryars, Partch, Cage, and what Ge Gan Ru I've heard. Not a big fan of Opera [except for Laurie Anderson] though I liked the sets for Penderecki's "Paradise Lost." This Corigliano guy may be on to something as well. All of the above is provisional and marginal - as are my tastes, I suspect. I'm one of those awful folks who came to High Culture by way of Cage and tried to work backwards, with limited success. I'm a bad person to discuss the music of dead, white, Northern Europeans with. That's why I graze here. My wife's in Dutch lit and literary theory, and what critical apparatus I bring to this place must certainly reflects the artifacts of connubial bliss [marrying me is her only recorded lapse in taste] as does my current choice of habitation [it's where she is, and I'm a faculty spouse for whom technical writing provides the mobility to pursue She Whom I Love as she makes her way through the scholarly world] Cointreau on Ice/Don DeLillo's "Mao II"/thinning - the proper revenge for those of us with long hair in th 70s. I can maintain only a ratty little braid/Japanese pop, definitely/"Reading Minds: English Literature in an age of Cognitive Science"/Fragrant Shrimp/It tends to Merlots, generally. Michael Thorn (mthorn@madvax.uop.edu) ------------- I was born into a family of music hobbyists, my mother being an amateur singer and my father an amateur trombonist. Both are classical music enthusiasts with a rather large record collection, so I was introduced to lots of classical music at an early age. (To this day I will still hear melodies and recognize them, but not know what they are.) I started taking lessons on piano at age five or six, basically because my parents told me "You're going to." I hated it and quit after a year. Then, in third grade, I (voluntarily) started playing the trumpet. In high school I became interested in composing... mainly through improvising at the piano, as well as in an electronic music course I took for three years. My senior year, my first opportunity to hear one of my "works" (actually it was just an arrangement of the Pachelbel Canon in D for concert band) arose, and I took it. It was played by the Santa Clara County Honor Band; unfortunately, the conductor (my high school band director) was a complete blundering idiot and the performance was terrible. This put me off composing for a while. I applied and was accepted to the Conservatories at Oberlin and the University of the Pacific; I elected to attend the latter, as a major in music education. After a year and a half of dabbling in boring education classes and attempting to play several different instruments (bassoon, clarinet, oboe, tuba, trombone, percussion, and piano, to name a few), I decided to change my major to composition. I'm *much* happier now. I study with Curt Veeneman and Ron Caviani, both of whom are excellent composers themselves whom I admire very much and I am learning a great deal from them. Although my principal instrument is still trumpet, I don't like my teacher here, and I find the instrument to be profoundly frustrating anyway. I also take piano lessons, and I'm more and more becoming attracted to that instrument. I work at a public radio station on campus, in the production department - putting together service announcements, promotional stuff, and doing live and studio recording. I am also student-in-charge of the MIDI studio. I like my job *much* more than my classes! My musical taste is quite varied...I mainly listen to "industrial" music, such as Skinny Puppy, Doubting Thomas, Ministry, Throbbing Gristle, etc. I also enjoy rock and jazz (Miles Davis' _Kind Of Blue_ is one of my all-time favorite albums), and I enjoy a quite a variety of classical music. If I were forced to pinpoint my favorite composers I guess I would say Paul Hindemith, Fisher Tull, Gustav Mahler, and Frank Zappa. Also, although I do not generally enjoy most of his music, I find Samuel Barber's _Adagio for Strings_ to be one of the most beautiful, moving pieces of music in the repertoire. (Especially as conducted by Leonard Bernstein.) Mainly I find that I enjoy *performing* classical music more than I enjoy *listening* to it - since it is so much more complex than pop or rock, it is much easier for me to understand it and really get into it when I am playing it. My favorite pieces I have performed include Fisher Tull's _Sketches on a Tudor Psalm_, Paul Hindemith's _Symphony no. 1_ for wind ensemble, Schubert's _Unfinished Symphony_, Bizet's _Carmen_, and Copland's _An Outdoor Overture_. For brief amounts of time I can listen to _any_ kind of music; but as a whole, it is safe to say that I am not interested in Country/Western, opera, or musicals at all. I like a little rap, but not too much, and I can't stand most of what gets played in the top 40. And as a general rule, I am more likely to enjoy a piece of classical music if it was written in the 20th century; I find most Baroque and Classical music quite boring - yes, even Mozart and Bach. Although I do enjoy the _Toccata and Fugue in D Minor_, especially as performed by The Canadian Brass. I have one sister who is a fanatic of jazz and the Greatful Dead. I don't have any pets, although I always wanted a dog. And