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This is not a textual record. This is used as an
administrative marker by the George Bush Presidential
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Speechwriting, White House Office of
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Medal of Freedom Awards 12/11/92 [OA 7583] [3]
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26
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3
MEDALS OF FREEDOM
NOVEMBER 24, 1992
PAGE THREE
ISAAC STERN
As one of the world's foremost violinists, Isaac Stern has
brought beautiful music around the globe. His warm and vibrant
interpretations have brought him international acclaim since his
debut 56 years ago, and he has won our nation's highest
recognition for artistic merit, the National Medal of Arts.
Isaac Stern has enriched the human spirit by broadening the scope
of music -- he has supported artists from all corners of the
world, helped found the National Endowment for the Arts, and
rescued Carnegie Hall, the concert arena that made him famous.
For his support of the arts, his lifetime of achievement, and for
the expanded opportunities he has created for others, the United
States recognizes master violinist Isaac Stern.
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THE LIBRARY
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Date: 11-20-92
FACSIMILE COVER PAGE
TO
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Name:
Location:
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Telephone
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FROM
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Messages (if any): Carol -Gall you need of
Arts from Dres. Reagan in
want more Note Ella got Presedential Mepal father
1 of $9 pages
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12
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The New Grove Dictionary of
American Music
Volume Four
R-Z
Edited by
H. Wiley Hitchcock
and
Stanley Sadie
Editorial Coordinator
Susan Feder
muM
M
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Stern, Isaac
way's leadership the firm opened 2 factory and company village
Rushton Moreve (b Los Angeles, c1948; d Los Angeles, 1 July
in Astoria, New York, in the 1870s, a sales room in 1875,
1981), bass guitarise; and Jerry Edmonton (b Canada, 24 Oct
Sreinway Hall in London in 1876, and a factory in Hamburg in
1946), drummer. Kay left East Germany with his family in 1958
1880. He was active in community, civic, and charicable affairs,
and sectled in Toronto; there he formed a blues band, Sparrow,
and in organizations dedicated to preserving German traditions
chat recorded an album for Columbia and eventually sectled in
in the USA; he held some 70 business and community positions.
Los Angeles, where it adopred the name Steppenwolf in 1967.
He was president of the Rapid Transit Commission and of two
Until the end of the decade the group regularly made hit record-
railroad companies, president of the Metropolitan Opera, pres-
ings while maintaining a tough, "underground" image; its ver-
ident of the Piano Manufacturers Association of New York and
sion of Hoyt Axton's song The Pusher was banned by several radio
Vicinity, president (for 14 years) and director of the New York
Liederkranz, 20 officer of two banks, and a friend and advisor of
stations for its over references to drugs. After the group dis-
banded in 1972 Kay recorded two albums of gentler songs as a
President Grover Cleveland. Through his business activiries he
soloise; in 1974 he re-formed Steppenwolf, which had a final hit
amassed considerable wealth; Dolge wrote that he was "counsed
with Straight Shootin' Woman larer that year. Ir again broke up
among the foremost millionaires of this country."
in 1976, and after another attempt at working as a soloist Kay
BIBLIOGRAPHY
renamed his backup group Steppenwolf; although this included
"William Steinway," American Art Journal. lxvili/9 <5 Dec 1896), 135
"Alfred Dolge's Tribute to William Steinway," American Art Journal, Ixviii/10
none of the original members of Steppenwolf its repertory con-
sisted of cheir material.
(12 Dec 1896). 153
A. Dolge: Pianos and their Makers, i (Covina, CA, 1911/R1972), 299
Steppenwolf's growling, boastful vocal style and noisy guicar
J. T. Howard: "Sceinway, William," DAB
playing helped to escablish the tone and attack of hard rock. The
T. Steinway: People and Pianos (New York, 1953/R1961)
songs Born to be wild (1968), Magic Carpet Ride (1968), and Rock
C. A. Hoover: "The Steinways and their Pianos in the Nineteenth Century,"
JAMIS, vii (1981), 46-90
me (1969) best exemplify the group's style.
CYNTHIA ADAMS HOOVER
RECORDINGS
(relective list; recorded for Dunhill unless otherwise stated)
Steinweg, Heinrich Engelhard (1797-1871). German instru-
Steppeturif(50029, 1968), incl. Born to be wild, The Fusher; The Second (50037,
1968), incl. Magic Carper Ride; Rock me (4182, 1969); Monster (50066.
ment maker, founder of the STEINWAY firm of piano makers in
1970); Slow Flux (Epic 33093, 1974). incl. Straight Shootin' Woman
New York (1853).
JON PARELES
Stenton, Paul. Pseudonym of SEPTIMUS WINNER.
Sterling, Antoinerre (b Sterlingville, NY, 23 Jan 1850; d Lon-
don, England, 9 Jan 1904). Contralto. She studied first in New
Stephens, Roe (b Coburg, NWT, c1844; d ?Detroit, MI, 18
York (1867); the next year she went to England, then to Cologne
Jan 1897). Music dealer and publisher. He spent some time in
and Baden for further study, but also had lessons with Manuel
piano factories in Boscon learning the mechanical and professional
Garcia in London. In 1871 she returned to the USA and was
sides of the music business. He then moved to Detroit, where
soloist in Henry Ward Beecher's church in Brooklyn. A concert
he worked as 2 piano runer and repairer. Around 1868 he became
at Irving Hall, Boston, on 13 May 1873 proved to be her farewell
associated with J. Henry Whittemore, a highly successful music
to the USA (except for a cour with the Theodore Thomas Orches-
dealer and publisher, whose business then became known as J.
tra in 1875): soon afterwards she moved permanently to London.
Henry Whittemore, Swan & Stephens. Three years later it became
A number of well-known songs were composed especially for her,
Whittemore & Stephens, and by 1875 Stephens was sole owner.
among them Arthur Sullivan's The Last Chord (first sung by her
Alrhough he was made bankrupt within the first two years of
at a Boosey Ballad concert in London on 31 January 1877). Her
his ownership, Scephen's business recovered rapidly, and by 1880
son, Malcolm MacKinlay, compiled a biography, Antoinette Ster-
he was considered the largest publisher of sheet music in Mich-
ling and Other Celebrities (1907).
igan. The firm published a number of dance runes by well-known
H. WILEY HITCHCOCK
composers of the day as well 25 some of Stephen's own compo-
sirions, and berween 1874 and 1885 also issued The Amphion, a
popular monthly music magazine. While continuing to operate
Stern, Isaac (b Kremenets, Ukraine, 21 July 1920). Violinist.
his music emporium, which carried "Pianos, Organs and General
When he was a year old he was taken to San Francisco, where
Merchandise," Stephens became involved in another business
he received his entire musical educarion. He studied at the San
venture in 1885 when he joined William Scott in operating a
Francisco Conservatory (1928-31) and continued briefly with
brass foundry, Stephens, Scott & Co. Two years later that firm
Louis Persinger; his principal teacher from 1932 to 1937 was
became Roe Stephens Manufacturing Co., with a new set of
Naum Blinder. On 18 February 1936 he made his orchestral
associates. For about nine years Stephen directed both his music
début playing Saint-Sacns' Violin Concerro no.3 with the San
establishment and the manufacturing company, but apparently
Francisco SO; he played the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with
the lacter proved more proficable, for somerime in 1893 he ceased
Klemperer and the Los Angeles PO the same year. Stern made
operation of the music store.
his New York début on 11 October 1937 bur returned to San
Francisco for further study. After his second New York recital
MARY D. TEAL
on 18 February 1939 he was hailed as a young artise of exceptional
Steppenwolf. Rock group. Its original members were John Kay
talent, but real success came with his Firse Carnegie Hall recital
(8 January 1943), which propelled him to the front rank of
(Joachim F. Krauledat) (b Tilsit, Germany, 12 April 1944),
singer and guitarise; Michael Monarch (b Los Angeles, CA, 5
American violinists. In 1943-4 he played for Allied troops in
Greenland, Iceland, and the South Pacific.
July 1950), guitarist; Goldy McJohn (b 2 May 1945), organist;
Stern made his European début in 1948 at the Lucerne Festival
305
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Steuermann, Clara
under Munch and after that toured Europe regularly. He first
played at the Casals Festival, Prades, in 1950 and at the Edin-
In 1960, when Carnegie Hall was slated to be razed, Stern
burgh Festival in 1953; he toured the USSR in 1956. He has
organized a group to save it, and became president of the Carnegie
also played in Australia, Japan, South America, and in Israel,
Hall Corporation, responsible for the hall's cultural programs
where he is a dominant force in the country's musical life. He
In 1964 he helped to establish the NEA, and was appointed a
visits there several times each year to give concerts as well as
member of the National Council by President Johnson. He is
master classes at the Jerusalem Music Center, an institution
chairman of the board of the America-Israel Cultural Foundation.
conceived of by Steen and opened in 1975. Many Israeli musicians
Stern's 60th birthday was celebrated with performances in
were aided in the escablishment of their international careers by
Paris (where he played 18 concertos in One month) and concert
his support.
series in Washington, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco,
In 1961, with Eugene Isromin and Leonard Rose, Stern formed
Boston, and Israel. A historic recording preserved the New York
PO performance under Mehta with Scern, Perlman, and Zuker-
a trio which received wide acclaim. For the Beethoven bicentenary
the trio gave cycles of eight Beethoven programs in London,
man as soloists. In 1981 Stern was invited to visit China, where
Paris, New York, and other centers. Stern made his first record-
he performed, loctured, and listened to calented young players.
ings in 1945, and his discography comprises some 200 works of
A film of the trip, enticled From Mao to Mozart: Isaac Stern in
ascounding variety: the great concertos from Bach to Barrók, the
China, received an Academy Award for the best full-length doc-
umentary.
complete trios of Beethoven and Brahms as well as a chamber
music series with Casals, and sonatas with his piano partner
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Alexander Zakin. In honor of his 40 years of recording with the
I. Whynele: "Isaac Scern," Audio Record Review. ii/11 (1963). 16 (with discog-
company, Columbia Records named him arrist laureate in 1984.
raphy by F. F. Clough and G. J. Cuming]
J. Wechsberg: "Profiles: Isaac Stern," New Yorker, xli (5 June 1965), 49-117
Scern's repertory also includes the premières of concertos by Schu-
J. Creighton: Discopaedia of the Violin 1889-1972 (Toronto, 1974)
man (in 1950), Rochberg (1975), and Penderecki (1978), as well
S. E. Rubin: "Isaac Stern: the Power and the Clory," New York Times Magazine
as Bernstein's Serenade (1954). He has also recorded soundreacks
(14 Oct 1979). 40
for films such as Humoresque (1946), Tonight We Sing, in which
C. Porterfield and S. Burton: "Tempo at 60: Prestissimo," Time, cxvi (7 July
1980), 64
he impersonated Ysaye (1953), and Fiddler on the Roof (1971).
B. Schwarz: Great Masters of the Violin (New York, 1983)
As a soloist and with the trio, Seem has performed on many
BORIS SCHWARZ
occasions at the White House, and in 1984 received a Kennedy
Center Honor.
Steuermann [née Silvers], Clara (6 Los Angeles, CA, 10 Feb
Stern is recognized as one of the world's foremost violinists.
1922; Norwalk, CA, 9 Jan 1982). Music librarian. She attended
His distinctive style reflects his vibrant personality, total involve-
Los Angeles City College, UCLA (BA 1943, MA 1944), where
ment in music, and incense communication with his listeners.
His interprerations are vital and exuberant, his tone warm and
she studied with and was reaching assistant to Schoenberg, and
Black Mountain College (1944). She married Edward Steuer-
expressive. His feeling for scyle is impeccable; invariably he finds
mann, another of Schoenberg's students, in 1949. She was an
the right inflection to bring the music alive. His technique is
subordinate to his musical concept; his principle is "ro use the
editor for Carl Fischer, the Music Publishers Holding Corpora-
tion, and several other firms before earning her library degree at
violin to make music, never to use music just to play the violin."
Stern's favorite violins are two by Guarneri "del Gesù," the so-
Columbia University in 1964; she then worked at Kingsborough
Community College of the City of New York, the Juilliard School
called "Vicomte de Panette" of 1737 and the one formerly played
by Ysaye, made in 1740.
(1956-66), and the Cleveland Institute (1966-75). She was
archivist of the Arnold Schoenberg Institute, housed at the Uni-
versity of Southern California, from 1975 until her death, and
president of the Music Library Association from 1975 to 1977.
PAULA MORGAN
Steuermann, Edward [Eduard] (b Sambor, Poland, 18 June
1892; d New York, 11 Nov 1964). Pianist and composer. His
education as a pianist was with Vilém Kurz (Lwów) and Ferruccio
Busoni (Berlin). He was to have studied composition with Engel-
bert Humperdinck, but was so shocked when asked whether he
wanted to compose in the Brahmsian or the Wagnerian manner
that he never went back. Busoni, therefore, sent him CO Schoen-
berg. In 1912 he rook part in the first performance of Pierrot
lunaire and, with the exception of the Songs op. 48, played at the
première of every subsequent Schoenberg work with a piano part.
He was also the first to play Berg's Sonata and Chamber Concerto
as well as most of Webern's chamber music with piano. He was
the planist for the Society for Privare Musical Performances,
founded in 1918 by Schoenberg, and introduced works by Scria-
bin and much new French music to Vienna. During his Viennese
Isaac Stern, 1979
years (he immigrated to the USA in 1938) he was often the
pianist for Karl Kraus's readings and recications. In 1952 the
ISCM gave him its highest award, the Schoenberg Medal.
306
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Great Master
FROM
CORELLI AND VIVALDI
TO STERN,
ZUKERMAN AND PERLMAN
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I
THE LIBRARY
OF CONGRESS
Date: 11-20-92
FACSIMILE COVER PAGE
of the
Violin
BORIS SCHWARZ
h
Foreword by Yehudi Menuhin
SIMON AND SCHUSTER . NEW YORK 1983
538
GREAT MASTERS OF THE VIOLIN
Isaac Stern
In October of 1937, I went to New York's Town Hall to hear the
debut recital of a new violinist from the West Coast. By the time he
had finished his first piece, Tartini's Devil's Trill Sonata, I knew that I
was hearing a major new violinist. His name was Isaac Stern; he was
seventeen years old at the time, short, chubby, and open-faced, Today,
he ranks among the greatest violinists of the world, a place he has held
for some twenty-five years.
Isaac Stem was born in 1920 in a small town in the Ukraine and
moved to San Francisco with his parents when he was one year old. He
received his entire education in California, starting with violin lessons
at the age of eight at the San Francisco Conservatory. For a brief time
he studied with Persinger, who enjoyed much fame bccause of his stu-
dent Yehudi Menuhin, but this was a transitory phase for Stern: his
principal teacher was Naum Blinder, with whom he worked from
1932 to 1937- "He taught me how to teach myself-which is the sign
of a good teacher," says Stern with gratitude.¹
Blinder, born in 1889 in Russia, was a student of Brodsky at the
Moscow Conservatory. Active as a performer and teacher in Odessa
and Moscow, he settled in San Francisco in the late 1920s and was
named concertmaster of the San Francisco Symphony, like Persinger
and Piastro before him. By studying with Blinder, Stem absorbed the
tradition of the Moscow and Odessa schools, a background rather simi-
lar to that of David Oistrakh. In fact, there is an audible relationship
between Stern and Oistrakh, most convincing on their joint recording
of music for two violins by Bach and Vivaldi. This Russian strain in
Stern's violinistic "pedigree" must be contrasted to the Franco-German
background of Menuhin through Persinger, Enesco, and Busch. Unlike
Menuhin, Stem did not go abroad to study and received his entire
training in America.
Without matching Menuhin's spectacular precociousness, Stem
was considered ready at the age of fifteen to make his debut with the
San Francisco Symphony: he and Blinder played Bach's Double Con-
certo. The following year he appeared with the Los Angeles Symphony
under Klemperer playing the Tchaikovsky concerto. The New York
debut of October 11, 1937, followed. Though the notices were favor
able, Stern decided to return home for further studies. His second
musical attack on New York, on February 18, 1939, was a tremendon
success. In the intervening two years he had achieved remarkable artis
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growth and was acclaimed
THE AMERICAN SCHOOL: THE MIDDLE GENERATION . 539
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540
GREAT MASTERS OF THE VIOLIN
In the spirit of concerned citizenship, Stern was the mastermind
behind the 1960 Save Carnegie Hall campaign; the venerable hall was
indeed saved through his active involvement. Carnegie Hall, with its
unique acoustics and its tradition of great music and musicians since
1881, continues to be a focal point of music in New York City, One
shudders to think how close to demolition it was, had it not been for
the efforts of Stern, now president of the Carnegie Hall Foundation, and
his associates.
In 1964, Stem helped establish the National Endowment for the
Arts and was appointed as advisory member by President Lyndon John-
son. In fact, Stern has performed at the White House for every presi-
dent since John F. Kennedy.
Stern's distinctive playing style reflects his vibrant personality-a
total involvement in music and intense communication with his au-
dience. He uses his virtuoso command of the instrument only in the
service of music, never for technical display. His motto is, "To use the
violin to make music, never to use music just to play the violin." He
never plays "down" to his audience, nor does he have to: those who
come to listen to Stern expect the best music interpreted in the best
style.
Stem was one of the first to move away from the standard violin
recital program by building programs of quality around chamber music.
He invites colleagues to join him, and the concerts "Isaac Stem and
Friends" are filled with musical treasures from violin duets to octets, with
and without piano. Whether he plays solo or chamber music, everything
he touches is filled with vitality and exuberance, balancing technical
bravura and lyric introspection. He projects warmth without sentimen-
tality; he has virtually eliminated the portamento from his expressive
vocabulary. Listening to Stern, one feels that he plays only music he
deeply believes in. This applies to his choice of modern music, too: he
does not pay lip service to the latest fashion, but selects modern works
which make the listener understand his identification with the com-
poser, his artistic involvement with the new piece, and his feeling of
responsibility for its quality. This was particularly evident when he re
cently championed two new concertos, by George Rochberg (premiere
1976) and Krzysztof Penderecki (premiere 1977). There seemed to bd
give-and-take between performer and composer: while Stem adjusted
his violin style to the demands of the modern idiom, the compt
(perhaps subconsciously) let their inspiration be influenced by St
THE AMERICAN SCHOOL: THE MIDDLE GENERATION
541
violin personality. When Stem plays, be it old or new music, he has to
be emotionally involved, because nothing purely cerebral appeals to him.
His repertoire includes a surprising number of twentieth-century
works-by Sibelius, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Hindemith, Shostakovich,
Berg, Bloch, Bartók, Copland, Leonard Bernstein (the Serenade was
written for him). His recorded repertoire is immense: there is hardly a
piece in the violin literature that he has not put on a disc.
In 1960 Stern founded a trio with the pianist Eugene Istomin and
the cellist Leonard Rose. Their performances of the great trio literature
are virile and exuberant. During the Beethoven Bicentennial 197° they
gave cycles of eight Beethoven programs in various musical centers,
including Paris, London, and New York, which were recorded and
televised.
Stern does not teach individual students, yet he is a guide and
fatherly friend to all young violinists who come from Israel to study in
New York, as well as those who work in Israel. He has espoused and
aided the careers of numerous young artists, many of them now inter-
nationally famous. His judgment, considered perceptive and incorrupt-
ible, carries enormous weight and is accepted everywhere with confidence.
He has also organized string orchestras for the performance of Baroque
and pre-Classical music, and his emphatic style of playing lends itself
particularly well to the role of leader-conductor.
In celebration of Isaac Stern's sixtieth birthday in 1980, there was
an outpouring of affection and admiration from Paris, London, and
Jerusalem to New York and San Francisco. It lasted for months, and
the artist responded by thanking with music-concert after concert,
series after series-performing alone, with friends, and with orchestras.
It was a torrent of music, and he had never played better; he gave gen-
erously of himself, with unquenchable enthusiasm, certainly inspired by
the occasion and the love that flowed toward him from audiences all
over. There was in particular one concert at Avery Fisher Hall (Sep-
tember 24, 1980) where he never left the stage: music for two violins,
for three violins, for violin and viola, topped by the Brahms concerto.
His playing was unsurpassable, his communicativeness irresistible. Those
who joined him on that historic occasion-Perlman, Zukerman, Zubin
Mehta, the New York Philharmonic-were caught up in that surge of
music making, fortunately telovised and recorded for posterity.
In 1981, a delightful documentary film, From Mco to Mozart (sub-
titled Isade Stern in China), was released--a report on Stern's 1979
ARTISTS,
ICM LTD.
A characteristic photo of Isaac Stem at rehearsal, one of the world's greatest
violin personalities.
Guila Bustabo, like Menuhin and Ricci a student of Persinger, was a successful
young performer in the 1930s.
