RIP Richard Rephann.
February 6, 2015
Richard Rephann with a student. Photo by Harold Shapiro
Just last night I made a mental note to check on my old teacher and his health, and now I stumble on this sad news. His lessons were marked by plain-speaking (I remember that I once said that I had a technical issue that I wanted to work out in a piece, and his comment was: “At your age [I was 21], any technical issue is a matter of geriatrics”); but he was also remarkably generous to me in ways that mattered, and when I received my degree I was stunned at the voluntary offers of professional help and unexpected recommendations that he gave me.
If You’re a Musician, You May Nevertheless Have Something to Say About Other Things
February 5, 2015
If you’re a musician (or an exponent of any other art or craft), you may have long since reconciled yourself to the idea that nobody expects you to have anything worth saying about politics, current events, or other subjects of general interest. If you want to change that, you might consider moving to Catalonia. Today I was on Barcelona television for the fifth time in three years (the first two times being while I still lived in New York but was known to be involved with Catalan culture). I’ve also been interviewed on the whole of two radio programs and had a full-page interview in my (small-town) paper. Smaller societies are different from the vast United States expanse and gargantuan media culture that I grew up in. Small countries have great advantages for exchanging ideas.
Here’s today’s program:
http://www.elpuntavui.tv/video.html?view=video&video_id=118834611
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