I enjoy reading a lot. My current favorite is _The Real Frank Zappa Book_, which I recommend to absolutely EVERYBODY, except maybe Tipper Gore. The man is a genius. Jennifer Turney (turney@cs.cornell.edu) --------------- Recreational pianist; chimesmaster (19-bell chime); dabble in recorder and sing occasionally. Soon finishing PhD in Computer Science at Cornell. Started piano lessons at five, stopped at sixteen after switching teachers and not being happy with the new one. I've done lots of accompanist work, starting with choirs in sixth grade and musicals in eighth. Right now I work primarily with the local Gilbert and Sullivan group (Cornell Savoyards), which is great fun, and sometimes help out a local elementary school music teacher. My father played drums in a jazz band as a teen and has an extensive jazz record collection; I can remember there being some classical recordings mixed in, but not many, so I think the piano lessons were the main introduction for me. As a student at Mills College, in the San Francisco Bay area, I had lots of opportunities to hear good music, took a couple of theory courses and was introduced to grand opera, a hobby which I try to actively pursue (as far as a grad student's limits will allow). My range of familiarity, both in opera and classical music in general, is not particularly broad, but those pieces I do know I know very well -- the music library here is a fine resource for music scores. I own only a few CDs, which is just as well since I don't yet own a CD player (I don't think I'll be able to hold out much longer). Judging by the music I actually own, I'm principally a classical/romanticist: Mozart, Bach, Brahms, Mahler, Chopin, Debussy. But I love to play baroque piano music (much more than listen to it). I also like jazz (with a preference for stuff in the last, oh, thirty years), musicals (especially Sondheim), and intelligent modern rock (i.e., where some non-trivial amount of thought has been devoted to the lyrics and music). Raymond S. Tuttle (ray@gawain.cif.rochester.edu) ----------------- Born in Utica, New York (blecch!) October 27, 1962. Childhood experiences with classical music: playing my Dad's records to death (Bruno Walter's Beethoven, the Saint-Saens "Organ" Symphony with Biggs and Ormandy, "Aida" with Milanov and Bjoerling, etc.) Then I learned how to read. I am the worst piano player who took ten years of lessons. But I sing OK. Currently, I am a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Rochester, where I do research, supervise a residential life housing unit, chair an HIV Peer Education Program, and log on to the computer much too much. I am an obsessive "serious record collector" because I have a subscription to "Fanfare"! At least that's what the cover says . . . [Now, a reviewer for Fanfare. Ed.] Francois R. Velde (velde2@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu) ----------------- Born November 11, 1965 near Paris, France. Education through high school and college in and around Paris. My college education was in what the French call engineering, and what looks to anyone else like math. After finishing my engineering school in 1987, I came to Stanford for a Ph.D. in economics, which I completed in June 1992; I then became assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins University and moved to Baltimore with my wife in September 1992. My musical life began at age 14. My parents listened to classical music consistently, but never tried to actually educate or guide me. One night, the radio was playing Brahms' 3d violin sonata, and I felt for the first time this peculiar mix of intense nostalgia and wonder. My parents informed me that they had the complete Kammermusik of Brahms, which I started discovering LP by LP, moving from the sonatas to the sextets. I then discovered Beethoven's symphonies, and I was hooked on classical music. The major steps were then: age 16, Mahler because of Death in Venice; same age, bel canto opera at the urging of a history teacher; age 20, early music (pre-Bach), because of a new set of friends I met in college. My tastes have been moving further and further from the 19th century since that time (I currently reside in the 17th century, but I gladly listen to anything from Gregorian chant to Bartok). My main means of discovery are by buying CDs, on a student's budget, so I have been slow to discover. I also go to concerts, opera performances. To my great regret, I never learned an instrument (short-lived attempt at violin in my teens), and I have not had serious classes in music or history of music. All I know comes from CD notes. I discovered rec.music.classical recently, and, quite aware of my limitations, I try to use it as a means of learning more about music. Gabe M. Wiener (gmw1@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu) -------------- I was born on June 3, 1970 in New York City. My father has always been a music lover, but could never play a note. My mother was a music teacher, pianist, and studio musician for many years, so there was always music around when I was growing up. I learned to read the staff when I was very young...perhaps 6 or 7. I studied the piano about that time but did not take to