MUSICAL AMERICA
THE AMERICAN SCHOOL: THE MIDDLE GENERATION
543
trip to China. With him we discovered quite a few talented Chinese
violinists and cellists performing surprisingly well; we also admired
Stern's ability to function and to communicate as an artist and a human
being on various levels and under different circumstances, The hour-
long film was an enchanting experience and deserved the Academy
Award later bestowed on it.
Another celebration-more restrained but no less significant-was
Stern's Carnegie Hall recital on January 12, 1983, observing the fortieth
anniversary of his debut at the same hall. It was a proud evening of
dedicated mastery, where technique was taken for granted and only
music spoke,
More Persinger Students
After the phenomenal success of Menuhin and Ricci, Persinger was
recognized as the "trainer extraordinary of youthful talent," in the words
of one critic.¹ Established in New York at the Juilliard School, he in-
herited the mantle of Leopold Auer, and every gifted child violinist was
brought to him. He knew not only how to train the young violinists but
also how to launch their careers: being an accomplished pianist, Per-
singer played the accompanist's role at important debut recitals and
guided his fledgling artist into the world. His presence on the stage must
have been greatly reassuring to the young violinist facing the ordeal of
a New York debut.
During the 1930s and '40s, Persinger presented quite a few gifted
young artists, but the "Menuhin miracle" did not repeat itself. (Some-
thing similar happened to Auer with his "inimitable" students Elman
and Heifetz.) But it would be unfair to belittle the string of talented
violinists trained by Persinger: he taught them all that is teachable and
sent them out into the world.
Guila Bustabo enjoyed an early meteoric career that fizzled for no
apparent reason, She came to Persinger when she was eleven or twelve,
already with a reputation as a prodigy. Persinger listened to her and
said, (Very good," but then shook his head sadly and muttered, "but
too old, Though this story was told as a joke, it has a kernel of truth:
sumore difficult to reshape a talent than to guide it from the very
beginning. Guila, bom in Wisconsin in 1917 of an Italian father and a
Bohemian mother, started to play the violin at four as a student of Leon
Ametini in Chicago and began her career at age nine. Her New York
MEDALS OF FREEDOM
NOVEMBER 24, 1992
PAGE THREE
ISAAC STERN
As one of the world's foremost violinists, Isaac Stern has
brought beautiful music around the globe. His warm and vibrant
interpretations have brought him international acclaim since his
debut 56 years ago, and he has won our nation's highest
recognition for artistic merit, the National Medal of Arts.
Isaac Stern has enriched the human spirit by broadening the scope
of music -- he has supported artists from all corners of the
world, helped found the National Endowment for the Arts, and
rescued Carnegie Hall, the concert arena that made him famous.
For his support of the arts, his lifetime of achievement, and for
the expanded opportunities he has created for others, the United
States recognizes master violinist Isaac Stern.
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
July 30, 1990
Dear Al:
Barbara passed along your kind note regarding
Isaac Stern. I just want you and your colleagues
to know that I share your regard for Mr. Stern,
and last week sent him a note congratulating him
on his 70th birthday. He's a wonderfully gifted
man who has been kind enough to perform at the
White House within the past year. We also had a
chance to visit in the Oval Office to become better
acquainted.
I appreciate your suggestion that Isaac Stern be
considered for the Medal of Freedom. As you know,
presentations of the Medal are scheduled at yearly
intervals, and we have not yet decided on the next
occasion. Mr. Stern is clearly of the stature to
warrant such consideration, though. I should add
that I recently decided on awardees for the National
Medal of Arts, the highest honor the Nation bestows
for artistic merit, and was pleased to select Isaac
Stern for that medal. I'll look forward to seeing
him at a White House ceremony and luncheon in
September.
My thanks to you, Terry Sanford, and your colleagues
for bringing this to my attention.
Sincerely,
as/ CHorvath up
The Honorable Alan K. Simpson
United States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510
FMcclure
ALAN K. SIMPSON
WYOMING
United States Senate
Assistant Republican Leader
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20510
July 19, 1990
Mrs. Barbara Bush
The First Lady
The White House
Washington, D.C. 20500
Dear Barbara:
I don't usually bother you with "these
a
things," but Terry Sanford from North Carolina was
circulating this very appropriate letter and said
he thought that with his name on it -- it wouldn't
"get to first base" in getting to you.
I told him that he was all wrong and that you
were an unbiased, thoughtful, generous, kind, dear,
delicious, spirited, energetic, caring, loving,
magnificent piece of work! When I told him that he
said, "Why don't you hand it to her?" I told him I
would -- and now I have.
You know Isaac Stern and the beauty,
creativity and genius he has brought to the world
with his artistic magic. Enough! Anyway, here is
the letter -- now lobby that guy you are sleeping
with!
Ann joins in sending our love to you both.
Most sincerely,
Alan K. Simpson
United States Senator
AKS:rh
Enclosure
NOT PRINTED OR PREPARED AT GOVERNMENT OR TAXPAYER EXPENSE
United States Senate
WASHINGTON. D.C. 20510
July 17, 1990
Mrs. Barbara Bush
The White House
Washington, D.C. 20500
Dear Mrs. Bush:
The President has received a communication from Ms.
Marta Istomin, the Artistic Director of the Kennedy Center,
recommending to the President that the Presidential Medal of
Freedom be awarded to Isaac Stern on the occasion of his
seventieth birthday, July 21, 1990. While that date might be
too close, the award could be related to that milestone.
We concur that Mr. Stern's long and distinguished
career in the arts merits this special recognition. We are
writing to join in the recommendation, and to enlist your
support in the recognition of this remarkable musician and
citizen.
As always, we appreciate your consideration of this
request.
Sincerely,
Gingon
Johntt.Chefer
RobertRyrd
-
Darl Walatt
Dear Al:
and congratris sent him 76 him th note birthd on
last week a
Barbara passed along your kill note
regarding Isaac Stern. I inst want
you and your colleagnes to know that I
share your regard for Mr Stern, m He's a
wonderfully g fted man who has been
kind enough to perform at We the also White
had
House w/a the part yegr
WE
vene
a chance to visit become better
in the office to
acquamited.
tast I sent a personal
message to Mr Stern congratulating him
on 10th birthday.
I appreciate your suggestion that Isaac Stem
be considered for the medal of Freedom.
as you know, presentations of the Medal
are scheduled at yearly intervals, and we have
not yet decided on the next occasion. Mr Stern
is
clearly of the stature to warrant such
comidration though. I should add that
I recently decided on awardees for the
National Medal of Arts, 1 the highest honor the Nation
select Isaac stem for that medal. d'll to
bestows for antistic merit, and was pleased look to
forward
ceremons and
seeing him at a White House lunchean
having in Systember.
Terry sanford,
My thanks to you, and your colleagues for
bringing this to my attention.
Sincerely,
bcc - BPB
Charlie Horvath
their
Isaac Stern was born in the town of Kreminiecz
(or Kremenets), in the Soviet Ukraine, on July 21,
1920 to music-loving parents. His father, Solomon
Stern, was a contractor by trade but an artist at
heart. His mother, Clara Stern, studied voice with
Aleksandr Glazunov at the Imperial Conservatory
in St. Petersburg. When Isaac was ten months old,
his parents, fleeing the adversities resulting from
the Revolution, took him with them to the United
States, settling in San Francisco.
When Isaac Stern was six, he began to take pi-
ano lessons because his parents considered music
essential to a general education. even though he
did not demonstrate a special affinity for it. "I
didn't go to a concert at the age of two, and I never
begged for a tiny violin." he told Joseph Wechs-
berg, as quoted in the New Yorker (June 5, 1965).
It was not until he was eight that he began to show
an interest in the violin, prompted by the fact that
a boy who lived across the street played the instru-
ment. Even after he was provided with a violin,
Isaac did not immediately reveal his gift. But when
he was ten, after receiving instruction from a suc-
cession of mediocre teachers, his talent came to the
surface. "Something suddenly seemed to happen
under my fingers," he told Wechsberg.
Stern, Isaac
While Stern was studying the violin at the San
Francisco Conservatory of Music, his budding tal-
July 21, 1920- Violinist. Address: c/o ICM Artists
ent came to the attention of a wealthy woman who
Ltd., 40 W. 57th St., New York, N.Y. 10019
agreed to finance his musical training. Perhaps
most significant, Naoum Blinder. a violinist of the
NOTE: This biography supersedes the article that
Russian school, who was then the concertmaster of
appeared in Current Biography in 1949.
the San Francisco Symphony, took him under his
wing. Except for a brief interlude with Yehudi Me-
"We do not know how many hours Isaac lives in a
nuhin's teacher, Louis Persinger, Stern studied
day. We only know that it must be more than
with Blinder until he was eighteen. His progress
twenty-four," the conductor Zubin Mehta has said
was slow but sure. Blinder's unorthodox teaching
of his friend Isaac Stern, as quoted in Time (July
methods neglected such "necessities" as scales, ex-
7, 1980). Stern, who emigrated from the Soviet
ercises, and études and focused on cultivating
Union as an infant but studied exclusively in the
Stern's independence. musical instinct, and natu-
United States, is considered to be the first Ameri-
ral technique. Blinder enabled Stern to be his own
can violin virtuoso. His taste and facility are said
teacher. "He allowed me to learn: he didn't
to be unsurpassed, and his energy is legendary. He
impose," Stern told Edward Greenfield in an inter-
has played as many as 200 concerts in a year. made
view for the Guardian (February 16, 1987). "If
some 100 recordings, and performed in virtually
every major country in the world, although he has
something was going in the wrong direction, he'd
stop me. Otherwise he'd let things develop.
refused to play in Germany.
Stern's record as a talent scout reads like a
He taught me to teach myself. which is the greatest
Who's Who of music. Among his discoveries are
thing that a teacher can do."
Pinchas Zukerman, Itzhak Perlman, Miriam Fried,
Stern's musical education took place in the audi-
Shlomo Mintz, Sergiu Luca, Joseph Swensen, and
ence as well as behind the music stand. He listened
Cho Liang Lin-a coterie of protégés dubbed the
to Rachmaninoff playing Beethoven's piano sona-
"kosher nostra." One music manager, quoted in the
tas and to the Budapest Quartet performing the
New York Times Magazine (October 14, 1979),
complete cycle of Beethoven quartets. He heard
called him "the biggest powerbroker in the music
Wagner's "Ring Cycle" performed by Kirsten Flag-
business." In addition, Stern is largely responsible
stad, Lauritz Melchior, and Lotte Lehmann, at the
for launching the drive to save Carnegie Hall from
San Francisco Opera, and he attended recitals by
the wrecker's ball. He has founded cultural coun-
Artur Schnabel, Fritz Kreisler. and Bronislaw Hu-
cils in the United States and Israel, and he has
berman.
campaigned for civil rights. "I've never been able
Sources differ as to when Stern actually made
to live in a cocoon," Stern has said, as quoted in
his professional debut. According to some authori-
Time. "I have a long buttinsky nose." The pianist
ties, he made his first appearance, as a guest artist
Eugene Istomin believes that Stern's broad spec-
with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra under
trum of activity results from "his total need to com-
Pierre Monteux, at the age of eleven. But the New
municate with other people."
Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1980)
1989 CURRENT BIOGRAPHY YEARBOOK
545
STERN
indicates that he made his recital debut in 1935 and
South America. By the time Stern reached his mid-
first appeared with the San Francisco Symphony
thirties, he was recognized as one of the great vio-
under Monteux in 1936 and that in the same year
linists of his generation, along with Jascha Heifetz,
he also played with the Los Angeles Philharmonic
Nathan Milstein. and Yehudi Menuhin. In 1950, at
under Otto Klemperer. Edward Greenfield wrote
Pablo Casals's Prades Festival. the renowned cel-
in the Guardian, "By the time he was fourteen,
list pronounced Stern a worthy descendant of
Stern was being brought in to play quartets and
Eugène Ysaye, the Belgiar. violinist who, along
quintets once a week with the front-desk players of
with Paganini, is one of Stern's heroes. Fittingly, in
the San Francisco Symphony." And Joseph Wechs-
1953 Stern played the role of Ysaye in the film
berg noted in the New Yorker that Stern made his
Tonight We Sing, a biography of Sol Hurok.
local debut at fifteen, performing the Bach D-
By the 1970s Stern was said to be the world's
Minor Concerto for two violins with Blinder and
highest-paid violinist, earning as much as $10,000
the San Francisco Symphony under Monteux.
a performance and playing as many as 200 concerts
When. on October 11, 1937, the seventeen-year-
a year. He earned the admiration of his peers,
old Stern made his New York City debut at Town
including Yehudi Menuhin. who was moved to say
Hall, he received thoughtful approval rather than
of him: "His playing has warmth. musicality. good
raves. A critic for the New York Herald Tribune
taste, discipline, and spontaneity. There is no self-
predicted, "An unusually promising young musi-
consciousness. It's all of one piece." Such unquali-
cian whose talent seems to be following a normal
fied approval is notable in the light of Stern's eclec-
and judicious course of development, he should
ticism, for his repertoire spans a wide range of
become an artist of exceptional consequence." Ir-
musical history, including premiere performances
ving Kolodin remarked of Stern in the New York
of contemporary works by Leonard Bernstein, Pe-
Sun (October 12, 1937): "He does already possess
ter Maxwell Davies, Paul Hindemith, Krzysztof
one indispensable trait of a fine violinist. That is a
Penderecki, George Rochberg. William Schuman,
solid and well-rounded tone." Stern was disap-
and Henri Dutilleux.
pointed with the reactions of the critics. "They ad-
In an article for the New York Times (April 8,
mired my tone and carped at my intonation," he
1979), Peter G. Davis called attention to Stern's
recalled, as quoted in People (January 31, 1977).
"catholicity of taste that has drawn him to violin
"The consensus was that I should go far. I did. I
music of all periods" and "his stylistic flexibility."
packed up my violin, convinced I didn't know my
He noted that Stern "invariably seems to perceive
elbow from A flat, and went back to California."
all music from the inside with an instinctual sense
Stern's manager, the legendary impresario Sol
of what is right in terms of tone, gesture and ex-
Hurok, whom he considered a father figure, could
pression-a treasurable gift." Although not a flaw-
wangle only a handful of dates a year for him but
less technician, Stern is flexible and in full
retained his faith in the young violinist. Remem-
command of his instrument. He has been known to
bering the hardships of those early days, Stern told
devise new fingerings of a difficult passage sponta-
S. E. Rubin, as reported in the New York Times
neously during a performance.
Magazine (October 14, 1979): "I played seven con-
In a review for the New York Times (January 25,
certs the first year, fourteen the next. I traveled in
1964), Harold C. Schonberg described "a typical
upper berths in trains. I practiced day and night.
Stern evening," in which the violinist played a pro-
What did I know from Carnegie Hall, from arts
gram of Brahms, Bach, Prokofiev, Ernest Chaus-
councils, from big interviews? I worked my head
son, and Joseph Wieniawski. Accompanied by
off.
I had a tough, hardening apprenticeship.
Alexander Zakin, his piano accompanist since
It taught me the value of values."
1940, Stern played with "surety and preci-
His arduous apprenticeship paid off. Stern's
sion
cleanly turned phrasing, strong rhythm
Carnegie Hall debut, on January 8, 1943, was the
and impeccable technique." Another landmark
turning point in his career, for no less an authority
was Stern's 1968 silver anniversary concert at Car-
than Virgil Thomson, writing in the New York
negie Hall, commemorating his first appearance
Herald Tribune (January 12, 1943), proclaimed him
there twenty-five years earlier. For that concert, he
"one of the world's master fiddle players." After his
and Zakin revived the violin arrangement of
wartime performances for Allied troops in Green-
Brahms's op. 120, no. 2, for clarinet and piano and
land, Iceland, and the South Pacific, Stern was del-
also presented Bach's Sonata in E, along with
uged by tour and recording offers. He made his
Bartók's Second Sonata, two Mozart movements,
screen debut in the 1946 film Humoresque, in
and Ravel's Tzigane. In the words of Donal Hena-
which his hands were shown as those of John Gar-
han of the New York Times (December 2, 1968),
field, who portrayed an ambitious young violinist
"As impressive as anything else in the recital
involved with a wealthy patroness, played by Joan
was the ease with which he changed styles in the
Crawford. By 1947 Stern was playing ninety con-
program's later works.
For the Bartók, which
certs a year. He made his European debut in 1948,
is uncongenial to the violin in many ways, Mr.
at the Lucerne (Switzerland) Festival, under
Stern put aside any search for tonal sheen and
Charles Munch, and went on to perform in nine
made music Bartók's way. A moment later, the
European countries that summer alone. His 1949
same violin was singing the sweetest and gentlest
concert tour comprised 120 concerts in seven
Mozart, putting each grace note and turn in place,
months throughout the United States, Europe, and
as the gallant style demanded."
In describing his objective of attaining top musi-
The motion picture From Mao to Mozart: Isuac
cal quality to Flora Lewis, who interviewed him in
Stern in China chronicles the violinist's 1979 tour
Paris for the New York Times (July 1, 1980), Stern
of the People's Republic of China, during which he
said: "It's when what comes out is as near as possi-
gave master classes to young Chinese musicians.
ble to an ideal realization of the way music is writ-
The film won the Academy Award for the best full-
ten, not just the notes, which are dead, but also the
length documentary of 1981 and special mention at
music between the notes, without any interference
the Cannes Film Festival. Stern's screen presence
in the ear of a bad sound, a mistake or an ugly
was described in the Nation (April 25, 1981) as be-
sound, one that doesn't belong. It's like a beautiful
ing "as inspiriting as a flourish of trumpets." The
woman, perfectly dressed in elegant clothes with
reviewer went on to say that "the mere sight of a
colors that go well together, moving with special
human being causes him to glow with pleasure, as
grace through a garden on a lovely day. It's when
though he were encountering this marvel of nature
everything is right."
for the first time."
Commenting on Stern's down-to-earth stage
Ever eager for opportunities to deploy the power
presence, Louise Sweeney wrote in the Christian
of music, Stern devoted May and June of 1980, the
Science Monitor (September 30, 1980): "Perhaps
year in which he turned sixty, to serving as "doctor"
because Stern just lets the music shine through
to two ailing French orchestras, the Orchestre Na-
him, there is little of the star bravura or mystique
tional de France and the Nouvel Orchestre Phil-
about his appearances on stage. He walks briskly,
harmonique. The cure involved an intensive
matter-of-factly on and off stage, his violin held out
regimen of rehearsals and eighteen concerts com-
slightly in front of him like a staff in his left hand,
prising twenty-five works, and it helped to per-
his right hand grasping the bow. When he per-
suade the temperamental members of the two
forms, he plants his feet wide apart, stands sturdy
orchestras to cooperate. His energy never fading.
as an oak tree, and goes about the business of mak-
Stern went on to Washington, D.C., to perform in
ing sublime music without any theatrics."
five concerts under five different conductors, and
Stern enriched his already extensive perfor-
he was also booked for concert dates in San Fran-
mance repertoire by forming a trio with the pianist
cisco and Los Angeles. By December 1980 he had
Eugene Istomin and the cellist Leonard Rose. Inau-
gurated at the Israel Festival in 1961, the trio re-
played sixty concerts in four countries.
Stern has also used his violin as an effective cul-
mained in existence until 1983 but performed only
occasionally, because of the full solo schedules of
tural and political tool. In 1956, before any official
its members. "We do it for our own satisfaction and
cultural exchanges had been established. he per-
that feeling of freshness." Stern explained to Jane
formed in the Soviet Union. Just as Sol Hurok had
Perlez of the New York Post (December 12, 1974).
encouraged Stern during his lean years, Stern be-
"One of the special qualities we enjoy is the sense
came a mentor to many young musicians. and in
of spontaneous pleasure.
On stage we listen to
doing so he served as a talent scout for Hurok.
each other and play to each other.
