Classical Music Tributes

A

Harold ("Hal") Aks

Hal Aks was the first choral conductor I ever knew. When I was nine years old, he began conducting the high school chorus at my school in New York. I would hide behind the curtain in the auditorium listening to them rehearse parts of the Brahms Requiem or Haydn masses and relish every moment, impatient for the day when I could join them.. He conducted our synagogue choir and wrote music for it. He conducted the madrigal group in my summer music camp. He also taught Bach. He was the first person to expose me and my friends to the polyphany of the b minor mass, urging us to listen carefully to the lines, the lines, the lines. Many generations of young people learned to love Bach because of Hal. He also taught at Sarah Lawrence College and conducted there. He never became an international star. But Hal did more to awaken hundreds and hundreds of young people to beautiful music than anyone in the professional music world from the late 1940s until his untimely death only a few years ago.

Rev. David Arthur, C.S.C.

Professor of Philosophy and Music, Stonehill College, North Easton, Massachusetts. 1961-65.

B

Grace Baker

My first job out of college was in the Fall of 1985 in Little Rock, Arkansas. A lady who worked at the firm, Grace Baker, always listened to "Adventures In Good Music" with Dr. Karl Hauss. From that time until now, I have been a devotee to Classical Music. And I am very grateful to Grace and Dr. Hauss's program in introducing me to the wonderful world of classical music!

Wilhelmina Van Leenen Lems Balassis

To My Mother for always having the classical station on mornings before school when we lived in NYC. Also for letting me play her classical records! Thanks, Mom

Dorothy Baumle

Arlington County music director and orchestra conductor who inspired anyone who ever worked with her. She produced many professional musicians and life time committed amateurs, including the 1955 WL Concertmistress who played with the Philadelphia Orchestra for her entire professional career after attending The Curtis Institute.

Dr. Huib Broos

My eternal thanks go to this man, who introduced me to classical music and the works of Antonin Dvorak (especially the opus 104 Cello Concerto in in b-flat. This introduction formed the bases for my interest in music, and in classical music in particular.

Over the years, Antonin Dvorak remained my favorite composer, and the more works I discovered, the more I liked him. I am glad that stations like WETA play a substantial amount of Dvorak's music therefore.

James Brown

Orchestra teacher, North Babylon Senior High School, NY. Mr. Brown exposed us to a wide range of classical literature; I love hearing something on the radio and remembering that we performed it. Besides inspiring us to practice, he was also a wicked jazz bass player!

Dieuveuille Bruno

I owe my love of classical music to my father, an entirely self-educated immigrant from Haiti. He drove a cab in DC--in addition to holding a Government job--to put his kids through school. It was hurtful when some passengers expressed surprise at hearing classical music (the old WGMS) on the radio of this Black cabbie. But Daddy loved this music and he loved this city and he enjoyed sharing them with anyone who had an open mind and heart.

C

Bill Cerri

The late, GREAT, WETA FM morning host who died on air. Great sense of humour and he always ended his show with the King Singers rendition of You Are the New Day. His show was a real delight.

Bill Cerri

Late FM talent whose gentle and soothing voice woke me each morning and who kept my love of the opera alive by playing a bit for me shortly before 9 a.m. on each "New Day."

David Cobb

David Cobb was a staff announcer at WSM in Nashville. As such, he worked on many different programs, including the Grand Ole Opry. He was the person who coined the term "Music City, USA" to describe Nashville. David was also the voice of Nashville Symphony Orchestra through the '50s and early '60s. As the evening DJ on WSM, he programmed an hour of classical music from 9 to 10 pm (just before WSM would switch formats to C&W for the 10 pm to 4 am slot) that was to only consistently available classical music broadcast when I was young.

By the time I began working as an announcer, Nashville had several stations playing classical music at least part time. I went to work for one of them. Although it WSM, David was one of my mentors, teaching me the art of announcing.

D

Eldon Dick

Eldon was my uncle. My parents retired to Frederick and Sundays my uncle and I would meet between our houses and one of us would leave our car and the other would drive their car to Frederick. I liked soft rock--he liked classical music. Whoever drove was in charge of the radio. Needless to say--my uncle usually drove.

John Dielhenn

He was my (classical) piano teacher in Princeton, NJ who introduced me at an early age to the life and work of classical composers. He was also the piano teacher of the late Christopher Reeves (before his role as Superman). I owe him a great deal of gratitude and thanks for his direction and inspiration.

Harry Dignam

This tribute is to my father, who not only listened to Smetana, Belioz, Offenbach, and von Suppé, but also Harry James and Benny Goodman as well, who sang along to Gilbert and Sullivan, and Rogers and Hammerstein, and who always laughed long and hard at Victor Borge. He introduced me to the rich world of music and then encouraged me to explore it. I took what you gave me and kept going. Thank you, Daddy, for this life long gift.

Cynthia Draeger

Cynthia Draeger was the band director at Rocky Run Middle School when I went there. She taught me how to play the trumpet and fostered an appreciation of music. While I retired my trumpet a few years later, the experience and love of music has remained with me.

Antonín Dvořák and The Lone Ranger

I grew up listening to old-time radio, when the theme songs taken from classical works made the music familiar. I somehow felt a special connection to Dvořák's music, and my interest spread from there.

E

Esther Edgar

She was my maternal grandmother who took me to Salzburg when I was 15. That trip totally changed my life by introducing me to Classical Music. Since that time in 1968, Classical Music has been a significant part of my life.

Bob Elder

He filled our lives with music.

Grandmother Emilia and father Enrique

I was born and raised in Nicaragua. To my paternal grandmother Emilia Castro there was no other music. She was deeply involved in anything related to the genre. My dad, Enrique Gurdian, was equally enthusiastic about classical and other types of music. He filled the house with the sounds of Beethoven, Mozart, Brahms, Liszt, Caruso, Zarate, Villalobos, Falla, Berlioz, Debussy, Sarita Montiel, Jorge Negrete, etc. as well as Big Band sound and Latin Music. They are both deseased but I am grateful for their lifelong gift to me and my brothers. I now live in the Mexican State of Tabasco, where thanks to the miracle of internet I listen to WETA.

F

Conductor Zubin Mehta and Director William Fertik

Their 1973 short documentary "The Bolero," a behind-the-scenes look at the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra in rehearsal for a performance of Ravel's "Bolero," was an epiphany to me as a college junior with little education in classical music.