it at first. I began studying the recorder when I was 8 and still play to this day. Although I was involved in music in high school, my interest in it did not flourish until I got to Columbia. Although I knew the music of many eras and composers quite well just from casual listening, it wasn't until I took Columbia's required Music Humanities course that my knowledge started to gel and my "passion" for music began to grow. My main performance activity has for many years been choral singing. I suppose I started doing that in grade school, and continued right up through high school and college. As an undergraduate at Columbia, I was the manager of the Barnard-Columbia Chorus for three of my four years. I also began to sing in various "ringer" jobs around NYC while in school, so in the course of my undergraduate years I was exposed to a very broad choral repertoire and got my sight-reading up to a high facility. My undergraduate major was in music, and I graduated in May of 1992. My musical interests (both performing and scholarly) fall mostly in the renaissance and baroque, though I consider myself well-versed in all periods. Although my principal performance outlet is voice, I do play the piano a little (I'm still working on a few of the Bach inventions), and still consider myself fairly proficient on the recorder. I've played in consorts and other ensembles here and there. Professionally, I'm a recording engineer who specialized in the classical field. I do a good deal of location recording both of album work and concerts. I also do all my own post-production and mastering work. I own an operate a digital mastering facility, Quintessential Sound, in New York City. Besides classical recording, mastering, and digital post-production, I also do digital restoration of old recordings, as well as forensic audio work. If you ever want to see how classical music is recorded and you're around New York... Stephen Wilcox (wilcox@vax.ox.ac.uk) -------------- Mathematical Institute, Oxford University. I was born in 1970, educated at Abingdon School, Oxfordshire, which then had a very fine music department and came to the Queen's College, Oxford in 1988 to read Maths and Philosophy. I graduated in 1991 and started work on a DPhil in Mathematical Logic, which is what I am doing now. I have always been interested in classical music: even as a child I had no interest at all in popular music and even now the only groups I can listen to are the Beatles (because of Lennon & McCartney) and Queen (because of Freddie Mercury's voice). I started learning the piano at the age of 5 and the oboe at 7 or 8. At school I played both fairly seriously and took up the organ as well, playing regularly at church. My main musical performing interest now is my voice. At the age of 10 I couldn't sing in tune, but I was in my secondary school's chamber choir from the age of 11 until I left. In the last few months of my school career my voice developed into something a bit meatier than your average 17-year-old's, but too late for me to apply to a choral foundation for a scholarship. As soon as I arrived in Oxford I was awarded a choral bursary at Queen's and started singing with the semi-professional University Church Choir, at the time the best mixed choir in Oxford. I was also accepted by Schola Cantorum of Oxford, probably because I managed to sightread Schoenberg's `Friede auf Erden' correctly. I don't know how I coped, because I was drunk at the time from a fresher's party. I still sing with Schola and given half a chance will mention one of the three CDs we've recorded in the last couple of years for Proudsound and Naxos (Blatant Plug). I will also not hesitate to mention the two or three CDs we are recording this year, which will appear in due course. One or two of them will also be Bargain Budget Naxos recordings, so will be easily affordable even by penniless students. As for listening, my main interests are, not surprisingly, in vocal music. I am particularly interested in early music and find Emma Kirkby's voice utterly magical. Unfortunately funds have never allowed a serious collection of recorded music and my LP collection has been built up haphazardly from remainders and second-hand discs. One day I will be earning some money and will be able to collect systematically. Now I am earning a pittance and can only afford to collect a very little at a time. My future plans are non-existent. I will probably try, and fail, to be employed by a British University when my funds run out in 18 months' time. I would dearly love to sing professionally but as a baritone I am not in demand and as someone who did not go to a choral foundation or a music college I do not move in the right circles. I also don't know whether I have the voice for it. I certainly have the volume, but probably not the tone. I should also mention my fiancee (until April 15 1993) Rachel, who is the mail-order person at Blackwell's music shop in Oxford and is also a leading light in the British professional gamelan scene. She is part of both the British professional gamelan orchestras, one (Segara Madu) a quartet of players of Balinese instruments and the other (Metalworks) a group who play on a modern Javanese-style