It is a very
Among Stern's protégés is the violinist Pinchas
intimate language-like a glance between close
Zukerman, who was discovered as a child prodigy
friends who know each other very well." Although
in Israel. Others include the violinists Itzhak Perl-
star soloists are reputed to have immense egos, in-
man, Miriam Fried. Shlomo Mintz, Sergiu Luca.
compatible with the cooperation required for
Joseph Swensen, and Cho Liang Lin. the cellist Yo-
chamber performing, Stern denied that he had
Yo Ma, and the pianist Yefim Bronfman.
such problems. "I've no need of being the great 'I
Determined to safeguard Carnegie Hall from
am' constantly," he told Alan M. Kriegsman of the
threatened demolition in 1960, Stern organized the
Washington Post (November 17, 1973). "Each kind
Citizens' Committee to Save Carnegie Hall. When
of music has its own dynamics, its own form, its
he succeeded and became president of the Carne-
own joys. Being able to perform as a soloist, and
gie Hall corporation, detractors accused him of
knowing the power one has as a soloist, makes the
having a conflict of interest. There were com-
chamber music experience that much larger." The
plaints that Stern ran the hall like a
trio concentrated on eighteenth- and nineteenth-
"mom-and-pop" store and that he filled its sched-
century works and achieved particular acclaim for
ule with concerts by himself and his protégés,
the Beethoven programs it performed around the
including events like "Isaac Stern and His
world in 1970 and 1971 in honor of the 200th anni-
Friends," a chamber music series designed to in-
versary of the composer's birth.
voke the informality of a living-room gathering.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Stern became increas-
Defenders maintain that Stern, who was still presi-
ingly involved in television, particularly in such se-
dent as of 1989, has played no part in programming
ries as Tonight at Carnegie Hall and Live from
decisions. Stewart Warkow, the corporation's exec-
Lincoln Center. In addition to his frequent appear-
utive director, has said, as quoted in New York
ances as a guest artist, he has generated ideas for
(March 12, 1979) magazine: "Isaac has never sat me
programming. "He's a TV natural," the producer
down and said use so-and-so. He's too honest for
Ruth Leon has said. "He understands television,
that." In later years Stern reduced his personal in-
he's fascinated by its possibilities, and he's the sort
volvement, although he spearheaded a multimil-
of person who can come up with an idea and then
lion-dollar project in the late 1980s to renovate the
keep wheedling people until that idea comes to
hall and protect it from the vibrations of the sub-
fruition."
ways below.
1989 CURRENT BIOGRAPHY YEARBOOK
547
STERN
Stern's political activism has prompted him to
with the Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki,
campaign for a number of Democratic candidates,
was presented in recognition of Stern's
including Lyndon B. Johnson and Hubert Hum-
"everlasting humanistic contribution as an artist
phrey. He also put his causes on presidential agen-
and educator, which transcends the boundaries of
das. Having introduced the idea of an arts council
musical performance." Other honors that Stern has
during John F. Kennedy's presidency, Stern
received include an Emmy Award for the CBS
founded and oversaw the creation of the National
telecast of the post-renovation opening of Carnegie
Council on the Arts, which was the precursor of the
Hall and the Gold Baton Award from the Ameri-
National Endowment for the Arts, during the John-
can Symphony Orchestra League.
son administration. His support of the arts extend-
Wearing horn-rimmed bifocals over hazel eyes,
ed to testifying before Congress in February 1970
the rotund, five-foot-six violinist is said to resemble
to urge the legislature to increase its allocation of
a "cuddly teddy bear." His first marriage, in 1948,
federal funds to the arts, warning that the United
to the ballerina Nora Kaye, ended in divorce. He
States was in danger of becoming "an industrial
lives with his second wife, Vera Lindenblit Stern,
complex without a soul."
whom he met in Israel on August 1, 1951 and mar-
Israel has been the object of Stern's consuming
ried on August 17, after only four meetings over a
passion, so much so that he is, in effect, a one-man
period of sixteen days. The Sterns have three chil-
diplomatic service to the Jewish state. In addition
dren: Shira, Michael, and David. They divide their
to performing there frequently, he has been the
time between a duplex apartment on Central Park
chairman, since 1964, of the America-Israel Cul-
West in New York City and a forty-acre estate in
tural Foundation, which raises funds for Israel's
western Connecticut. Stern's favorite activities are
cultural organizations and subsidizes Israeli musi-
playing tennis, during which he wears a glove to
cians. In 1973 he founded the Jerusalem Music
protect his strong, dimpled hands from blisters and
Center, where musicians from many nations give
takes care to follow through on his swing to avoid
master classes.
tennis elbow, and watching spectator sports. He
Stern's unyielding commitment to his beliefs has
has been known to practice his violin playing while
occasionally threatened to disrupt his schedule of
watching football on television with the sound
musical engagements. In March 1965 he attempted
turned off. His habits are erratic. He works best un-
to cancel an appearance with the National Sym-
der pressure, practicing anywhere from half an
phony in Washington in order to go to Selma, Ala-
hour to fourteen hours a day, preferring to do so at
bama to support civil rights demonstrators there,
night and in the small hours of the morning. His
but he was dissuaded by the National Symphony
two most prized instruments are Alard Guarneri
conductor, Howard Mitchell. In 1967 he boycotted
"del Gesù" violins.
the Athens music festival in a protest against the re-
Isaac Stern explained his artistic creed during
d
pressive Greek military junta, and he became the
his interview with S. E. Rubin for the New York
first American artist to sever relations with the
Times Magazine (October 14, 1979). "I would do
USSR in outrage over its restrictions on Soviet art-
better if I lived more healthily. exercised more, ate
ists. In 1974, when the United Nations Educational
less," he said. "I'm a hog. I love food and drink. I
Scientific and Cultural Organization suspended
love tastes and textures. I think I could be called
i
cultural aid to Israel, Stern organized a musicians'
a sensualist. But that is the power source of my
boycott of UNESCO events. On other occasions
playing. When I'm caressing music, it is very sensu-
p
politics served as a context for Stern's music. After
al. I love feelings and I love gratifying the senses.
p
the Six-Day War in 1967, Stern performed the
I would find it difficult to be abstemious."
Mendelssohn Concerto with the Israel Philhar-
monic, conducted by Leonard Bernstein, on Mount
References: Christian Sci Mon B p2+ S 30 '80
Scopus. That concert formed the basis of the film
por; Newsweek 96:93+ N 17 '80 pors; New
A Journey to Israel.
Yorker 41:49+ Je 5 '65 por; N Y Times Mag p40+
p
Stern has received wide recognition for his pro-
O 14 '79 pors; People 7:47+ Ja 31 '77 pors, 14:32 S
digious talent and contribution to cultural life. In
29 '80 por; Stereo Review 50:45+ F '85 pors;
1974 he was made a commandeur of the French
Time 116:64+ Il 7 '80 pors; Washington Post C
C
Ordre de la Couronne and in 1979 he became an
p1+ N 17 73 por, M p1+ O 5 '80 por;
officier of the Ordre de Légion d'Honneur. In De-
International Who's Who, 1989-90; New Grove
cember 1984 President Ronald Reagan presented
Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1980); Who's
him with the Kennedy Center Honors Award. CBS
Who, 1989; Who's Who in America, 1988-89
Masterworks named him its first Artist Laureate in
1985, and in 1986 the editors of the Musical Ameri-
S
ca International Directory of the Performing Arts
selected him as Musician of the Year. In 1987 he
received the Wolf Prize, one of the most prestigious
and lucrative prizes in the arts and sciences,
awarded by the Wolf Foundation, which had been
19
established by the Israeli parliament in 1975 on the
initiative of Dr. Ricardo Subirana Lobo Wolf and
a
his wife, Francisca. The award, which he shared
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
7/27/90
TO:
CHARLE HORVATH
FROM: JAMES W. CICCONI
Assistant to the President and
Deputy to the Chief of Staff
FYI.
This was handled by phone.
LEONARD GARMENT
2101 L STREET. N. W.
WASHINGTON. D. C. 20037
1990 JUL 11 AM 9: 20
July 9, 1990
Dear Mr. Cicconi,
By now, Chase Untermeyer and Bill Kristol
should have warned you that I would be calling to
harass you (in a friendly way) in behalf of the
proposal to award the Medal of Freedom to Isaac
Stern. Marta Istomin asked me to help out, but I
wish the idea had been mine. In fact, I could have
sworn the deed had already been done, so natural is
the relationship between the Medal and Isaac Stern
as an embodiment of national and international
service.
I understand that Mr. Stern is likely to be the
recipient of a Presidential Medal of the Arts, and
I'm aware that these enterprises are difficult to
rearrange late in the game. I see no conflict,
however, between the award of the arts medal now
and the Medal of Freedom in the fall, at a White
House ceremony or an evening graced by the
performing genius of Isaac Stern and his friends.
It would be stupendously appropriate, and for many
reasons.
Now that you have notice in writing of my
benign intent, I hope you will let me speak to you
at a little more length about the reasons why this
should be done and why, I believe, the President
and Mrs. Bush would find the recommendation an
eminently worthy one.
Sincerely,
Leonara Garment
Mr. James W. Cicconi
Deputy to the Chief of Staff
The White House
Room G/WW
Washington, D.C. 20500
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts 21
'2 54
MARTA ISTOMIN
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20566-0001
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
202 416-8030
FAX 202 416-8205
February 5, 1990
The President
White House
Washington, D.C.
Dear Mr. President:
With great respect I submit for your consideration
the name of Isaac Stern for the honor of the Presidential
Medal of Freedom. It would be difficult to imagine a more
worthy candidate for this great citation.
Isaac Stern's achievement as one of the most
illustrious musicians of the century carrying his great
violin playing to all corners of the world for over 50
years as an "Ambassador" for some of the highest human
ideals would alone qualify him for the honor.
But it is also to many other humanitarian activities
that Isaac Stern's extraordinary gifts have been
dedicated. The world well knows his achievement in saving
Carnegie Hall and his work as its President for the past
twenty-five years. His great contributions both
artistically and educationally to the State of Israel have
exemplified and symbolized the finest kind of American
influence.
Another instance of this kind of influence was
documented recently in the film "From Mao to Mozart." This
film showed his triumphant visit to China and his teaching
of Chinese children after President Nixon's historic
initiative in reestablishing relations.
These are only a few examples of the varied and
ever-renewed commitments to human betterment that
personify Isaac Stern, who celerates his 70th birthday
this year on July 21. If ever there was an American whose
life's accomplishments attested to the finest in our
national and universal ideals it is he. I am quite
confident that thousands of Americans in the arts and
humanities would agree.
enclose utill by C. HORVAT!
The President
February 5, 1990
Page 2
Dear Mr. President, I am grateful for your attention
to my suggestion and remain ever with warm best regards to
you and Mrs. Bush.
Sincerely,
Marta Istomin
Marta Istomin
Enclosures
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ISAAC STERN
Biography
"A natural force not to be explained," wrote Time Magazine recently of Isaac
Stern. These words probably come closest to revealing the truth about the Stern
phenomenon. We can say that Stern has been hailed as one of the foremost violinists of
this century and that the image he evokes is much larger than that of an instrumental
virtuoso. We can say that he is one of the most influential cultural forces here and
abroad, dedicating his mind and artistry to the good of music and the benefit of
mankind. We can say that he spearheaded the drive to save Carnegie Hall from
demolition and to restore it, a commitment that earned him the gratitude of countless
music lovers, and that he now serves as its President. We can say that throughout his fifty
years as a performer, he has been selfless in looking beyond his career and helping others
to develop important careers of their own, among them some of the leading violinists,
cellists and pianists in the world today. We can say that he was an originating member of
the National Endowment for the Arts and that through the years he has been a fervent
advocate of government recognition of the importance of the arts. We can say that his
concerts are invariably sold out, that his many recordings on the CBS Masterworks label
are best- sellers and have won him numerous Grammy Awards. We can say that the film
From Mao to Mozart: Isaac Stern in China won the Academy Award for the best full-
length documentary of 1981 and received a Special Mention at the Cannes Film Festival.
We can say all this and much more, and still not come up with the total picture.
Even with his ebullient personality and wit, so evident as he teaches master classes to the
young Chinese students in From Mao to Mozart, Isaac Stern remains that unexplainable
natural force.
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MADRID
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ISAAC STERN
Page 2
Much has been written about his art and about the man himself; and from these
writings, one is able to absorb certain facets of his character and feel the ambience in
which his music-making flourishes.
In the Time Magazine article mentioned above, he was portrayed thus: "In his
own variation of Parkinson's Law, he expands to fill any space available, even one as
large as the City of Paris. There, for the past two months, an entire army of Isaac Sterns
has been at large in the streets, salons and concert halls. Which was the real one? -- The
celebrity glimpsed in a blue Mercedes limousine, racing to such appointments as a recital
before the President of France? Or was it the doppelganger who never seemed to leave
the rehearsal hall, reflectively pushing his horn-rims up over his white hair and grilling
the young violinists who passed before him: 'With whom did you study? Why did you
choose that piece? Can you explain why you are holding the instrument that way? Up!
Up! Higher!' Or the virtuoso who appeared on stage in eight orchestral concerts, playing
fifteen concertos, in addition to various chamber music events? - All were, of course,
irresistibly, ubiquitously, impossibly Isaac Stern."
Making each minute of the day count is one of the secrets of Stern's personality.
"We do not know how many hours Isaac lives in a day," Zubin Mehta says. "We only know
it must be more than twenty-four."
Newsweek, in a feature article, also commented on Stern's ability to be in two
different places at almost the same time: "For the thousands of fiddle fans who revere
Stern, nothing less than his feverish schedule will do. He is one of the most renowned and
recorded violinists in the world, with a deeply expressive sound and perhaps the most
powerful arm in the business. At the same time, his music is marvelously alive and
reflects rigorous analysis. He seems to mold each passage into an inevitable whole -
perhaps the most difficult musical feat of all."
ISAAC STERN
Page 3
A recent article in The New York Times sums it up: "Isaac Stern has been a
commanding presence in the musical world for more than four decades. He has always
seemed more than a mere virtuoso violinist; rather, he has been the quintessential
humanitarian, ready to devote himself to causes that extend far beyond the confines of
musical life.
Yet it is as a violinist that posterity will judge Mr. Stern.
.Mr. Stern has
always been primarily a musician, never interested in technical display for its own sake.
He once stated that he wishes to use the violin to make music, never to use music just to
play the violin.' Thus he has always attempted to communicate the musical core behind
even the most ephemeral virtuosic passagework."
Isaac Stern began his career in San Francisco where his principal teacher was
Naoum Blinder, concertmaster of the San Francisco Symphony. After his recital debut,
Stern made his own debut with that orchestra, playing the Brahms Concerto in 1936.
His New York debut came in 1943, and his New York Philharmonic debut, under
Artur Rodzinski, in 1944. Since that year, he has performed with this orchestra over
eighty times, more than any other violinist in its history.
Besides his highly acclaimed interpretations of the standard repertoire, both in
concert and on his many recordings, Stern is an avowed champion of contemporary music.
As such he has given premieres of violin works by Bernstein, Hindemith, Penderecki,
Rochberg, Schuman, Dutilleux and Peter Maxwell Davies.
His career has also included the making of more than 100 records, cassettes and
CD's, in addition to both feature films and television appearances here and abroad.
Following the Six Day War in 1967, he performed the Mendelssohn Concerto atop Mt.
Scopus with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Leonard Bernstein. This
memorial concert was made into a film entitled A Journey to Jerusalem. Other films in
which he has appeared are Tonight We Sing, the film biography of the impresario Sol
Hurok, in which he appeared as Eugene Ysaye; and "ghosting" for John Garfield in
Humoresque. He also played the in the sound track for the movie Fiddler on the Roof.
ISAAC STERN
Page 4
Isaac Stern holds many honorary posts. He is Chairman of the Board of the
America-Israel Cultural Foundation and Chairman and Founder of the Jerusalem Music
Center, in addition to continuing as President of Carnegie Hall. He has received
numerous awards from heads of state, the music and business communities and from
humanitarian institutions. Mr. Stern was the first recipient of the Albert Schweitzer
Music Award for "a life dedicated to music and devoted to humanity."
In December 1984, he was the recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors award,
presented by President Reagan at The White House. In 1985, CBS Masterworks honored
Mr. Stern as their first "Artist Laureate" and signed him to what is, in effect, a lifetime
contract. He was also named the 1986 Musical America "Musician of the Year."
Mr. Stern's continuing commitment to Carnegie Hall was marked by the
nationally televised CBS broadcast of the Grand Reopening of the Hall, which received a
1987 Emmy Award. At the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., he played in the
official salute to Mstislav Rostropovich, marking the Russian conductor's sixtieth
birthday. In 1987, the American Symphony Orchestra League honored Isaac Stern with
its highest award, the Gold Baton. That same year, he was among a select few to be
given the 1987 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and was honored with The Wolf
Prize in Israel.
Mr. Stern is a Commander of the French Ordre de la Couronne (1974) and an
Officier of the Legion d'Honneur (1979). He holds the Commander's Cross of the Danish
government's Order of the Dannebrog (1985) and is a Fellow of Jerusalem (1986).
Isaac Stern holds honorary degrees from many institutions, including the
University of Hartford, Bucknell University, Yale University, Dalhousie University,
Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland.
OCTOBER 1989. PLEASE DESTROY ALL PREVIOUSLY DATED MATERIAL.
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Chicago Tribune, Sunday, January 15, 1989
Man with a mission
Isaac Stern's on a lifelong crusade for the arts
By Howard Reich
"But acoustics is not a sci-
has been Stern's second pas-
Entertainment writer
ence-it is an art of happens-
sion; nurturing culture in
e has won an Acade-
tance.
America has been the first.
H
my Award, saved
"Yet I insist that the hall is
It was Stern, after all, whom
Carnegie Hall from
still terrific. The sheer power
then-President Kennedy called
the wreckers' ball,
that comes off of that stage is
upon to help establish the Na-
helped create the National En-
extraordinary."
tional Endowment for the
dowment for the Arts and re-
Certainly few living musi-
Arts, which, even in lean
ceived America's highest artis-
cians know Carnegie better or
times, has fueled American
tic honor, the Kennedy Center
have played on its stage more
arts organizations with mil-
award.
frequently than Stern. Nor
lions of dollars. It was Stem
So it was a bit surprising
have many musicians sacri-
who founded the Jerusalem
when the violinist who owns
ficed quite so much to keep
Music Center in Israel (in the
more medals than the average
the place alive.
'70s); and it. was he who
banana-republic general got on
More than two decades ago,
helped launch the careers of
the phone and quipped,
Carnegie had been eyed by a
several young artists we might
"Hello, this is the Scarlet Pim-
group of investors who
never have heard otherwise,
pernel of the violin, otherwise
planned to raze it and redevel-
cellist Yo-Yo Ma the most no-
known as Isaac Stern."
op the property. They evident-
table among them.
Scarlet Pimpernel indeed.
ly did not know how fierce an
So how does Stern feel about
Though Stern was alluding to
adversary was poised against
the state of culture in the U.S.
how difficult he had been to
them.
today?
reach over the last couple of
Stern promptly set aside a
"Relatively speaking, we're
weeks, he always has planted
large portion of his solo career
not doing too badly," says
himself on the front lines of
and began organizing the op-
Stern, who nevertheless
the arts, sparking headlines as
position. He inspired a net-
launches into an impassioned
he pursues noble causes.
work of philanthropists and
chronicle of our cultural woes.
At the moment, he is em-
artists to raise the then-grand
broiled in yet another noisy
sum of $5 million to save Car-
ne of the terrible
controversy. As president of
negie; he twisted enough arms
O
difficulties in the
the Carnegie Hall Foundation,
to pass legislation allowing the
arts today, how-
Stern orchestrated the recent
City of New York to purchase
ever, is this
remodeling of the venerable
the historic building. Thanks
whole business of that horren-
building, which has triggered a
to his efforts, Carnegie lives.
dous word 'deficit.' People
volatile response. Some critics
"I wasn't just afraid Car-
don't seem to realize that
have charged that Carnegie
negie Hall was going to be
there really is no such thing as
Hall's fabled acoustics-long
torn down, I was sure of it,"
a 'deficit' in the arts. Deficit
admired for their clarity and
says Stern, in explaining why
only applies when you're
naturalness-have been ruined.
he championed the cause.
talking about a profit ma-
"Don't you think we know
"But I, like everyone in my
chine-but the arts are not a
the problems better than any-
generation and generations be-
profit machine.
body could tell us?" says
fore me, had gotten my inspir-
"The arts are supposed to
Stern, 68, who will perform a
ation and my impetus from
enrich our lives, but it's very
rare solo recital at 8 p.m. Sat-
Carnegie Hall. I couldn't bear
hard to get people who aren't
urday in the Paramount Arts
to lose the place.
arts professionals to under-
Centre in Aurora. "We slaved
"Now that Carnegie has its
stand that-to realize that you
like crazy, with the greatest
future back, I feel a simple
can't guarantee success in the
care and not a small amount
joyousness. It's quite some-
arts. On the contrary, you
of ulcerating. We were trying
thing to stand on that stage
have to give artists the right to
to protect and preserve and re-
and realize that this place-
fail, not the demand to suc-
turn the hall to its maximum
where a large part of Ameri-
ceed."
beauty, and we have done
ca's musical traditions were
Stern knows, for he has built
that.
created-will be around for
a career from the ground up,
"Sure, we have to wait for
another 100 years."
step by incremental step. Born
everything to settle in its place
Regardless of how Carnegie
in the USSR, he was brought
and make the adjustments that
Hall's latest battle plays itself
to the U.S. as an infant, then
are necessary," adds Stern,
out, not even its harshest cri-
methodically taught music by
whose beloved Carnegie re-
tics would question Stem's de-
his mother, a singer. Though
cently was rigged with a`vari-
votion to the hall or his
he made his professional debut
ety of baffles and deflectors as
lifelong crusade for the arts. In
at 11 with the hometown or-
acousticians try to hone the
fact, a case might be made
chestra (the San Francisco
troubled acoustics.
that playing the violin really
Symphony) and a smashing
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Chicago Tribune, Sunday. January 15. 1989
Section
13
Page
23
Arts
New York debut at 17, he
slept in the upper berth of the
he's raising money for Car-
spent long, arduous years on
train, and if you had any kind
negie Hall or teaching young-
the road thereafter trying to
of quality and learned how to
sters in China how to play the
emerge as something more
really listen to yourself, you
fiddle (documented in the film
than just another prodigy.
had a chance at a career.
"From Mao to Mozart," an
"But some of these newer
Academy Award winner in
He pursued a path far less
glamorous than do many of
performers-they're little more
1981), he is sustained by the
today's young stars, who seem
than a media function. They
great artists he has known,
to spend nearly as much time
may appeal to a mass public,
worked with and revered.
on the talk-show circuit as the
but not a discerning one. And
"There are certain moments
only the ones who build a dis-
I will remember as long as I
concert stage.
cerning following-the same
live," says Stern.
"The problem is that so
public that admired Rudolf
"I'll never forget the extraor-
many of these young players
Serkin, Jascha Heifetz, Joseph
dinary sound of [violinist]
go in with so much hype, and
Szigeti, Arturo Toscanini-
Fritz Kreisler, the integrity and
they're given way too much
only these will last."
purity of Szigeti, the utter, un-
attention," he says.
So Stern, whose imploring
believable quality of Heifetz's
"I come from a time when
violin tone and deeply com-
playing-it was a truly patri-
you worked your way up
municative manner has placed
cian way with music.
slowly and steadily, and you
him among the aforemen-
"These are things that stay
didn't expect to have dental
tioned elite, busily pursues his
in the back of your head for as
care for your great-grandchil-
causes, occasionally squeezing
long as you live. They follow
dren written into every con-
in a concert or a recording
me through the years. They in-
tract. You practiced, and you
date when he can. Whether
spire me to carry on."
LOS ANGELES
LONDON
PARIS
ROME
MADRID
MUNICH
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MONDAY, JANUARY 30, 1989
THE WASHINGTON Post
Isaac Stern's
Careful Passion
Reprinted from Saturday's late editions
Anyone expecting a lot of familiar
dash and flash from violinist Isaac
Stem Friday night must have been
disappointed. Instead, the full Kenne-
dy Center Concert Hall audience
heard passionately rendered 20th-cen-
tury masterpieces (along with some
Bach and Beethoven) that contained
few showy gestures and no obvious
daring.
The third and last Violin Sonata
(1926) by Romanian composer and
violinist Georges Enesco was remark-
able for its depth of expression and
penetrating vision. The first move-
ment's main Gypsy-like theme was
animated and beautifully exotic. The
andante's delicate opening and the
finale's broad, sweeping phrases were
conveyed masterfully by Stem and
nänist Robert McDonald, who offered
particularly fluid accompaniment here.
The-other contemporary selection,
Bartók's Rhapsody No. 1, was given a
vigorous interpretation, with a hearty
and bold tone. Rustic and rhapsodic,
the music demands from the soloist
eager vitality, which Stern delivered
genuinely and effortiessly.
Beethoven's C Minor Sonata, Op.
30, No. 2, received a romantic read-
ing, with forceful, sharp phrasing and
a robust. tone. The second-movement
adagio. was exquisite for its warmth
and understated proportions. The
opening Bach Sonata No. 3 in E (BWV
1016) showed Stem's willingness to
indulge in simple, straightforward mu-
sic-making.
-Kate Rivers
NEW YORK
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MADRID
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THE DENVER POST
Bartok sonata highlights
Tuesday, April 12, 1988
Isaac Stern performance
3y Anne Kilstofte
Special to The Denver Post
REVIEW
What is left to say about Isaac
Stern. one of the greatest violinists
of our lime?
written in the United States. Here
Stern showed fluid strokes -
Stern is a legend, having per-
sometimes mellow, sometimes bit-
formed in concert for more than 50
ing.
years. In the autumn of his career,
basking in the warm sunshine of
In the second movement, espe-
clally where the piano has the
his accomplishments, the violinist
modal harmonic theme, Stern dis-
appeared Monday night at Boet-
tcher Concert Hall in a provocative
played his awareness and skill as
display of mastery and control.
an accompanist. The violinist's
tones in the fourth movement were
As the di-
sweet and singing.
minutive mu-
sician walk-
Commands stage
ed on stage,
Brahms' Violin Sonata No. I in
one could see
G Major, Opus 78, "Rain Song"
that he was
showed off Boettcher's Intimacy as
at ease, con-
Stern fully commanded the stage.
serving his
The piece was soothing with care-
energy for
ful, clean arpeggios and solid scal-
his playing.
er passages in the first movement,
There was no
Isaac Stern
Vivace ma non troppo.
Namboyance
Stern put his heart into the soul-
in his delivery, but the musician-
ful line of the Adagio, especially on
ship for which he is known was
the instrument's lower strings. The
none the less for it.
melodies secined free-floating. like
Bela Bartok's Sonata No. I for
a breeze,
Violin and Plano, Sz.. 75, was the
The third movement was more
highlight of the evening. The first
carefree but no less dramatic or
movement, Allegro appassionato,
passionate. There was a warmth to
begins fiercely, and Stern juxta-
this movement that was very ap-
posed the opposing elements of this
pealing. Unlike the rest of the pro-
movement beautifully: the anger
gram, the Intonation was not al-
versus the calm, gorgeous sonori-
ways true on this piece: subtleties
ties and soulful melodies.
that didn't detract but were never-
The second movement, Adagio,
theless there.
is a quict, mournful statement
Planist Robert McDonald cer-
whose drama lies in its understate-
Lainly shouldn't escape mention.
ment. Stern was tremendously ef-
fle provided a stability and
fective in the double stop sections.
strength to Stern's performance
especially with Boettcher's acous-
and is an excellent planist in his
tical presence. The Allegro, the
own right. McDonald was adept
third movement, was a frantic ef-
and sensitive in his portrayal and
fort that finished in a frenzy.
handled the program with delicacy
Dvorak opens
and flair. He was nothing less than
superb in the Bartok.
Dvorak's Sonatina in G Major,
Also on the program was Schu-
Opus 100, opened the program.
bert's Rondeau Brillant in B Minor,
This piece sounds more American
D. 895, but due to deadline restric-
both in harmonic treatment and
tions Hwas unable to stay to hear
thematic usage and, in fact, was
il.
NEW YORK
LOS ANGELES
LONDON
PARIS
ROME
A MEMBER OF THE
Josephoon
TALENT
AGENCY
GROUP
ICM
Recital: Stern, with McDonald, at Carnegie Hall
speaks has always been a strong
knew how to fit his instrument Into
on occasion a decade ago, sounded
NEW YORK
By DONAL HENAHAN
point of Mr. Stern's playing, a fact
the aural picture. He did not feel the
like a violinist who has been practic-
that never fails to endear him to audi-
need to press for total attention. Fa-
ing. Intonation flaws were few and
ences. Nothing is more dispiriting or
mous violinists sometimes do just
unimportant, and the bow work was
T isn't every violinist who can
I'
more pointless, after all, than luke-
that, ostentatiously forcing what is
youthfully agile.
perform in a concert hall that
a
commemorative
warm music, which this musician has
essentially accompanying material
THE
LOS
bears
sedulously avoided all during his ca-
to the fore rather than letting the
In his time, Mr. Stern has done
THE NEW YORK TIMES, WEDNESDAY, MAY 6, 1987
plaque extolling his service to
his nation's music, but Isaac Stern Is
reer. Even cold is better. On this
music dictate each player's role from
more than his share for 20th-century
night, for an audience that over-
moment to moment.
music. This time he and his planist
able to enjoy that pleasure at Carne-
flowed onto the stage, Mr. Stern and
The high point of the recital, how-
varied their mostly 19th-century pro-
gie Hall, where he played a recital
last evening. The violinist, who made
his superlative planist, Robert Mc-
ever, came in a gripping perform-
gram by offering Webern's Four
Donald, began with Beethoven's first
ance of Schubert's extraordinarily
Pieces (Op. 7), whose epigrammatic
his New York debut more than half a
century ago, looks perfectly at home
sonata (Op. 12, No. 1) and immedi-
taxing Fantasy in C. The complicated
thoughts barely consumed five
on the stage of Carnegie, which he
ately let one know that they were
problems of structural cohesion and
minutes. The performance was not as
TALENT
helped save when its existence was
equal colleagues in the enterprise.
balance between the Instruments
austere and pointillistic as some, but
threatened and whose remodeling he
Mr. McDonald, a strong partner,
could be all but forgotten as the two
made its brief, so to speak, for Web-
more recently oversaw. More Impor-
thrust the plano part into prominence
musicians spun Schubert's web of
ern's expressive case. Finally, the
tantly, he sounded at ease in a pro-
when required but also knew when to
poetic ideas. Both the Romantic mys-
Brahms Sonata in D minor, a work
gram that was mostly home territory
step back and let the violin have its
tery and the surface brilliance of the
that could serve as Mr. Stern's signa-
to him: Beethoven, Schubert, Webern
say. One was reminded that Beetho-
score, which might have seemed at
ture tune. He still plays It with as
ven's score Identifies these duo pieces
odds with each another, were equally
much sweeping lyricism and senti-
and Brahms.
GROUP
as sonatas for plano and violin, not
well realized and fashioned into in-
ment as any violinist alive. Here,
The "passionate dedication" of
the other way around. Mr. Stern, ex-
separable parts of a whole. Mr. Stern,
again, the idiomatic planism of Mr.
which the plaque outside the hall
cellent chamber musician that he is,
in better technical form than he was
McDonald proved a great asset.
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THE TORONTO STAR, THURSDAY, MAY 15, 1986/F5
By Ronald Hambleton
Ask what It means, and Louie
Special to The Star
is ready with any modern
It's a toss up who got the
composer's literary (and somei
greater reception at last night's
what inflated) interpretation:
Toronto Symphony concert in
But ask what its effect was oh
Roy Thomson Hall (following
that thoroughly awakened audi-
the du Maurier Evening Over
ence, and its thunderous recep-
tures with the ensemble's 10 cel-
tion is all the proof you need.
lists and Mary Lou Fallis in
Isaac Stern brought quite &
Bachianas brasilieras No 5 and
different atmosphere into play
a Beethoven cello trio).
first in Beethoven's Romance
Was it young Alexina Louie,
No. 2 Opus 50 and then in the
the up-and-coming composer of
Violin Concerto In A Major
the specially commissioned The
K219, the last of the five that
Eternal Earth, which was being
Mozart wrote in his 20th year:
given its first performance; or
Stern's tonal range remains one
the grand old violinist Isaac
of the magical wonders of the
Stern, who has been picked as
music world. He can tantalize
Musician of the Year on the
the ear as he toys with the low.
cover of the 1986 edition of
est limits of audibility, animate
Musical America?
a cadenza with fiery vigor, and
Louie, whose fanfare and
unify.both with his classic puri-
overture The Ringing Earth
ty of sound and his amazing
was premiered at Expo 86, has
control of form.
expanded her universe Into the
In the Romance ne told a sub
three highly charged move
limely serene story, while in the
ments of a work designed to
Concer to he sgave full playful
"express tender concern for a
rein to its many shifting moods
disappearing environment."
And In greturn, Isaac Stern re
There may be concern in its
celved a tremendous outpour
warmly sensuous sounds, but
Ing of affection from a deeply
tender is hardly the word for
moved audience
this powerhouse of orchestral
The evening was filled out in
effects, with its complex cross
every sense of the word with the
rhythms and its stream-of-con-
amiable and full-hearted music
sciousness texture, as it sweeps
of Schumann's Symphony No. 3
from the clamorous awakening
In E Flat Major as the satisfying
of the Earth Spirit to sounds
second half of a remarkable
forced from some extra-galac-
program. It will be repeated tó-
tic pressure chamber.
night.
NEW YORK
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May 9, 1986
REVIEW
Orchestra did 2 shows in 1
By ROBERT FINN
MUSIC CRITIC
For all practical purposes, the
One thinks, at the start, of sound
What all this may have 0 do with
Cleveland Orchestra is giving two sep-
effects from a space movie. The idiom
Shelley's great poem is anybody's
arate concerts for its subscription bill
is concentrated and dissonant, with
guess. Henze is very good at deliv-
this weekend in Severance Hall.
the play of orchestral color a major
ering vivid pictorial explanations of
concern as solo instruments or small,
his music, which can be dutifully
The first, an all-contemporary pro-
oddly assorted groups of instruments
quoted in program books but which
gram, comes before intermission and
have their brief moments in the fore-
simply do not help a listener to get a
features pieces by Hans Werner Hense
ground.
handle on his music. The best tactic
and Kent State University faculty
In its second section the piece takes
perhaps is to listen to the music for its
member Frank Wiley. The second
on more formal definition, with a
own sake and worry about literary
concert, which follows the intermis-
long, ominous crescendo and decre-
matters only afterwards.
sion, is for the Severance old-guard
scendo followed by a sudden burst of
Last night, Schiff played the piece
conservatives: Superstar violinist
energy at the very end. Despite
with a big, resounding celle tone and a
Isaac Stern playing the Beethoven
Wiley's insistence that his music is
fine control of dynamic subtleties.
concerto.
"abstract" (hence his title) and has no
Dohmanyi and the players appeared to
The two halves do not really make a
program, it has a feeling of tragedy
have the music well la hand, and the
sensible whole, despite the best efforts
about it, at least to my ears.
piece made a fine impression 00 the
of music director Christoph von Dob-
Despite its sometimes spiky and
usually reserved Thursday night audi-
nanyi, his players: Stern and cellist
dissonant surface, the piece has for-
sace. Most of those in attendance last
Heinrich Schiff, who is the soloist in
mal coherence and distinct emotional
might had obvieusly come to hear
Hans Werner Henze's "Ode to the
impact. It is well worth the time of
Stern and Beethoven. They greeted
West Wind" on the modern half of the
Dohnanyi, his players and his audi-
the justly renowned violinist with a
cordial ovation the minute he stepped
program. The whole thing is to be
ence.
onstage.
repeated tomorrow night.
It WAS not a good however, to
It really amounts to enough soloists
put Wiley's piece x side with the
What they heard thereafter, how-
Henze work, The Lactic dilated the
ever, was not the used sert of Beetho-
and enough food for musical thought
for two distinct evenings.
impact of both pileces by minimizing
ven violin concerto. It had a musing.
stylistic contrast.
introspective character. as though
The luckiest musician around
Stern had decided to go bevond showy
Cleveland these days is Kent State's.
Henze's work is a sort of cello con-
Virtuosity the or its
Frank Wiley, whose "Abstracts," a
certo in five short sections, based
depths instead.
work in two brief movements, this
loosely on Percy Skelley's classic
week becomes the first work by a
poem of the same title. I say "& sort of
His very first entrance that
cello concerto" because the relation-
famous
exposed
phrase
local composer to be conducted here
ship of the soleist to the archestra
WES A sort tipoff. Stern's
by Dohnanyi. Not only that, but the
changes from section to section. Occa-
entrance WAS nottf rather than com-
piece is to be taken to Carnegie Hall
next week on the orchestra's East
slonally, the soloist & an stator or
It even sounded a little tea-
Coast tour.
poet himself, declaiming over the
tative, as though the soloist had not
No wonder Wiley (who recently also
orchestra; sometimes, he Is In dia-
yet quite settled into his groove.
logue with it; sometimes, he seems to
What followed showed beyond doubt
won the Cleveland Arts Prize in music
from the Women's City Club) was
be fighting against it; at other times,
that the Stern technical equipment is
he may be playing, but the orchestra
gill in good shane. His playing had
beaming when be went onstage for a
bow after the performance of his
simply overwhelms him.
sweep and breadth even without the
The piece is mainly meditative in
imperious commanding tone that one
piece last night.
mood. It has many indiated moments
usually associates with this famous
"Abstracts" shows, to some extent,
the influence of Wiley's composition
of beauty, but to my cars # did net
piece. The slow movement was rhan-
teacher, Donald Erb. It is constructed
begin to hang together as a whole
sodie. the last movement genial
in large part of little fragmentary
until the last 10 minutes & so, where
rather than energetic:
Hense lets his poetic fancy take over
Last night, the performance elicited
motives, little spatters of orchestral
cheers and bravos. It was not your
sound, imaginatively orchestrated
in a long closing meditation that rises
to genuine elegiac passion and then
typical heroic Beethoven played by
(and with, of course, lots of spicy per-
subsides into silence.
your typical preening virtuoso violin-
cussion effects). Atmosphere is every-
ist, but It was Superbly done by all
thing.
concerned in its own different way.
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Living
Today The Miami Herald Section. D
Wednesday, March 12, 1986
Lively Arts
Montreal debut a collector's piece
in its own beguiling contradiction, alert,
By JAMES ROOS
Music Review
glinting and fresh. The Ravel Daphnis et Chloe
Herald Music Critic
also had a formidable audience success, and
The Miami Beach Theater of the Performing
justifiably, for It was dazzling.
Arts had been sold out for days, which must
In the center of all this orchestral virtuosity
prove that the public can be clairvoyant as well
came Isaac Stern to play the Bruch First
as capricious. For the Montreal Symphony's
South Florida debut, with its gifted conductor,
Concerto, and he, too, was no let-down. He is a
born soloist, which Is something altogether
Charles Dutoit, at the helm, and Isaac Stern as
soloist, more than lived up to expectations. It
apart from and in addition to knowing your job
was a collector's piece of a concert.
as a performer. It assumes an inborn authority.
an Instinctive response to challenge, a kindling
The Montrealers produce the subtle splen-
by in the free outpouring of personal
dors of sound only a handful of our greatest
expression,
orchestras can summon. In fact, they play with
The Instant Stern started to play he lit up
a dark richpess, high polish and tensile
the soloist's glow of multiple candlepower. He
strength of tone reminiscent of the Orchestre
played big, vital Bruch of considerable thrust
de Paris, which bowed here several seasons
and power. but also of an extraordinary
ago. At least on first hearing, the Canadians
vricism that explored the slow movement
seem definitely to have one of the better
with a dreamy poetry unique In my experience.
prchestras in North America.
There were a few ragged edges, frayed ends,
This was Immediately evident in the
imperfections of pltch In the first and last
showpleces Dutoit chose for this Introductory
Isaac Stern: A born soloist.
movements - scarcely as bald as they look In
program Monday night. The tonal avalanche of
print.
Strauss' Don Juan poured out in a flood of
pieces, In the Streets and Byways and The
But most importantly, where Stern once
color and opulent sound, with no dead spots, no
Morning of a Fete Day, had the shimmering
slashed the Bruch to the quicksllver core of
sags, and with a kaleldoscopic brilliance and a
Imagery of an Impressionist masterwork, but
brilliance from the outside, which is exciting,
sense of breathing space that kept the music
also the mordent accents that moved the locale
he now lets It grow from within, which is a
shining. alive and theatrically eloquent.
unmistakably across the Pyrenees.
revelation. Dutoit made their collaboration
Iberia, which came on the concert's second
And The Perfumes of the Night, which often
pure pleasure. maneuvering the orchestra to
half. was as striking In its subtler fashion, the
leaves the bottle stoppered, or seems to have
meet the soloist on his own high ground and
fashion of a-composer French to his fingertips
left the stopper off too long, had the authentic
match his music-making In the same velvet-
being Intuitive about Spain. The two end
fragrance - drowsy, dusky and drenched, yet
clad tone.
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entertainment
DETROIT FREE PRESS/THURSDAY, MARCH 6, 1986
Isaac Stern
Issac Stern is
one of those
puts his best
artists who
impresses his
personality
into concert
strongly on
the music.
Isaac Stern is one of the greatest
violinists of our time.
THE BEST is exactly what Stern
expanding and contracting tempos, lin-
produced. In two concertos Mo-
gering over lyrical passages, scaling
zart's Third and Beethoven's only -
his dynamics up and down to suit the
Stern played better than I have ever
magic of the moment.
heard him play. In both concertos he
Those who equate Mozart's style
walked boldly inside the music, mixed
with prissy restraint probably
it up with his talent and emerged
blanched at the way Stern injected hot
victorious.
emotion into the slow movement, or
Stern Is one of those artists who
the way he toyed with the comedic
impresses his personality strongly on
elements in the finale. He proved that
the music. In other words, he doesn't
Mozart had soul as well as elegance,
just play the music, he plays with it,
fire as well as refinement, pathos as
well as propriety. Elmar Oliveira, who
will play the same concerto with the
Detroit Symphony under David Ather-
ton next month, has his work cut out
for him.
STERN'S Beethoven brimmed over!
with beauty. He scaled some of the
melodic lines down to whispers and at
other places let his sound turn gutsy.