gamelan built by its owner and specialise in modern music for gamelan. As far as I'm concerned she can keep the Balinese clangs and Javanese bongs but then I'm a mere Western musician. What do I know? Richard Wilmer (rwilmer@gateway.mitre.org) -------------- I am a singer (Bass, Bass-baritone) and voice teacher. Some particular areas of study and experience where I hope to serve as a resource are Bel Canto (especially Bellini), French vocal music (opera, song, operetta), Wagner, and Verdi. The opera roles I have sung most often are Melchior in Amahl (22 perf), Don Giovanni (20 perf), and Golaud in Pelleas (11 perf). However, my recent singing teacher, Zinka Milanov, helped me change from baritone to bass, and I now sing different parts in those three operas (Balthazar, Commendatore, and Arkel). I played piano and records from very early childhood, and initially went to Paris to study piano and composition (I worked with Nadia Boulanger for three years). I worked as a musical comedy singer from 1975-1981 until I began singing opera roles. Annually I teach a course coaching singers through complete opera roles. I have a part-time job as an editor at the MITRE corporation (Arlington, VA), which is why I am on the net. OPERA ROLES - 1992 GIANNI SCHICCHI - (Simone) - George Washington U 1991 AMAHL AND THE NIGHT VISITORS - (Balthazar) - Prince George's Civic Opera 1991 PARSIFAL - (Gurnemanz) - Wagner Master Classes in Bayreuth 1991 TRISTAN UND ISOLDE - Act II (Marke) - Wagner Master Classes in Bayreuth 1991 PARSIFAL - Excerpts (Gurnemanz) - Liederkranz Club, Catholic University, American Opera Scholarship Society 1989 CIBOULETTE - Excerpts (Duparquet) - L'Opera Francais 1988 AMAHL AND THE NIGHT VISITORS - (Melchior) - Prince George's Civic Opera 1987 LES P'TITES MICHU - (Gaston) - L'Opera Francais 1986 FAUST - (Mephistopheles) - Potomac Valley Opera 1985 IL TROVATORE - (Ferrando) - Potomac Valley Opera 1985 LA FORZA DEL DESTINO - Act II (Guardiano) - Westmoreland Concerts 1984 TALES OF HOFFMAN - (Coppelius) - Vienna Light Opera 1984 DON GIOVANNI - (Don Giovanni) - Potomac Valley Opera 1984 LA SONNAMBULA - (Rodolfo) - Potomac Valley Opera 1981 THE DEVIL AND KATE - (Vradny) - Sokol Opera (Kennedy Center Terrace Theatre) 1981 GIANNI SCHICCHI - (Spinelloccio) - Washington Opera Theatre OTHER ROLES - LA BOHEME - Benoit, Alcindoro MIGNON - Lothario I PURITANI - Giorgio PELLEAS ET MELISANDE - Arkel MY FAIR LADY - Henry Higgins TEACHERS - Voice Training - Zinka Milanov (1983-1989), Bruce Brewer (1975-81) Paul Derenne, Josephine Lucchese Current Coaches - Wendy Glaubitz, Donald Boothman, Muriel von Villas Wagner Master Classes in Bayreuth with Anna Reynolds and Jean Cox Composition and Accompaniment - Nadia Boulanger Opera Workshop - Jean Giraudeau (Ecole Normale de Musique) Operetta - Fanely Revoil (Paris Conservatory) VOCAL CONTEST PRIZEWINNER - Concours Leopold Bellan, U.F.A.M, Maitres du Chant Concours Internationale de la Melodie Francaise FRENCH RADIO - (L'O.R.T.F) The Ghost of Vera - (de Musset) Concert des Melodies d'Erik Satie et Henri Sauguet Ellis Workman (elw@mayo.edu) ------------- Born 1950 (South Bend, Indiana) Married with 3 children Education: BME Indiana University School of Music (1972) MFA (trumpet performance) University of Minnesota (1980) BS (Computer Science) Winona State University (1983) Taught public school instrumental music in Illinois, Michigan, & Minnesota from 1972-1981. Current position is a senior programmer/analyst in the Biomedical Imaging Resource, Mayo Clinic. Co-principal trumpet in Rochester (MN) Symphony Orchestra. Special interests are brass performance practices and brass chamber music. The biggest musical thrill of life was playing the first trumpet part in a performance of the Bach B minor Mass. Carol Gee Zarbock (czarbock@unlinfo.unl.edu) ----------------- 37 - Lincoln, Nebraska B.A. in music (76), Morningside College, Sioux City, Iowa voice emphasis, minor in bassoon & piano academic minor in psychology M.M. (5/92) in Voice Performance, University of Nebraska, Lincoln (transferred in 1/2 way through program from University of Colorado-Boulder) Sang formerly in the dramatic coloratura fach, switched to lyrico spinto in 91. Noted studio teachers: Diane McNaron Collins, Maralin Niska, Donna Harler (current) Noted academic teachers: Barbara Doscher (vocal pedagogy), Pamela Starr (musicology), Karl Kroger (research & bib) Lived and traveled abroad, extensively. Future plans: Have been accepted as a Ph.D. student in Ethnomusicology at the University of Queensland (Brisbane) to study with Dr. Helen Payne. Australian Aboriginal music emphasis. Currently in the Fulbright competition so I can afford to go! Would like to be a professor, anywhere in the world, to teach non-Western music to students--broaden their horizons and all that. I believe world-wide culture to be getting interested in preserving both our biological and cultural diversity as the planet "grows smaller." Cross-disciplines such as ethnomusicology will probably serve that function in that trend towards the end of the century, I anticipate. Sepcial interests: Mozart, ethnic music, computers, research & writing, travel, my 3-1/2 year old daughter, Astara.