The see-saw rondo theme of the finale
became jovial under his inspired hands,
and in the final measures he kicked that
theme up into the air with all the
eagerness of a placekicker making an
extra point.
As a matter of fact, Stern gave us all
kinds of extra points throughout the
evening. Herbig, whose straightfor-
ward, detached manner differs radical-
ly from Stern's more personalized ap-
proach, provided cautiously supportive
accompaniments that did not have a
personality of their own.
The program opened with Mozart's
Adagio and Fugue, K. 546, which Her-
big and the orchestra played last Octo-
ber, both at Ford Auditorium and in
Washington, D.C. Apparently they are
going to play it until they get it right.
Tuesday's turgid, heavy-handed read-
ing proved they haven't done that yet.
NEW YORK
LOS ANGELES
LONDON
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Isaac Stern earned
St. Paul Pioneer and Dispatch
standing ovation
By Rodney Shewan
REVIEW
A visit by Isaac Stern is always a
special event. Sunday night's Min-
nesota Orchestra benefit concert
under the baton of Sir Neville Mar-
riner, with Stern as soloist In
Brahms Violin Concerto, was dou-
bly special.
A fine evening's music making,
it was also an opportunity for the
orchestra and the Twin Cities mu-
sic community to honor a great
artist long recognized as a friend
of education, the arts and humane
causes around the world.
In a brief ceremony following
the performance, St. Paul Mayor
George Latimer proclaimed Sun-
day Isaac Stern Day in the Twin
Cities. George Dixon, chairman of
the Minnesota Orchestral Associa-
Tuesday, March 4, 1986
tion, announced the creation of a
Issac Stern
$1,000 prize in Stern's name to be
Honored by Twin Cities
awarded in the Young Artists'
Competition run annually by
emotional effect, alternating dra-
WAMSO, the orchestra's women's
ma with pathos, sweetness with
association.
fire. Playing now to the conductor,
now to the first violins, and some-
On such occasions, the concert
times, it seemed, to the front rows
itself can seem like a formality.
of the audience, he established an
Not so here. Whether invigorated
impressive musical rapport that
by Stern's presence or by their own
made the music's tender moments
recent Far Eastern tour, orchestra
especially satisfying.
and conductor were in fine form,
displaying great precision and
In the central adagio the lyrical
violin line was ushered in by fault-
spirit.
less playing from the winds. Out-
The first half opened with a pow-
standing here was co-principal
erful, well-schooled account of
oboist Marilyn Zupnik, whose solo
Schumann's "Overture, Scherzo
work in the Brahms and in "Don
and Finale," followed by Richard
Juan" fully deserved the special
Strauss' tone poem, "Don Juan."
recognition it won from Stern.
In this virtuoso musical portrait
If there was any sour note, it
of the idealistic, sentimental
came from the audience in the
womanizer, Marriner drew elo-
form of a barrage of coughs fol-
quent, committed playing from all
lowing the violin cadenza in the
sections, not least the impeccable
first movement of the concerto. No
brass. At the climax, he command-
doubt standing ovations, like that
ed one of the most arresting
given to Stern, are gratifying, but
silences to be heard in Orchestra
there are other forms of tribute
Hall for many a day.
due to a great artist. One of them
Following intermission, Stern's
is attentive silence.
performance of the Brahms con-
Shewan is a Twin Cities free-lance
certo called upon the full range of
writer.
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THE ARTS
The Daily Telegraph. Friday, May 10, 1985
MUSIC / St Louis Symphony, Slatkin
WITH TWO SPEECHES, two every day of the week you can fiery playing in the quicker
national anthems and a mes-
hear Isaac Stern play the Men-
music, but, opting as be did for
sage from President Reagan,
delsohn Violin Concerto, nor
extremes of tempo, he also
the American Festival finally
the St Louis Symphony Orches-
imbued the opening of the
got under way at the Festival
tra play Dvorak's Eighth Sym.
finale and the whole of his
Hall on Wednesday night with
phony. and it was on the
third movement with an un-
a startlingly routine pro-
performers themselves that
idiomatically lethargic tread.
gramme dominated by Men-
attention was inevitably
As players, though. the
delssohn and Dvorak.
focussed. Mr Stern played the
Mendelssohn with his fami-
orchestra impressed through a
True, the curtain-raiser was
harlv sweet tone: intonation
neatly balanced sound. and
Leonard Bernstein's spry ballet
and breadth of phrasing be-
urgent response. with fincly
score " Facsimile." but with
came more firinly controlled as
modulated woodwind, full-toned
the orchestra, the conductor
The performance progressed
and well-projected strings and
and the soloist all hailing from
The range of divnamics and the
a brass section which had an
the New World, one might
shaping of nuances more subtly
have hoped that this inaugural
applied as the second move-
apt brightness to timbre: In the
event would have introduced
ment unfolded in a seamless
Bernstein particularly they
an American symphony or con-
line of melody.
caught the music's blend of
certo, instead of presenting
In the Dvonak the conductor
languorous lyricism and cutting
two works that can be heard
Leonard Slatk in made his ex-
rhythmicality ideally.
here practically any day
pressive points firmly and
Not, of course, that it is demonstratively: he coaxed
Geoffrey Norris
LOS ANGELES
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Monday. January " 1.488
THE WASHINGTON FOST
Performing Arts
Isaac Stern
The Concert Hall of the Kennedy Center may
lack the appropriate intimacy for a performance
of chamber music, but Isaac Stern defied the odds
in his solo recital there Saturday evening. Stern-
humanitarias, arts activist and, above all, extraor-
dinary violimist-joined forces with pianist An-
drew Wolf in presenting a program notable for
finesse, secure execution and an enlightened ap-
proach to familiar repertoire.
Stern's security in sonatas by Beethoven, Pro-
kofiev and Franck is hardly surprising given his
nearly legendary stature as one of the great artists
of the century. What was noteworthy was the
fresh insight he provided into such well-known
works.
His conception of Beethoven's early Sonata Op.
12, No. 1, was an altogether romantic one, with
carefully shaped phrases and dynamic shading
balancing an occasionally excessive emphasis on
details. In Franck's Sonata in A at the end of the
program, however, there was no excess. In fact, it
was precisely Stern's attention to detail as well as
his sincere feeling for the work that made his
Franck performance truly exceptional.
The rest of the program was devoted to Prokof-
iev's Sonata in F Minor, Op. 80, certainly one of
the composer's best works in any genre. Stern's
longstanding affinity for Prokofiev made his
sharply etched and thoughtfully conceived inter-
pretation of the sonata the undisputed high point
of the evening. As Stern's congenial partner, Wolf
was splendid in this difficult but rewarding work.
Together the two gave a clear focus and logical
shape to the piece's disparate moods and extremes
of sonority and texture. The sheer poetic beauty
that Stem brought to the last movement's closing
measures was by itself ample testimony to the
expressive maturity of this consummate artist.
-Roy Guenther
LOS ANGELES
LONDON
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A MEMBER OF THE Josephson TALENT AGENCY GROUP
1986 EDITION
FIFTY - FIVE DOLLARS
THE
review
INTERNATIONAL DIRECTORY OF THE PERFORMING ARTS
Isaac Stern, Musician of the Year
PHOTOGRAPH BY ARNOLD NEWMAN
December 4, 1985
ISAAC STERN NAMED MUSICAL AMERICA'S 1986
MUSICIAN OF THE YEAR
ABC Publishing
New York - Isaac Stern was named 1986 Musician of the Year by
the editors of the Musical America International Directory of the
Performing Arts, according to Robert G. Burton, President of ABC
Publishing, a Division of American Broadcasting Companies, Inc.
Mr. Stern, the virtuoso violinist who began his illustrious career over 50 years ago, becomes the 27th
winner of the award which is given annually to an outstanding member of the international performing arts
community. Recent recipients include Philip Glass, James Levine, Ltzhak Perlman and Zubin Mehta.
The prestigious award has been presented to leading international figures of the performing arts by
the editors of the Musical America Directory since 1960. The Musical America Directory is the foremost
compilation of international information on the performing arts and is published annually by High Fidelity
Magazine - one of the ABC Leisure Magazines. ABC Leisure Magazines is an operating company of ABC
Publishing.
In making the announcement, Mr. Burton expressed his particular pleasure in presenting the award to
Mr. Stern on behalf of ABC, Inc.
"We are fortunate today to have the opportunity to honor not only one of the great violinists of our
time, but one of the true geniuses of the performing arts world," Burton said.
Mr. Stern was born in Kreminiecz, Russia on July 21, 1920 and began his career in San Francisco with
his recital debut in 1934. Two years later, he made his San Francisco Symphony debut, playing the Brahms
Concerto.
In 1937, Mr. Stern made his New York debut, and in 1943, made his debut performance at Carnegie
Hall, an institution that would become an important part of his life in the years to come.
Mr. Stern's career has also spanned the motion pictures and television industries. He performed the
Mendelssohn Concerto atop Mount Scopus, following the Six Day War in 1967, with the Israel Philharmonic
Orchestra conducted by Leonard Bernstein. The concert was later turned into a film entitled "A Journey to
Israel."
In 1979, Mr. Stern visited China, at the invitation of the Chinese government, and toured the country,
sharing his music with the Chinese people. The experience was captured by an American film crew and later
edited into the Oscar-winning film, "From Mao to Mozart: Isaac Stern in China." His countless recordings
over the years have won numerous Grammy Awards and his concerts continuously play to sellout audiences.
(MORE)
ABC Public Relations 1330 Avenue of the Americas New York New York 10019 212 887 7777
abc
ISAAC STERN -2- - -
The selection of Mr. Stern is especially fitting at this time since he is not only celebrating his 65th
birthday this year, but also his 50th year as a performer and 25th year as President of Carnegie Hall.
Mr. Stern, of course, played a major role in saving Carnegie Hall from demolition over 25 years ago.
World-famous photographer Arnold Newman was commissioned to photograph Mr. Stern, who will
appear on the cover of the 1986 Musical America International Directory of the Performing Arts due out this
week. Mr. Newman has captured numerous celebrities and public figures in memorable photographic
interpretations, including classical studies of Igor Stravinsky (1946), Pablo Picasso (1954), Marilyn Monroe
(1962) and David Ben-Gurion (1967), among others.
Following is a complete listing of recipients of Musical America's Musician of the Year Award:
1960
Leonard Bernstein
1974
Sarah Caldwell
1961
Leontyne Price
1975
Eugene Ormandy
1962
Igor Stravinsky
1976
Arthur Rubinstein
1963
Erich Leinsdorf
1977
Placido Domingo
1964
Benjamin Britten
1978
Alicia de Larrocha
1965
Vladimir Horowitz
1979
Rudolf Serkin
1966
Yehudi Menuhin
1980
Zubin Mehta
1967
Leopold Stokowski
1981
Itzhak Perlman
1968/9
Birgit Nilsson
1982
Jessye Norman
1970
Beverly Sills
1983
Nathan Milstein
1971
Michael Tilson Thomas
1984
James Levine
1972
Pierre Boulez
1985
Philip Glass
1973
George Balanchine
1986
Isaac Stern
*******
Contact: Thomas G. Osenton
ABC Publishing
(212) 887-5925
$1.75
SPECIAL AWARDS ISSUE
FEBRUARY 1985
Stereo Review
12 BEST RECORDS
OF THE YEAR
ISAAC STERN:
FIDDLER TO THE WORLD
FIRST TESTS:
PIONEER'S COMBINED
CD/VIDEO-DISC PLAYER
FIRST VIDEO AWARDS
02
0
1402414276
ISAAC
STERN
This year's recipient
of the Mabel Mercer
Award is truly a
fiddler to the world
by Herbert Kupferberg
HE conductor George
T.
Szell once told Isaac
Stern that he could be a
truly great violinist if only
he stopped doing so many
other things. Isaac Stern
has kept right on doing
them and has become a
truly great violinist at the
same time. Now. as a result
of his many roles in the life
of his community and his
world. in addition to his
remarkable musical ac-
complishments. he has
IT"
been named this year's re-
cipient of STERIO REVIEW'S
Mabel Mercer Award for
outstanding contributions
to the quality of American
musical life.
The perpetuum mobile
quality of Stern's musical
life is reflected in a dizzy-
ing variety of activities-as
solo violinist, chamber
musician. savior of Carne-
gie Hall. cultural ambassa-
dor to the Soviet Union.
China. and other countries.
tireless worker on behalf of
Israel. educator. and father
figure to a generation of
young violinists.
S
hort. chubby, accessible,
from Russia in the wake of the Bol-
and loquacious, he is a su-
shevik Revolution.
premely human figure in a
He was born July 21, 1920. in
milieu where aloofness
Kreminiecz in the Ukraine, an area
and glamour are too often
that produces an uncommon num-
the rule. One might, indeed, call
ber of violin virtuosos. Stern, in-
him the quintessence of the Ameri-
deed. once defined the U.S.-
can virtuoso, deeply rooted in the
U.S.S.R. cultural exchange pro-
great performing traditions of the
gram. at least so far as it concerns
past. yet thoroughly at home in the
violinists, in these terms: "They
V8 101
media and electronics age. If there
send us their Jews from Odessa. and
ever was a musician involved with
we send them our Jews from Odes-
PARQUET
Price
$9.50
and committed to the world in
sa"-Odessa. of course. being the
THUR (Yes MAY 18, 1981
which he lives. it is Isaac Stern.
Ukraine's port on the Black Sea.
CARREGIE KALL
17th
$1.
and
719
AVE
**I have never been able to live in
Isaac's parents. Clara and Solo-
a cocoon." he has declared. "More
mon Stern, settled in San Francisco
than anything else. an artist wants
and started him on piano lessons at
to feel needed. To have received as
age six. But when Isaac was eight,
much as I have from music and not
the boy across the street took up the
to have given something back
violin, and he asked to do the same.
would be criminal."
"So my friend became an insurance
Stern's career as a concert per-
agent. and I became a fiddler," is
CARNESIE BALL FESTIVAL CONCENTS
Price $9.50
Carnegie
former stretches back some fifty
the way he describes what hap-
MAY
years, starting with his debut at age
pened. At ten, he was registered in
fifteen in San Francisco, where he
the San Francisco Conservatory and
PARQUET
grew up. In 1980 his sixtieth birth-
in his teens began making appear-
101
day became the occasion for a series
ances with the San Francisco and
of worldwide observances, includ-
ing a sequence of anniversary reci-
tals in the United States, a huge par-
ty in Tel Aviv at which the Israel
Philharmonic played a set of varia-
tions on Happy Birthday composed
by Noam Sheriff, and an unusual
two-month residency in Paris dur-
ing which he became a kind of play-
ing adviser to the musicians of two
French orchestras.
Yet, for all the special events
involved, a Stern celebratory year
seems little busier or more hectic
than his ordinary year. Statistics are
hard to come by, but it seems likely
that Stern travels more miles, gives
more concerts, and makes more
records than any other living violin-
ist. He has about a hundred LP's to
his credit, almost all for CBS, which
has proclaimed him its first Artist
Laureate and signed him to what is,
in effect, a lifetime contract. The
company will also henceforth adorn
all his releases with a special "lau-
reate" gold sticker. Probably the
violinist who is his closest competi-
tor in total number of records-and
in public affection-is his protégé
and friend Itzhak Perlman.
Although Stern is a paragon of
American cultural values in his
combination of musicianship, hu-
manitarianism, and commercial
The photo
of Isaac Stern
success, he wasn't born in the Unit-
on the preceding
ed States. But he came close, arriv-
mong the many distinguished conductors Stern has
page is used
ing in San Francisco at the age of
played and recorded with is the late George Szell.
courtesy of
ten months in the arms of his par-
Their album of Mozart violin concertos. dating
CBS Masterworks.
ents, who had chosen to emigrate
from the Sixties. is still available on CBS.
46
STEREO REVIEW FEBRUARY 1985
ISAAC
STERN
1111
wo hundred concerts a year were routine for Isaac Stern in the years following the Second World
War. He plays less now but is always on hand to lend his support to a worthy cause.
Los Angeles Symphony Orchestras.
Times was reporting that Stern had
next door playing the fiddle rather
Stern and his fellow San Francis-
"established his title to mature art-
than one of the concert world's
can Yehudi Menuhin, four years
istry," and five years later Virgil
most famous virtuosos. There is a
older, are undoubtedly the two fore-
Thomson pronounced him "one of
famous Stern story about the time
most violinists ever produced by
the world's master fiddle players."
he was playing a recital for which
the United States. But Stern never
Like many another up-and-com-
stage seats had been sold. Turning
was a child prodigy in the Menuhin
ing young American performer,
to the people behind him as he was
sense, nor for that matter did he,
Stern made much of his progress
about to begin, he said, "Pardon my
like Menuhin, study in Europe and
under the promotional wing of Sol
back." Then, as he faced the main
settle abroad. His principal teacher
Hurok. By the time the post-World
part of the audience, he added,
was Naoum Blinder, concertmaster
War II era arrived he was playing a
"Pardon my front."
of the San Francisco Symphony,
hundred concerts a year and travel-
But for Stern, it's only a small step
and his progress as pupil was steady
ing to Europe, South America, and
from informality to artistry. Itzhak
rather than spectacular.
the Pacific (which he had already
Perlman, whose career Stern has
As Stern remembers it, his New
toured three times as part of a USO
done much to foster, describes him
York debut at Town Hall on Octo-
war-time troupe). He also went
as a violinist who never gets lost in
ber 12, 1937, drew respect rather
briefly to Hollywood, where he was
mannerisms and who plays "like a
than raves from the critics. He also
a musical ghost-he fiddled for
musician instead of like a virtuoso."
recalls that the event cost $1,500 to
John Garfield, who acted the role of
Daniel Barenboim, the pianist-con-
put on and that he held three
a violinist in the film Humoresque.
ductor who is another of Stern's
rehearsals with the accompanist
In another film, called Tonight We
young admirers and associates, says
hired for the occasion. "I should
Sing and loosely based on the life of
that he "makes the bow seem five
have had a tested program that I'd
Hurok, Stern himself played the
miles long." Stern himself compares
played on the road and embedded
role of the Belgian virtuoso Eugène
proper violin playing to the "natu-
in my fingertips," he observed in
Ysaye, an experience which he says
ral rise and fall of the human
later years. "The reviews were of the
convinced him he was no actor.
voice," with a continuous flow in
'yes-but' variety. The consensus,
Years later Stern, unseen, per-
which every line or phrase is linked
however, was that I should go far. I
formed the violin music for the
to the one before it. "You sing in
did. I packed up my violin and went
screen version of Fiddler on the
your head and play what you hear,"
back to California."
Roof.
he says.
Actually, the review in the New
But Hollywood glamour has nev-
However he achieves it, there is a
York Herald Tribune described the
er been part of the Stern mystique
brilliant alertness and aliveness to
seventeen-year-old Stern as "an un-
or, as he might say himself, schtick.
Stern's playing that give it a distinc-
usually promising young musician
With his rotund figure, fluff of gray-
tive quality: he's a person-to-person
whose talent seems to be following a
white hair, and horn-rimmed spec-
player rather than a soloist-to-
normal and judicious course of de-
tacles, the figure he presents on
audience performer. He is also a
velopment.
He should become
stage is homey looking rather than
musician eager to tackle almost any-
an artist of exceptional conse-
charismatic. So far as looks are con-
thing that he thinks is musically
quence." By 1939 the New York
cerned, he might be the neighbor
worthwhile and basically violinistic.
STEREO. REVIEW FEBRUARY 1985
H
e has recorded every-
Rockefeller family, deeply involved
tle masterpiece. It won an Academy
thing from Bach and
in the new cultural complex, also
Award as the best full-length docu-
Beethoven to Bartók
displayed no interest in preserving
mentary of 1981.
and Barber: Among
the old hall. For a fiddler. no matter
The foreign nation that above all
the living composers
how eminent. to spearhead the pres-
engages Isaac Stern's sympathies
whose works he has premiered are
ervation campaign was no casual
and support is the land of Israel. He
Leonard Bernstein. Krzysztof Pen-
matter. Today. thanks to Stern and
heads the America-Israel Cultural
derecki. George Rochberg, and Wil-
those who worked with him. Carne-
Foundation and directs the Jerusa-
liam Schuman. He has also made
gie Hall continues to flourish with
lem Music Center. a training insti-
recordings with pianist Eugene Is-
some of the most varied and inno-
tute. It is thanks to Stern's support
tomin and the late cellist Leonard
vative programming in town. as
and encouragement that an entire
Rose. his partners in one of the
well as superior acoustics and acces-
generation of young Israeli violin-
country's most distinguished trios.
sibility.
ists have been able to make interna-
Stern. who was installed as presi-
tional careers for themselves. many
dent of the hall. for years played an
centered in the United States. He
active role in running the operation.
has cleared the way for. among oth-
(There were some who said it was
ers. Itzhak Perlman. Pinchas Zuker-
too active.) Lately he has curtailed
man. Shlomo Mintz, Miriam Fried.
his personal involvement in its ad-
and Sergiu Luca. In 1967. following
ministration. with a professional
the Six-Day War, Stern joyously
management team taking over. But
performed the Mendelssohn Con-
no concerts at Carnegie Hall are
certo with the Israel Philharmonic
11.11
more popular than those he gives
Orchestra atop Mount Scopus-
himself.
perhaps the most spectacular of the
Stern's involvement with causes
seemingly innumerable concerts he
goes far beyond the municipal level;
has given in Israel.
it exists on a scale that can only be
ot all of Stern's
called planetary. Like his late men-
between nations, cultures, and
N
protégés have been
tor. Sol Hurok. Stern sincerely be-
Israelis. nor are they
lieves that music can be a bridge
all violinists. Pian-
.4 by-product of Stern's first trip to China
ist Yefim Bronfman
in 1979 was the film From Mao to
peoples. He was the first major
and cellist Yo-Yo
Mozart. in which he is shown coaching
instrumentalist to visit the Soviet
Chinese students in violin techniques.
Ma are among those members of
Union during the Cold War. going
the younger generation in whom he
there in 1956. two years before the
has taken an interest. Wherever he
But to live exclusively as a con-
formal Cultural Exchange Program
goes, he has an uncanny knack of
cert artist. giving recitals and mak-
was initiated. He established warm
discovering and encouraging new
ing records, has never been part of
personal relations with the late Da-
talent.
either the Stern personality or the
vid Oistrakh (an Odessa native) and
Of all of the finds he made in
Stern philosophy. He has always
other Soviet violinists. In fact. more
Israel, the greatest has assuredly
been a mover and shaker in areas
than one musical visitor from Rus-
been his wife. Vera. Stern had been
that many musicians would consid-
sia has made Stern's capacious
married to and divorced from bal-
er peripheral, and even inimical, to
Manhattan apartment his home and
lerina Nora Kaye when. at a Jerusa-
their own careers.
headquarters while in the U.S.
lem concert in 1951, he was intro-
Perhaps the most tangible of
tern. who speaks five lan-
duced by his longtime accompanist,
Stern's extracurricular successes
was his campaign to save Carnegie
S
guages-English. French,
Alexander Zakin, to Vera Linden-
Russian, Hebrew, and
blit, an admirer of his playing. Vera,
Hall in 1960. Landmark-wrecking is
Yiddish-has played in
born in Berlin of Lithuanian par-
a favorite New York City pastime,
virtually every major
ents. had spent the war years first in
with victims ranging from the old
country except Germany,
Paris, then in Stockholm. and after
Pennsylvania Station to the old
which he steadfastly refuses to en-
the war she had come to New York.
Metropolitan Opera House at 39th
ter. In 1979 he undertook his first
In 1951 she emigrated to Israel, and
Street, and there is no doubt that
visit to China at the invitation of
there, on August 1, she met Isaac.
Carnegie Hall would also be only a
the Chinese government, not so
Exactly sixteen days later they were
memory today were it not for Stern
much to give concerts (though he
married in Ramat Gan, and today
and assorted friends.
did that, too) as to advise on the
they are the parents of a daughter
The hall, dating back to 1891, was
integration of its musical life with
and two sons. all in their twenties.
scheduled to be demolished and re-
that of the West. A U.S. film crew
Vera Stern is, like Isaac, vigorous,
placed by a red ceramic-faced office
went with him, the result being a
articulate, and personable. She han-
building in the wake of the New
ninety-minute movie called From
dles many of her husband's business
York Philharmonic's move to Lin-
Mao to Mozart. Actor he may not
matters and has been deeply in-
coln Center. Stern's opposition was
be, but Stern never seems so natural
volved with his activities on behalf
an act of courage as well as commit-
as when he is demonstrating or
of Israel and in the Carnegie Hall
ment, for some powerful interests
playing the fiddle, and this movie,
campaign. The Sterns have two resi-
were promoting the destruction.
which showed him sharing the art of
dences, a duplex apartment on Cen-
Lincoln Center was not eager for
the violin with Chinese boys and
tral Park West and a country house
competition on 57th Street, and the
girls, proved to be an endearing lit-
set among the wooded hills of west-
STEREG-REVIEW FEBRUARY 1985
ern Connecticut, two hours from
occur. But it seems even more ob-
Manhattan.
vious that Isaac Stern has no inten-
ISAAC
The Sterns' New York home is a
tion of hanging up either his fiddle
hotbed of musical, family, social,
or his phone. As long as God gives
and business activities, many of
him strength, if there is a good cause
to espouse, or a good student to
STERN
which are carried out on the tele-
phone. If the fiddle is the most
encourage, or-most important of
important instrument in Isaac
all-some good music to play, he
Stern's life, the telephone runs it a
will be there.
close second. His Manhattan home
has a dozen phones scattered
around. and on the road he general-
RECORDINGS BY ISAAC STERN
ly likes to have three in a hotel suite.
Connecticut is a different story,
HE new 1985 Artist Issue of
tual relationship with CBS Master-
however. There he limits himself to
T
the Schwann catalog has fif-
works that has yielded more than a
ty-two entries under the name
hundred recordings. In recognition.
one telephone.
Isaac Stern. and all but one
CBS has named Stern its first Artist
His principal athletic activity is
of them are on CBS labels. That one
Laureate and created a new logo that
tennis, at which he is said by oppo-
exception is a two-record Deutsche
will appear on all his future releases.
nents to play a vigorous game. A
Grammophon album documenting
Some of what to expect from Stern in
few summers ago at a luncheon par-
the week-long Huberman Festival
the months ahead is noted in "Rec-
ty he gave for a friend's birthday in
held in Tel Aviv in December 1982 to
ord Makers" (page 59). For a selec-
his country home, he was nowhere
honor Bronislaw Huberman, the
live list of Stern recordings on deal-
to be found in midafternoon until a
founder of what became the Israel
ers' shelves right now, see below. And
Philharmonic. Stern was the senior
note the extraordinary number of dis-
guest discovered him alone in front
violin soloist among the six invited to
tinguished colleagues he's recorded
of the television set watching a
perform at the festival.
with. (All numbers are CBS Master-
championship tennis match.
The remaining currently available
works numbers or, in the case of
Stern's favored violin is the Guar-
Isaac Stern records listed in Schwann
some of the Compact Discs, CBS
neri (he owns two), whose robust
are the fruits of a forty-year contrac-
Sony numbers.)
Christie Barter
tone he prefers to the somewhat
more elegant Stradivari. In transit
BACH: Violin Concertos Nos. 1-2.
Minor; Romance. With Eugene Or-
he invariably carries his own fiddle.
With Alexander Schneider. English
mandy, Philadelphia Orchestra. MS
Chamber Orchestra. MY 38487, ©
6876.
Once when a helpful hotel manager
MYT 38487.
HAYDN: "London" Trios Nos. 1-
reached for his case, Stern clutched
BACH, VIVALDI: Concertos for
4; Divertimentos, Op. 100, Nos. 2
it to his chest and said with a laugh,
Two Violins. With Pinchas Zuker-
and 6. With Jean-Pierre Rampal,
"When I give you my violin, that'll
man. St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.
Mstislav Rostropovich. 0 IM 37786,
be the day you give me your
IM 37278. © IMT 37278, © IMT
IMT 37786, © MK 37786.
hotel!"
37278.
MENDELSSOHN: Violin Con-
Will Isaac Stern, now nearing six-
BARBER, HINDEMITH: Violin
certo in E Minor. BEETHOVEN:
ty-five. slow down? Can Isaac Stern
Concertos. With Leonard Bernstein,
Two Romances. With Seiji Ozawa,
slow down? Don't count on it-at
New York Philharmonic. MS 6713.
Boston Symphony. 0 IM 37204, ©
BARTOK: Violin Concerto; Two
IMT 37204, © MK 37204.
least not too much. CBS will shortly
Rhapsodies. With Leonard Bernstein,
MOZART: Violin Concertos Nos.
issue his first recording, with Eu-
New York Philharmonic. MP 38886,
3-5. With George Szell, Cleveland
gene Istomin, of the complete Bee-
©
MPT 38886.
Orchestra. M2 36936.
thoven violin-piano sonatas. There
BEETHOVEN: Violin Concerto in
PROKOFIEV: Violin Concertos
are other recordings in the works,
D
Major. With Daniel Barenboim,
Nos. 1-2. With Zubin Mehta, New
and plenty of concerts too.
New York Philharmonic. M 33587,
York Philharmonic.
0
IM 37802, ©
rue, Stern no longer per-
© MT 33587, © 35 DC-55.
IMT 37802.
forms nearly two
BEETHOVEN, BRAHMS, MEN-
SIBELIUS: Violin Concerto in D
I
hundred concerts a year
DELSSOHN, SCHUBERT: Piano
Minor. With Eugene Ormandy, Phil-
as he once did, and he
Trios. With Eugene Istomin, Leon-
adelphia Orchestra. M 30068.
ard Rose. D3S 799.
STRAVINSKY: Violin Concerto;
takes from time to time
BRAHMS: Violin Concerto in D
Symphony in Three Movements.
what he calls a "sabbati-
Major. With Zubin Mehta, New
With Igor Stravinsky, Columbia
clette"-a small sabbatical-during
York Philharmonic. M 35146, © MT
Symphony. MS 6331.
which he performs only at well-
35146, © 35 DC-108.
TCHAIKOVSKY: Violin Concerto
spaced intervals. He's already said
COPLAND: Violin Sonata. With
in D Major. With Mstislav Rostro-
that he envisions no large-scale cele-
Aaron Copland. M 32737.
povich, National Symphony. XM
bration of his sixty-fifth birthday
DVORAK: Violin Concerto in A
35126, © XMT 35126, © 35 DC-49.
such as accompanied his sixtieth.
As for his seventieth-that he isn't
even talking about.
So it's entirely possible that some
New York Mayor Edward I.
discernible reduction of pace may
Koch (left) and Frank
Sinatra, last year's
Herbert Kupferberg is a senior editor of
Mabel Mercer Award
Parade magazine, His Basically Bach:
recipient, flank Stern
A 300th Birthday Celebration, will be
at a recent Carnegie,
published in March by McGraw-Hill.
Hall benefit.
Ella Fitzgerald
Discovered as a teenager at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem,
Ella Fitzgerald and her swing style of vocal jazz transcend the
times. As a cultural ambassador, her improvised scat captivates
audiences, as her impressive vocal range stretches freedom's
light across oceans and political boundaries. Honored by the
Kennedy Center for her lifetime achievements, inducted into the
Jazz Hall of Fame, and awarded a Medal of Arts, it is fitting
that the United States honors this "First Lady of Song".
PAGE
2
151ST STORY of Level 1 printed in FULL format.
Copyright (c) 1990 The New York Times Company;
The New York Times
February 12, 1990, Monday, Late Edition - Final
NAME: Ella Fitzgerald
CATEGORY: Popular Entertainers
SECTION: Section C; Page 13, Column 1; Cultural Desk
LENGTH: 968 words
HEADLINE: A Tribute to Fitzgerald With Heart and Soul
BYLINE: By JOHN S. WILSON
BODY:
The acclaim that has been accumulating around Ella Fitzgerald for more than
half a century will reach a peak of sorts this evening when her colleagues from
all areas of the music world pay tribute to her at Avery Fisher Hall in a
benefit concert for the American Heart Association.
With Lena Horne and Itzhak Perlman as hosts, the concert, called 'Hearts for
Ella,' will include the singers Joe Williams, Jessye Norman, Bobby McFerrin,
Linda Ronstadt, Cab Calloway and Manhattan Transfer, the pianists George
Shearing and Andre Previn, the trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and the dancers Savion
Glover, Honi Coles and the Copasetics. In addition, Benny Carter will lead a
17-piece orchestra with a jazz star in every chair.
Miss Fitzgerald will be there, too, but in the audience, not on stage. Shy
and uncertain throughout her career, the singer can just relax in her seat on
this night and let the waves of love flow over her.
Ella Fitzgerald has been held in this high esteem for a long time. Thirty
years ago, the jazz writer Leonard Feather conducted an informal poll of 100
jazz artists to determine the greatest female jazz singers in history. Miss
Fitzgerald got 66 of the votes, followed by Billie Holiday with 23.
From Lows to Highs
Miss Fitzgerald's listeners have relished her pure, translucent tones on
ballads and a range that takes her smoothly from somber lows to flutelike highs.
Her precise pitch and rhythm have enabled her to develop wildly structured
scatting with a virtuosity that has proved a dangerous lure to those who try to
emulate her. Over all, she projects a wholesome quality that still carries
reflections of the little girl she was when she began singing professionally.
Today, at age 71, Miss Fitzgerald can look back at a career that began when
she performed in the famous Amateur Night show at the Apollo Theater on 125th
Street. She was a scrawny 15-year-old with what she has described as ''the
skinniest legs you've ever seen, and she wanted to dance. When she got on
stage, she was so nervous her legs would not move. She stood frozen as the
audience broke into laughter.
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PAGE
3
(c) 1990 The New York Times, February 12, 1990
The young Ella knew she had to do something, so she decided to sing. But she
knew only three songs, learned from her mother's recordings of Connee Boswell.
She sang two of them -''The Object of My Affection'' and 'Judy'' - and wound up
with the $25 first prize.
Miss Fitzgerald's first professional job, a result of her success at the
Apollo Theater, was singing with Chick Webb's hard-swinging band, and when he
died, in 1939, she led the Webb orchestra. Her first hit record with Webb was
''A-Tisket, A-Tasket,' a song based on the nursery rhyme that Van Alexander,
one of Webb's arrangers, had composed after repeated urgings from her.
From Novelty to Be-Bop
When the band was abandoned in the early 1940's, she began singing on her
own, which she has done ever since. Initially Miss Fitzgerald used the kind of
material she had sung with the Webb orchestra, although much of what was fed to
her by her record company was second rate. When be-bop developed in the late
1940's, she embraced it warmly.
''Bop musicians have more to say than any other musicians playing today,'
she said. But she soon saw that her embrace of be-bop had been too warm.
''I had gotten to the point where I was only singing be-bop,'' she said. ''I
thought that be-bop was it! That all I had to do was go someplace and bop. But
it finally got to the point where I had no place to sing. I realized that there
was more to music than bop.''
It was then, in the early 50's, that Norman Granz, the impresario of the Jazz
at the Philharmonic series, stepped in to place Miss Fitzgerald's natural
talents in a context that enabled her to arrive at the level of international
stardom on which she has flourished for the last 35 years. As her manager, Mr.
Granz started her on a series of ''Song Book'' albums - each a two-disk set
devoted to the work of a major songwriter, including Cole Porter, the Gershwins,
Duke Ellington, Jerome Kern and Irving Berlin.
The Meaning of Lyrics
But her ventures into the song books pointed up a flaw that had not been
noticeable when she was singing routine pop songs. Her vocal range and
virtuosity and her rhythmic drive had always been the primary focus of her
performances. Lyrics often seemed to her a necessary evil, another form of scat
syllables to be bent and twisted for rhythmic or harmonic effect without regard
to their meaning. When she approached the urbane and witty lyrics of Cole
Porter, Lorenz Hart and Ira Gershwin, she sometimes gave the impression she did
not understand them.
But she has managed, in her own ingenuous way, to bring the lyrics into
proper focus, making the show tunes as typical of Ella Fitzgerald as her
classic scat treatment of ''How High the Moon'' or her lilting ''A-Tisket,
A-Tasket.'
The fact that Miss Fitzgerald is not scheduled to sing at her tribute is no
indication that she is considering retirement. At the end of this month she is
to go to London for several engagements, including two nights at the Royal
Albert Hall. In April she is to appear in San Francisco, New Haven and at
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PAGE
4
(c) 1990 The New York Times, February 12, 1990
Radio City Music Hall in New York. She is booked through summer and into the
fall.
Proceeds of the concert at Avery Fisher Hall will be used by the American
Heart Association to establish the Ella Fitzgerald Research Fellowship Fund,
which will provide support for postgraduate research by recent recipients of
master's and doctoral degrees.
Long before her name was put on the fellowship fund, Miss Fitzgerald had
medical ambitions.
''I wanted to be a doctor when I was 11, she told The New York Times 23
years ago, ' 'and I kept right on wanting to be a doctor until I won that amateur
show at the Apollo.
GRAPHIC: Photo: Ella Fitzgerald, who will be honored at Avery Fisher Hall
tonight. (Steve J. Sherman)
TYPE: Review
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FIS
INTERNATIONAL WHO'S WHO
FIT
London Int. Orchestra 1943, now guest conductor; numerous engagements
in Europe, Israel, South Africa and the Americas; numerous recordings.
ence 1984-; Chevalier, Ordre nat. du Mérite; Prize of Assen. Française
Sciences Economiques; Prize of Acad. des Sciences
Address: Flat 4, 65 Redington Road, London, N.W.3, England.
Publications: Inflation, équilibre et chômage 1973, macroe-
FISZBACH, Tadeusz, DR.TECH.SC.; Polish politician; b. 4 Nov. 1935, Dobra-
conomique de la théorie Keynesienne 1974, Modern Macroeconomic Theor,
czyn, Lwów (Lvov) Voivodship; S. of Rudolf and Bronislawa Fiszbach; m.
1983, The Slump in Europe (with E. Phelps) 1988; contrib. to collection
Hanna Fiszbach 1960; one S. one d.; ed. Higher School of Agric., Olsztyn,
publs. Leisure interests: travel, cinema, guitar, scuba-diving. Address
Higher School of Social Sciences, Warsaw, and Main School of Planning
and Statistics, Warsaw; foreman, then technologist and chief engineer,
75007 Paris, France. Telephone: 45 55 95
Observatoire Français des Conjonctures Economiques, 69 quai d'Orsay.
Regional Co-operative Creamery, Elblag 1957-62; fmr. activist in Polish
Youth Union (ZMP); joined PZPR 1958, work in party apparatus 1963-81,
FITT, Baron (Life Peer), cr. 1983, of Bell's Hill in the County of Dow?
also Instructor, Town and Dist. Cttee, PZPR, Elblag, Instructor, Voiv-
Gerard Fitt; British politician; b. 9 April 1925, Belfast; S. of George Patrick
Fitt and Mary Ann Fitt; m. Susan Doherty 1947; five d. (and one
odship Cttee. PZPR, Gdansk, and First Sec., PZPR Dist. Cttee., Tezew
deceased); entered local politics in Belfast 1955; mem. Northern Irelar. d
1968-70; Sec. of Propaganda, then Organizational Sec. of Voivodship Cttee.
PZPR, Gdańsk 1971-75, First Sec. Voivodship Cttee., Gdansk 1975-81;
Parl., Stormont, for Dock Constituency 1962-72; mem. U.K. Par
mem. PZPR Cen. Cttee. 1976-82, deputy mem. Political Bureau of Cen.
Westminster, for Belfast West 1966-83; Deputy Chief Exec., N. Ireland
Cttee. 1980-82; Counsellor Embassy, Helsinki 1982-86; Minister's Adviser,
Assembly 1974-1975; Leader, Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP
resigned Nov. 1979; M.P. 1979-83. Address: Irish Club, 82 Eaton Square
Ministry of Foreign Affairs 1987-89; Deputy to Seym 1976-85, 1989-91,
London, S.W.1; House of Lords, London, SW1A 0PW, England.
Vice-Marshall of the Seym 1989-91; Chair. Polish Social Democratic Union
1990-91; Order of Banner of Labour (2nd class), Kt.'s Cross, Order of
FITTIPALDI, Emerson; Brazilian racing driver; b. 12 Dec. 1946, Sa,
Polonia Restituta, other decorations. Leisure interests: sport, books, thea-
Paulo; S. of Wilson and Juze Fittipaldi; m. Maria Helena Dowding 1970.
tre. Address: c/o Kancelaria Sejmu RPL, ul. Wiejska 4/6, 00-90 2 Warsaw,
one S. two d.; ed. scientific studies; Brazilian Champion Formula V
Poland.
Go-Kart 1967; Formula 3 Lombard Championship 1969; World Champice and
1972, 1974; Second in World Championship 1973, 1975. Leisure interests
FITCH, Val Logsdon, B.ENG., PH.D.; American physicist; b. 10 March 1923,
tennis, radio control aeroplanes and all kinds of sports. Address: Fittipale
U.S.A.; S. of Fred B. and Frances M. (née Logsdon) Fitch; m. 1st Elise
Representações Ltda., Alameda Amazonas, 282 Alphaville, Barueri 064500.
Cunningham 1949 (died 1972), 2nd Daisy Harper 1976; two s.; ed. McGill
São Paulo, Brazil.
and Columbia Univs.; U.S. Army 1943-46; Instructor, Columbia Univ.
1953-54, Princeton Univ. 1954, rising to Prof., Princeton Univ. 1960-,
FITZGERALD, Charles Patrick, D.LITT.; British professor of Far Easter
Chair. Dept. of Physics 1976, Cyrus Fogg Brackett Prof. of Physics
History (retd.); b. 5 March 1902, London; S. of J. Sauer Fitzgerald are
1976-84; James S. McDonnel Distinguished Univ. Prof. of Physics 1984-;
Josephine Fitzpatrick; m. Pamela Sara Knollys 1941; three d.; ed. Cliftoe
Sloan Fellow 1960-64; mem. N.A.S., American Acad. of Arts and Sciences,
Coll., Bristol and School of Oriental and African Studies, London; comme:-
President's Science Advisory Cttee. 1970-73; Research Corpn. Award 1968;
cial employment, writing and travelling in China 1923-39; Foreign Office.
Ernest Orlando Laurence Award 1968, John Witherill Medal, Franklin Inst.
London 1939-45; British Council, N. China 1945-51; Prof. of Far Easters
1976; Nobel Prize for Physics jointly with J. W. Cronin (q.v.) for work on
History Australian Nat. Univ., Canberra 1951-69, Emer. Prof. 1969.
elementary particles 1980. Publications: Major publs. in area of elementary
Visiting Prof. Univ. of Melbourne 1970-72; Leverhulme Fellowship 1936
particles. Leisure interest: conservation. Address: Joseph Henry Laborator-
39. Publications: Son of Heaven: a biography of Tang Tai Zung 1927
ies, P.O. Box 708, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, U.S.A.
China: A Short Cultural History 1935, Revolution in China, Floodtide is
Telephone: 609-452-4374.
China, Barbarian Beds: Origins of the Chair in China, Ancient China, Mao
Tsetong and China, The Empress Wu, History of China, Why China:
FITCHEW, Geoffrey Edward, M.A., M.SC.; British international civil ser-
Recollections of China 1923-51. Leisure interests: reading, cooking
vant; b. 22 Dec. 1939, Manchester; S. of Stanley Edward Fitchew and
Address: 4 St. Paul's Street, Randwick, N.S.W. 2031, Australia. Telephone
Elizabeth Scott; m. Mary Theresa Spillane 1966; two s.; ed. Uppingham
(02) 398-7256.
School, Magdalen Coll., Oxford and London School of Econs.; Pvt. Sec. to
Perm. Sec., Dept. of Econ. Affairs, 1966-67, Pvt. Sec. to Minister of State,
FITZGERALD, Edmund B., B.S.E.; American business executive; b. :
H.M. Treasury 1967-68; Financial Counsellor, U.K. Perm. Rep. to EEC
Feb. 1926, Milwaukee; S. of Edmund and Elizabeth Bacon Fitzgerald; =
1978-80; Under-Sec. European Communities Group 1983-85, Under-Sec.
Elisabeth McKee Christensen 1947; two S. two d.; ed. Univ. of Michigar.
External Finance Group 1985-86, Dir. Gen., Banking, Financial Insts. and
fmr. Chair. and C.E.O. Cutler-Hammer Inc., Milwaukee; then Vice-Chair
Co. Law, Comm. of the European Communities 1986-; mem. Bd. of Dirs.,
and C.O.O., Industrial Products, Eaton Corpn. (following merger with
European Investment Bank 1983-85; Gwilym Gibbon Research Fellow,
Cutler-Hammer); Pres. Northern Telecom Inc., U.S.A. (subsidiary d
Nuffield Coll., Oxford 1973-74; Oxford Univ. Ancient History Prize 1962.
Northern Telecom Ltd.) 1980-82, Chair. 1985-; C.E.O. Northern Telecoe:
Leisure interests: golf, tennis, squash, reading. Address: Directorate-Gen-
Ltd. 1984-89, Chair. 1985-; Dir. Bell Canada Enterprises, Inc., Norther:
eral XV, Commission of the European Community, 200 rue de la Loi,
Telecom Ltd., STC, PLC; mem. Pres. Reagan's Nat. Telecommunications
Brussels, Belgium.
Security Advisory Council; Trustee, Cttee. for Econ. Devt., Washingtor.
D.C.; fmr. Pres. Nat. Electrical Mfrs. Assen.; fmr. Vice-Chair. Industry
FITERMAN, Charles; French politician; b. 28 Dec. 1933, Saint-Etienne;
Advisory Council, Dept. of Defense. Address: Northern Telecom Inc., 127
S. of Moszek Fiterman and Laja Rozenblum; m. Jeannine Poinas 1953;
Woodmont Boulevard, Nashville, TN 37205, U.S.A.
Departmental Sec. Jeunesse Communiste 1952; Sec. CGT, Saint-Etienne
FITZGERALD, Ella; American singer; b. 25 April 1918, Newport News.
S.F.A.C. 1958-62; Dir. Cen. School, Parti communiste français (PCF)
Va.; m. Ray Brown (divorced 1953); one s.; sang with Chick Webb Band
1963-65; elected to PCF Cen. Cttee. 1972, to Political Bureau and Cen.
1934-39; toured with Jazz at the Philharmonic troupe in U.S., Japan, and
Cttee. Sec. 1976; Gen. Councillor, Head, econ. section and PCF Rep. to
Europe 1948; appeared in film Pete Kelly's Blues 1955; numerous night
liaison cttee. of signatory parties to Common Programme of the Left 1977;
club and television and concert appearances 1956-; toured with An Evening
Deputy (Val-de-Marne) to Nat. Assembly 1978-81; Minister of State,
of Jazz troupe in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, France, Belgium, Germany
Minister of Transport 1981-84; Deputy for Rhône 1986-88; Mayor of
Italy, Switzerland 1957; Dr. h.c. (Yale) 1986; eight Grammy Awards; many
Tavernes 1989. Address: 2 place du Colonel-Fabien, 75019 Paris (Office);
awards from musicians' polls and Downbeat and Metronome magazines.
251 avenue Jean Jaurès, 69007 Lyon, France (Office).
Commdr. Ordre des Arts et des Lettres 1990; recordings for Decca 1936-55
FITOURI, Mohamed, L. EN D.; Tunisian politician; b. 4 April 1925, Kai-
Verve 1956-, now Pablo Records. Records include: Mack the Knife 1969
rouan; m. two c.; ed. Lycée Carnot, Tunis, Inst. des hautes études, Tunis
Ella Fitzgerald 1965, Things Ain't What They Used To Be 1965, Tribute
and Faculté de Droit, Paris; called to the bar 1952; mem. Council Nat.
to Porter 1965, Whisper Not 1966, Côte d'Azur (with Duke Ellington
Assen. of Lawyers 1960; Advocate, Court of Cassation 1962; mem. Econ.
1967, Best 1967, Watch What Happens 1972, Take Love Easy 1975. Ea
and Social Council; City Counsellor, Tunis 1969; Deputy to Nat. Ass. Nov.
in London 1975, Montreux Ella, All that Jazz 1990. Address: c/o Norman
1969-; Minister of Justice 1970-71, of Finance 1971-77, of Foreign Affairs
Granz, 451 North Canon Drive, Beverly Hills, CA 90210, U.S.A.
1977-80; Grand Cordon, Ordre de la République, Ordre de l'Indépendance.
FITZGERALD, Frances; American author; b. 1940; d. of Desmond Fitz
Address: 17 rue Slaheddine, El Ayoubi, Tunis, Tunisia.
gerald and Marietta Peabody Fitzgerald Tree; ed. Radcliffe Coll.; author
FITOUSSI, Jean-Paul Samuel, D. ÈS SC. ECON.; French economist; b. 19
of series of profiles for Herald Tribune magazine; freelance author of ser
Aug. 1908, La Goulette; S. of Joseph Fitoussi and Mathilde Cohen; m.
of profiles, Vietnam 1966; Overseas Press Club Award 1967; Nat. Inst.
Anne Krief 1964; one S. one d.; ed. Acad. Commerciale, Paris and Univs.
Arts and Letters Award 1973; Pulitzer Prize 1973; Nat. Book Award 1971
of Paris and Strasbourg; Asst. lecturer 1968-71; Dir. of Studies 1971-73;
Sydney Hillman Award 1973; George Polk Award 1973; Bancroft Awa~
Maitre de conférence agrégé 1974-75; Prof. 1975-78; Titular Prof. 1978-82;
for History 1973. Publications: Fire in the Lake: The Vietnamese and the
Dean. Faculty of Econ. Science and Dir. Dept. of Econ. Science, Strasbourg
Americans in Vietnam 1972, America Revised 1979; articles in magazines
1980-81; Prof. in charge of research prog. on foundation of macroeconomic
Address: c/o Simon and Schuster Inc., 1230 Avenue of the Americas. Ner
policy, Inst.universitaire européen, Florence 1979-83; Prof. Inst. d'Etudes
York, NY 10020, U.S.A.
Politiques, Paris 1982-; Dir. Dept. of Studies Observatoire Français des
FITZGERALD, Dr. Garret; Irish economist and politician; b. 9 Feb. 193
Conjonctures Economiques (OFCE) 1982-89, Pres. 1990-; mem. Econ.
Dublin S. of late Desmond Fitzgerald and Mabel McConnell; m. Joss:
Advisory Council European Bank for Reconstruction and Devt. (EBRD);
O'Farrell 1947; two S. one d.; ed. Belvedere Coll., Univ. Coll. and King
consultant to EC Comm. 1978-87; External Prof. Univ. européenne, Flor-
Inns, Dublin; called to the Bar 1946; Research and Schedules Man. AM
518
PAGE
2
1ST DOCUMENT of Level 1 printed in FULL format.
Public Papers of the Presidents
National Medal of Arts
Remarks at a Luncheon for Recipients.
23 Weekly Comp. Pres. Doc. 701
June 18, 1987
LENGTH: 1484 words
The President. Well, thank you, all of you, for being with us today on this
third annual conferring of the National Medal of Art. Thanks also to the
National Council on the Arts, for its work and for providing us with a fine list
of nominees, and to our Committee on the Arts and Humanities and its Chairman,
Andrew Heiskell, for their help in furthering our cultural life. Finally, let
me thank the Congress - in particular, Senator Edward Kennedy, who is
graciously hosting the reception this evening - for joining with us in
supporting the arts and in celebrating the achievement of our best artists and
their supporters.
We honor today seven artists and four patrons of the arts. We do this in the
bicentennial year of our Constitution. The Constitution is the framework of our
liberty and the guarantor of our rights. Its drafting two centuries ago was one
of the few truly revolutionary acts in the annals of human government. And the
great constitutional philosopher Herbert J. Storing has written that unlike any
governing system before it the Constitution was "widely, fully, and vigorously
debated in the country at large; and adopted by open and representative
procedure." Here in America, that is, the people gave powers to the government,
not the other way around.
Yes, here in America government existed from the very first moment to
preserve and protect and defend the unalienable rights of man. The Constitution
was not just a statement of policy or procedure. It showed the depth of the
Founders on learning and grasp of culture, without which they couldn't have
produced the Constitution. It should come as no surprise, then, that the
Founders viewed the arts as essential elements of the new American nation.
George Washington declared in 1781 that both "arts and sciences are essential to
the prosperity of the state and to the ornament and happiness of human life."
And Thomas Jefferson was himself an artist as well as a politician. And John
Adams spoke of his duty to study "politics and war, that my sons may have
liberty to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history and
naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture, in order to give their
children a right to study painting, poetry, music, and architecture."
Well, today it is John Adams' grandchildren's great-great-grandchildrer who
have that right. And let us resolve that our schools will teach our children
the same respect and appreciation for the arts and humanities that the Founders
had.
Why do we, as a free people, honor the arts? Well, the answer is both simple
and profound. The arts and the humanities teach us who we are and what we can
be. They lie at the very core of the culture of which we're a part, and they
provide the foundation from which we may reach out to other cultures 50 that
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the great heritage that is ours may be enriched by, as well as itself enrich,
other enduring traditions. We honor the arts not because we want monuments to
our own civilization but because we are a free people. The arts are among our
nation's finest creations and the reflection of freedom's light.
The National Medal of Arts is to recognize those among us who make this
possible. So now, Nancy, who does such a fine job as honorary chairman of our
Committee on the Arts and Humanities, will announce the honorees.
Mrs. Reagan. Romare Bearden was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, but grew
up in Harlem, where he was influenced by the music and culture of jazz.
University-trained in mathematics, in the end, he decided to become an artist.
The New York Times wrote of his 1986 "Retrospective," that "Bearden's tapestries
are about memory and forgetting, wisdom and laughter, silence and song. Romare
Bearden is an exceptional artist, reflecting the American surroundings of his
own life.
Mr. Bearden. [Applause]
Ella Fitzgerald was born in Newport News, Virginia, and received her early
music education in the public schools of Yonkers, New York. As a teenager, she
won an amateur contest at Harlem's Appollo Theater, and within a year, she had
an engagement with the Chick Webb Band. She's toured widely in this country and
abroad, teaming with such greats as Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, and Duke
Elllington. Ella Fitzgerald is indeed our First Lady of Song.
Howard Nemerov was born in New York City and graduated from Harvard
University. He's authored over two dozen books and taught at several
universities. His work covers the entire spectrum of American culture and
ritwals, including poems about trees, water, people, and science. He's also a
scholar of Dante, Shakespeare, Words-worth, and Blake. A Pulitzer Prize winner,
Howard Nemerov is truly a great writer and scholar.
Alwin Nikolais was born in Southington, Connecticut, and received his first
commission to choreograph in 1940. He served as director of the Henry Street
Playhouse for 22 years, and there he developed his form of abstract theatre.
His career has now spanned four decades. Considered by many a revolutionary
figure in the art of dance, Alwin Nikolais is an extraordinary part of that
extraordinary American art form.
Isamu Noguchi was born in Los Angeles, but received his early education in
Japan. He later apprenticed as a Guggenheim fellow with Brancusi, and he
collaborated with Martha Graham, designing the sets for "Frontier." His unique
scwlpture bridges east and west. Committed to the art of our time, and yet an
inspired reinventor of much that's ancient, Isamu Noguchi is a great artist and
a great symbolic link between America and Japan.
William. Schuman was born in New York City. He had his own jazz band and
wrote popular songs in high school. And then he turned to symphonic music at
19, after hearing a concert of the New York Philharmonic. Mr. Schuman became
president of the Juilliard School, establishing the Juilliard String Quartet and
reforming the teaching of music theory. As a composer of 10 symphonies, 5
concertos, and many other works, and as a Pulitzer Prize winner, William
Schuman's contribution to the music of America is enormous and lasting.
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Robert Penn Warren was born in Guthrie, Kentucky. As a junior at Vanderbilt,
he joined John Crowe Ransom, Allen Tate, and Donald Davidson, who edited the
magazine "The Fugitive." Mr. Warren has published 17 books of poetry and 10
novels. A recipient of 3 Pulitzer Prizes, 2 in poetry and 1 in fiction, Mr.
Warren is our first poet laureate. His contributions to American letters are
nothing short of extraordinary. Mr. Warren was unable to come today but has
asked his friend, Mr. John Broderick, Assistant Librarian of the Library of
Congress, to accept for him.
J. William Fisher was born in Marshalltown, Iowa, and was a composer in his
early days. But he's best known as one who's spent a lifetime helping American
opera, has been responsible for over 60 new opera productions throughout the
country. He's also funded a theatre complex at Iowa State University, a
professorial chair of music at the University of Iowa, and a fine arts and
theatre center in his home town of Marshalltown. Bill Fisher, your generosity
is in the American tradition, and the art of opera is the better for it.
Dr. Armand Hammer was born in New York City and trained as a physician. He
began his business career in the Soviet Union while waiting for his medical
internship. After his return in the 1930's, he organized the Hammer Galleries.
As a philanthropist ---- I seem to be having trouble with my words - [laughter]
-- Dr. Hammer has enriched the collections of many museums, and his humanitarian
endeavors have had worldwide impact. Dr. Hammer couldn't be with us today, but
he's asked Mr. William McSweeney, president of Occidental International
Corporation, to accept for him.
Frances and Sydney Lewis have devoted a lifetime to supporting the arts.
Frances was born in New York City, and Sydney in Richmond, Virginia, where they
both now live. They've spent 25 years collecting contemporary paintings,
sculpture, design, and decorative arts; and they supported artists from all
over the country. Their generosity and a portion of their collection provide
the basis for the new wing of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond.
Frances and Sydney Lewis, you continue the American tradition as great and
sensitive volunteers for the arts.
The President. Well, now, Nancy, thank you, and thank all of you. Our
honorees today have truly been leaders in writing the history of American
freedom. So, all that's left for us to say now to all of you, in addition to
congratulations to all of them, and a thank you to them for what they have
contributed, and to all of you for being here also.
Once again, thank you, and God bless you all.
Note: The President spoke at 1:34 p.m. in the East Room at the White House.
TM
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The LIBRARY
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Date: 11-20-92
FACSIMILE COVER PAGE
TO
Carol Aarhus
Name:
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IF THERE ARE PROBLEMS IN TRANSMISSION:
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Messages (if any): Carol - call me if you need or
want more. Note Ella got Presidential Medal of the
Arts from Pres. Reagan in
1 of 19 pages
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The Great
American
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9
Ella Fitzgerald
Gerald Moore, the English accompanist, tells about the time
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, following a matinee recital Moore and the
German Lieder singer had given together in Washington, D.C.,
rushed to the National Airport and took the first plane to New York
in order to hear Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald at Carnegie
Hall,
"Ella and the Duke together!" Fischer-Dieskau exclaimed to
Moore, "One just doesn't know when there might be a chance to
hear that again!"
The story is illustrative of the unique position that both Ella
Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington occupy in the musical history of our
century. More than any other artists working in the Afro-American
idiom, they have caught the attention and excited the admiration of
that other world of European classical, or serious, music.
Ella's achievement, in purely musical terms, is the more remark-
able of the two, if only because she has never ventured into the no-
man's-land of semiclassical or third-stream music separating the two
idioms. Duke Ellington is a familiar figure on the stage at symphony
concerts, as both pianist and composer, in his jazz-flavored symphonic
suites. Ella has ranged widely between the ill-defined areas known as
"jazz" and "popular," but not into classical, although she has sung
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ELLA FITZGERALD
171
the songs of the great American songwriters-Arlen, Gershwin,
Porter, Rodgers, for example-with symphony orchestras. Many clas-
sical singers, however, like Fischer-Dieskau, are among her most
appreciative admirers.
Unchallenged preeminence in her own field has had something
to do with it, along with consistent performance throughout a career
that has already extended over nearly forty years. Although she has
never been, in her private life, a maker of headlines, her honors have
been so many that word of them has filtered through to many who
never saw a copy of Billboard or Down Beat and never will.
To enumerate those honors would be tedious. Suffice it to say,
citing the entry under her name in Leonard Feather's New Encyclo-
pedia of Jazz, that, between 1953 and 1960 alone, she was placed first
in Metronome, Down Beat and Playboy polls in either the "jazz
singer" or "popular singer" categories, or both, no fewer than twenty-
four times. She had been a poll winner long before that-she won
the Esquire Gold Award in 1946-and she is heading the polls in
both categories to this day.
With Frank Sinatra and Peggy Lee, she shares the distinction of
having achieved a nearly universal popularity and esteem without
sacrificing those aspects of her vocal and musical art that so endear
her to fellow professionals and to the most fastidious of critics and lay
listeners. Not even Frank and Peggy are admired so unanimously.
The refinements of their art often fall on unappreciative or hostile
ears. But with Ella, the exclamation "She's the greatest!" runs like a
refrain through everything one reads or hears about her. One is as
likely to hear it from an opera singer as from Bing Crosby ("Man,
woman and child, Ella Fitzgerald is the greatest!").
Of what does her greatness consist? What does she have that
other excellent singers do not have? The virtues are both obvious and
conspicuous, and there is general agreement about them. She has 2
lovely voice, one of the warmest and most radiant in its natural range
that I have heard in a lifetime of listening to singers in every
category. She has an impeccable and ultimately sophisticated rhyth-
mic sense, and flawless intonation. Her harmonic sensibility is ex-
traordinary. She is endlessly inventive, Her melodic deviations and
embellishments are as varied as they are invariably appropriate. And
she is versatile, moving easily from up-tempo scatting on such songs
Ella with Frank Sinatra
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as "Flying Home," "How High the Moon?" and "Lady Be Good" to
the simplest ballad gently intoned over a cushion of strings.
One could attribute any one, or even several, of these talents and
attainments to other singers. Ella has them all. She has them in
greater degree. She knows better than any other singer how to use
them. What distinguishes her most decisively from her singing
contemporaries, however, is less tangible. It has to do with style and
taste. Listening to her-and I have heard her in person more often
than any other singer under discussion in these pages-I sometimes
find myself thinking that it is not so much what she does, or even the
way she does it, as what she does not do. What she does not do,
putting it as simply as possible, is anything wrong. There is simply
nothing in her performance to which one would want to take excep-
tion. What she sings has that suggestion of inevitability that is always
a hallmark of great art. Everything seems to be just right. One would
not want it any other way. Nor can one, for the moment, imagine it
any other way.
For all the recognition and adulation that has come her way,
however, Ella Fitzgerald remains, I think, an imperfectly understood
singer, especially as concerns her vocalism. The general assumption
seems to be that it is perfect. That she has sung in public for so many
years-and still, when on tour, may do two sixty-minute sets six or
seven nights a week-with SO little evidence of vocal wear and tear
would seem to support that assumption. Her vocalism is, in fact, as I
hear it, less than perfect. "Ingenious" and "resourceful" would be
more appropriate adjectives.
She has, as many great singers in every category have had, limita-
tions of both endowment and technique. But, also like other
great singers, she has devised ways of her own to disguise them, to
get around them, or even to turn them into apparent assets. Ella's
vocal problems have been concentrated in that area of the range
already identified in the case of carlier singers as the "passage." She
has never solved them. She has survived them and surmounted them.
She commands, in public performance and on record, an ex-
traordinary range of two octaves and a sixth, from the low D or D flat
to the high B flat and possibly higher, This is a greater range, espe-
cially at the bottom, than is required or expected of most opera
singers. But there is a catch to it. Opera singers, as they approach the
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"passage," depress the larynx and open the throat-somewhat as in
yawning-and, focusing the tone in the head, soar on upward. The
best of them master the knack of preserving, as they enter the upper
register, the natural color and timbre of the normal middle register,
bringing to the upper notes a far greater weight of voice than Ella
Fitzgerald does. Even the floated pianissimo head tones of, say, a
Montserrat Caballé should not be confused with the tones that Ella
produces at the upper extremes of her range.
Ella does not depress the larynx, or "cover," as she reaches the
"passage." She either eases off, conceding in weight of breath and
muscular control what a recalcitrant vocal apparatus will not accom-
modate, or she brazens through it, accepting the all too evident
muscular strain. From this she is released as she emerges upward into
a free-Boating falsetto. She does not, in other words, so much pass
from one register into another as from one voice into another. As
Roberta Flack has noted perceptively: "Ella doesn't shift gears, She
goes from lower to higher register, the same all the way through."
The strain audible when Ella is singing in the "passage" contrib-
utes to a sense of extraordinary altitude when she continues upward.
In this she reminds me of some opera tenors who appear to be in
trouble-and often are-in their "passage" (at about F, F sharp and
G) and achieve the greater impression of physical conquest when
they go on up to an easy, sovereign B flat. The listener experiences
anxiety, tension, suspense, relief and amazement. It is not good
singing by the canons of bel canto, which reckon any evidence of
strain deplorable. But it is exciting, and in the performance of a
dramatic or athletic aria, effective.
Both this sense of strain in that critical area of Ella's voice, and
the striking contrast of the free sound above the "passage" may help
to explain why $0 many accounts of her singing refer to notes "incred-
ibly high." Sometimes they are. The high A flat, A and B flat, even in
falsetto, must be regarded as exceptional in a singer who also de-
scends to the low D. But more often than not they sound higher than
they are. Time and again, while checking out Ella's range on records,
I have heard what I took to be a high G or A flat, only to go to the
piano and find that it was no higher than an E or an F. What is so
deceptive about her voice above the "passage" is that the sound is
high, with a thin, girlish quality conspicuously different from the
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THE GREAT AMERICAN POPULAR SINGERS
rich, viola-like splendor of her middle range. It is not 30 much the
contrast with the pitches that have gone before as the contrast with
the sound that has gone before.
In purely vocal-technical terms, then, what distinguishes Ella
from her operatic sisters is her use of falsetto; what distinguishes her
from most of her popular-singer sisters is her mastery of it. One may
hear examples of its undisciplined use in public performance and on
records today in the singing of many women, especially in the folk-
music field. With most of them the tone tends to become thin,
tenuous, quavery and erratic in intonation as they venture beyond
their natural range. They have not mastered falsetto. Ella has. So has
Sarah Vaughan. So has Ella and Sarah's admirable virtuoso English
counterpart, Cleo Laine.
The "girlish" sound of the female falsetto may offer a clue to its
cultivation by Ella Fitzgerald, and to some fundamental character-
istics of her vocal art. It is, for her, a compatible sound, happily
attuned to her nature and to the circumstances of her career. She
entered professional life while still a girl. Her first hit record, "A-
Tisket A-Tasket," was the song of a little girl who had lost her yellow
basket, The girl of the song must have been a congenial object of
identification for a young singer, born in Newport News, Virginia,
who spent her childhood first in an orphanage, later with an aunt in
Yonkers, New York, who drifted as a young dancer into Harlem
clubs, and who fell into a singing career in an amateur contest at the
Harlem Opera House when she was too scared to dance.
"It was a dare from some girl friends," she recalls today. "They
bet me I wouldn't go on. I got up there and got cold feet. I was going
to dance. The man said since I was up there I had better do some-
Affection." thing. So I tried to sing like Connce Boswell-The Object of My
According to all the jazz lexicons, Ella was born on April 25,
1918, and entered that Harlem Opera House competition, which she
won, in 1934, when she would have bcen sixteen. She became vocalist
with the Chick Webb band the following year, was adopted by the
Webb family and, following Chick's death in 1939, carried on as
leader of the band until 1942. She would then have been all of
twenty-four, with ten years of professional experience behind her.
According to Norman Granz, who has been her manager
throughout the greater part of her career, she was younger than that.
ELLA FITZGERALD
175
Granz says that she was born in 1920 and had to represent herself as
older, when she first turned up in Harlem, to evade the child-labor
laws. She was adopted by the Webbs because a parental consent was
a legal prerequisite for employment.
It should hardly be surprising, then, that her voice, when she
began with the Chick Webb band, and as it can be heard now on her
early records, was that of a little girl. She was only fourteen. She was
a precocious little girl, to be sure, and probably matured early, as
other black entertainers did-Ethel Waters and Billie Holiday, for
example-who grew up in the tough clubs and dance halls of Harlem
while other girls were still in secondary school. What mattered with
Ella, however, and affected her subsequent career, was that the little
girl could also sound like a young woman-and was irresistible.
The sound worked, and so did the little girl. Ella has never
entirely discarded either the girl or the sound. She was, and has
remained, a shy, retiring, rather insecure person. To this day when, as
a woman of matronly appearance and generous proportions, she
addresses an audience, it is always in a tone of voice, and with a
manner of speech, suggesting the delighted surprise, and the humil-
ity, too, of a child performer whose efforts have been applauded
beyond her reasonable expectations.
Nor has Ella ever forsaken her roots in jazz. George T. Simon, in
The Big Bands, remembers watching her at the Savoy Ballroom in
Harlem when she was with Chick Webb:
When she wasn't singing, she would usually stand at the side of
the band, and, as the various sections blew their ensemble
phrases, she'd be up there singing along with all of them, often
gesturing with her hands as though she were leading the band.
The fruits of such early enthusiasm and practice may be heard
today in Ella's appearances with the bands of Count Basie and Duke
Ellington, when one or more instrumental soloists step forward to
join her in a round of "taking fours," with Ella's voice assuming the
character and color of a variety of instruments as she plunges exuber-
antly into chorus after chorus of syllabic improvisation (scatting).
Ella owes at least some of her virtuosity in this type of display, or
at least the opportunity to develop and exploit it, to Norman Granz
and her many years' association with his Jazz at the Philharmonic
tours. Benny Green, the English jazz critic, thus describes the impor-
176
THE GREAT AMERICAN POPULAR SINGERS
tance of this association to the shaping of Ella Fitzgerald's art and
career:
When Ella first began appearing as a vocal guest on what
were, after all, the primarily instrumental jazz recitals of Norman
Granz, it might have seemed at the time like imaginative com-
mercial programming and nothing more. In fact, as time was to
prove, it turned out to be the most memorable manager-artist
partnership of the post-war years, one which quite dramatically
changed the shape and direction of Ella's career, Granz used
Ella, not as a vocal cherry stuck on top of an iced cake of jazz,
but as an artist integrated thoroughly into the jam session con-
text of the performance. When given a jazz background, Ella
was able to exhibit much more freely her gifts as an instrumental-
type improvisor.
Elsewhere, reviewing an appearance by Ella with the Basie band
in London in 1971, Green has described as vividly and succinctly as
possible the phenomenon of Ella working in an instrumental jazz
context:
The effect on Ella is to galvanize her into activity so violent
that the more subtle nuances of the song readings are swept
away in a riot of vocal improvisation which, because it casts lyrics
to the winds, is the diametric opposite of her other, lullaby, self.
And while it is true that for a singer to mistake herself for a
trumpet is a disastrous course of action, it has to be admitted
that Ella's way with a chord sequence, her ability to coin her
own melodic phrases, her sense of time, the speed with which
her ear perceives harmonic changes, turn her Basie concerts into
tightrope exhibitions of the most dazzling kind.
It was her activity with Jazz at the Philharmonic that exposed
and exploited the singular duality of Ella Fitzgerald's musical person-
ality. Between 1942, when her career as a band leader came to an
end, and 1946, when she joined Granz, she had marked time, so to
speak, as an admired but hardly sensational singer of popular songs.
With Jazz at the Philharmonic, she was back with jazz.
The timing was right. Bop had arrived, and Ella was with it,
incorporating into her vocal improvisations the adventurous har-
monic deviations and melodic flights of Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie
ELLA FITZGERALD
177
Parker. Indeed, according to Barry Ulanov, in his A History of Jazz in
America, the very term "bop," or "bebop," can be traced to Ella's
interpolation of a syllabic invention, "rebop," at the close of her
recording of "T"ain't What You Do, It's the Way That You Do It"
in 1939.
She has cultivated and treasured this duality ever since, and
wisely so. Singers who have adhered more or less exclusively to an
instrumental style of singing, using the voice, as jazz terminology has
it, "like a horn," have won the admiration and homage of jazz musi-
cians and jazz critics, but they have failed to win the enduring and
financially rewarding affections of a wider public. Others have stuck
to ballads and won the public but failed to achieve the artistic
prestige associated with recognition as a jazz singer. Ella, more than
any other singer, has had it both ways.
Norman Granz, again, has had a lot to do with it. When Ella's
recording contract with Decca expired in 1955, she signed with
Granz's Verve label and inaugurated, in that same year, 2 series of
Song Book albums, each devoted to a single songwriter, that took her
over a span of twelve years through an enormous repertoire of fine
songs, some of them unfamiliar, by Harold Arlen, Irving Berlin,
Duke Ellington, George Gershwin, Johnny Mercer, Cole Porter and
Richard Rodgers.
These were the first albums to give star billing to individual
songwriters, and they served the double purpose of acknowledging
and demonstrating the genius of American composers while provid-
ing Ella with popular material worthy of her vocal art. "I never knew
how good our songs were," Ira Gershwin once said to George T.
Simon, "until I heard Ella Fitzgerald sing them."
As a jazz singer Ella has bcen pretty much in a class by herself,
and that in $ period rejoicing in many excellent ones, notably Billie
Holiday, Peggy Lee, Carmen McRae, Anita O'Day, Jo Stafford, Kay
Starr and Sarah Vaughan, not to overlook, in England, Cleo Laine. I
am using the term "jazz singer" here in the sense that jazz musicians
use it, referring to a singer who works-or can work-in a jazz musi-
cian's instrumental style, improvising as a jazz musician improvises.
Ella was, of course, building on the techniques first perfected, if not
originated, by Louis Armstrong, tailoring and extending his devices
according to the new conventions of bop.
There is a good deal of Armstrong in Ella's ballads, too, al-
178
THE GREAT AMERICAN POPULAR SINGERS
though none of his idiosyncrasies and eccentricities. What she shared
with Louis in a popular ballad was a certain detachment-in her case
a kind of classic serenity, or, as Benny Green puts it, a "lullaby"
quality-that has rendered her, in the opinion of some of us, less
moving than admirable and delightful. In terms of tone quality,
variety and richness of vocal color, enunciation, phrasing, rhythm,
melodic invention and embellishment, her singing has always been
immaculate and impeccable, unequaled, let alone surpassed, by any
other singer. But in exposing the heart of a lyric she must take second
place, in my assessment, at least, to Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday,
Peggy Lee and Ethel Waters.
This may well be because she has never been one for exposing
her own heart in public. She shares with an audience her pleasures,
not her troubles. She has not been an autobiographical singer, as
Billie and Frank were, nor a character-projecting actress, as
Ethel Waters and Peggy Lee have been, which may be why her
phrasing, despite exemplary enunciation, has always tended to be
more instrumental than oral, less given to the rubato devices of
singers more closely attuned to the lyrical characteristics of speech.
What she has offered her listeners has been her love of melody,
her joy in singing, her delight in public performance and her accom-
plishments, the latter born of talent and ripened by experience, hard
work and relentless self-discipline. Like Louis, she has always seemed
to be having a ball. For the listener, when she has finished, the ball is
over. It has been a joyous, exhilarating, memorable, but hardly an
emotional, experience.
Also, like Louis, she has addressed herself primarily to a white
rather than a black public, not because she has in any sense denied
her own people, but rather because, in a country where blacks make
up only between 10 and 20 percent of the population, white musical
tastes and predilections are dominant. They must be accommodated
by any black artist aspiring to national and international recognition
and acceptance. In more recent years, younger whites have tended to
favor a blacker music. A B. B, King has been able to achieve national
celebrity where a Bessie Smith, fifty years earlier, could not. When
Ella was a girl, what the white majority liked was white music en-
riched by the more elemental and more inventive musicality of black
singers and black instrumentalists.
Ella's singing, aside from the characteristic rhythmic physical
Kay Starr
Anita O'Day
VERVE RECORDS
CAPITOL RECORDS
180
THE GREAT AMERICAN POPULAR SINGERS
participation, the finger-popping and hip-swinging, and the obviously
congenial scatting, has never been specifically or conspicuously black.
It represents rather the happy blend of black and white which had
been working its way into the conventions of American popular
singing since the turn of the century, and which can be traced in the
careers of Al Jolson, Sophie Tucker, Ethel Waters, Mildred Bailey
and Bing Crosby.
When Ella was a girl, black singers-those in organized show
business, at any rate-were modeling themselves on the white singing
stars of the time, and many white singers were modeling themselves
on the charmingly imperfect imitation. It is significant that Ella's
first model was Connee Boswell. A comparison of the records they
both made in the late 1930s shows again how perceptive an ear Ella
had from the first. But it is just as significant that Connee Boswell
belonged to a generation of jazz-oriented white singers-others were
Mildred Bailey and Lee Wiley-who had been listening to Bessie
Smith and, above all, to Ethel Waters.
Again like Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald has achieved that
rarest of distinctions: the love and admiration of singers, instru-
mentalists, critics and the great lay public. But while she may be for
the jazzman a musicians' musician, and for the lay public the First
Lady of Song, she has always been more than anything else a singers'
singer. Jon Hendricks, of Lambert, Hendricks and Ross fame, has put
it well, responding to an Ella Fitzgerald record on a Jazz Journal
blindfold test:
Well, of course, she's my favorite-she's tops! 1 just love
her. She's Mama! I try and sing my ballads like she does, I was
working in a hotel in Chicago, and Johnny Mathis came in to
hear me. I had just finished singing a new ballad I was doing at
the time, and he came up to me and said, "Jon, you sure love
your old Fitzgerald, don't you?"
"Yes," I replied, "and don't you, too?"
"We all do!" he said.
And that's it. Everyone who sings just loves little old
Fitzgerald!
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The New Grove
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Dictionary of
Jazz
Volume One
A-K
Edited by
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GROVE'S DICTIONARIES OF MUSIC INC., NEW YORK
© Macmillan Press Limited 1988
All rights reserved.
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The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz
edited by Barry Kernfeld, in two volumes, 1988
First published 1988 by the Macmillan Press Limited. London.
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c Macmillan Press Limited 1984
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The New Grove dictionary of jazz.
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The New Grove dictionary of jazz.
I. Kernfeld, Barry
Includes discographies and bibliographies.
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of CBS and ABC: during this period he made recordings with
son Riddle and others and succeeded in attracting an extremely
numerous leaders, including Don Elliott (1952), Billy Bauer
large nonjazz audience, establishing Fitzgerald among the
(Let's Have a Session, 1953, Ad Lib 5501), Mel Powell and Tony
supreme interpreters of the popular-song repertory. Thereafter
Aless (both 1955), Howard McGhee and Konitz (both 1956),
her career was managed by Granz, and she became one of the
Hank Jones (1958), and Toots Thiclemans (1962). From 1966
best-known international jazz performers; she issued many
he worked as a freelance musician in Los Angeles and Palm
recordings for Granz's labels and made frequent appearances
Springs, California. FeatherE)
at jazz festivals with Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Oscar Peter-
to
son, Tommy Flanagan, and Joe Pass. Among her many honors
Fitzgerald, Ella (b Newport News, VA, 25 April 1918). Singer.
was a Grammy Award in 1980. Her collection of scores and
She was orphaned in early childhood and moved to New York
photographs is now in the library of Boston University; see
to attend an orphanage school in Yonkers. In 1934 she was
LIBRARIES AND ARCHIVES, $2.
discovered in an amateur contest sponsored by the Apollo The-
For decades Fitzgerald has been considered the quintessen-
atre, New York. This led to an engagement with Chick Webb's
tial female jazz singer, and has drawn copious praise from
band, and she soon became a celebrity of the swing era with
admirers as diverse as Charlie Parker and the singer Dietrich
performances such as A-tisket, A-tasket (1938) and Undecided
Fischer-Dieskau. Her voice is small and somewhat girlish in
(1939). When Webb died in 1939 Fitzgerald took over the direc-
timbre, but these disadvantages are offset by an extremely
tion of the band, which she led for three years. She then embarked
wide range (from d to c) which she commands with a remark-
45
on a solo career, issuing commercial and jazz recordings, and
able agility and an unfailing sense of swing. This enables her
in 1946 began an association with Norman Granz's Jazz at the
to give performances that rival those of the best jazz instru-
Philharmonic which eventually brought her a large interna-
mentalists in their virtuosity, particularly in her improvised
tional following. She also sang in a jazz group led by her hus-
scat solos, for which she is justly famous (for an example see
band, Ray Brown (1948-52). Early in 1956 Fitzgerald severed
SCAT SINGING). Unlike trained singers she shows strain about
her longstanding connection with Decca to join Granz's newly
the break in her voice (d" and beyond) which, however, she uses
founded Verve label. Among their first projects was a series of
to expressive purpose in the building of climaxes. Fitzgerald
"songbooks" dedicated to major American songwriters. The
also has a gift for mimicry that allows her to imitate other
series made use of superior jazz-inflected arrangements by Nel-
well-known singers (from Louis Armstrong to Aretha Franklin)
as well as jazz instruments. As an interpreter of popular songs
she is limited by a certain innate cheerfulness from handling
drama and pathos convincingly, but is unrivaled in her ren-
dition of light material and for her ease in slipping in and out
of the jazz idiom. She influenced countless American popular
70
singers of the post-swing period and also international per-
formers such as the singer Miriam Makeba.
For further illustration see WEBB. CHICK.
SELECTED RECORDINGS
Duos with J. Pass: Take Love Easy (1973, Pablo 2310702); Speak Love (1983,
Pablo 2310888)
As leader: Flying Home (1945, Decca 23956); How High the Moon (1947,
Decca 24387); Ella & Ray (1948, Jazz Live 8035); The Tender Trap (1955,
Decca 29746); Ella Fitzgerald at the Opera House (1957, Verve 8264); Ella
Swings Brightly with Nelson (1961, Verve 64054): These are the Blues (1963,
Verve 64062); Ella at Juan-les-Pins (1964, Barclay 3716); Ella in Hamburg
'65 (1965, Verve 64069); Fine and Mellow (1974, Pablo 2310829); Ella in
London (1974, Pablo 2310711); Lady Time (1978, Pablo 2310825)
Songbooks: Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Song Book (1956, Verve 4001);
Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Rodgers and Hart Song Book (1956, Verve 4002);
Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Song Book (1956-7, Verve 4008-
9); Ella Fitzgerald Sings the George and Ira Gershwin Song Book (1959,
Verve 4024-8); Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Harold Arlen Song Book (1960-61,
Verve 4046)
As sideman: C. Webb: Sing me it swing song (1936, Decca 830): B. Goodman:
0)
Did you mcan it? (1936, Vic. 25469); T. Wilson: My Melancholy Baby (1936,
Bruns. 7729); C. Webb: A-tisket, A-tasket (1938, Decca 1840); Undecided
(1939, Decca 2323)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
J. Jungermann: Ella Fitzgerald: ein Portrat (Wetzlar, Germany, 1960)
R. Ambor: Ella: ein Bildband (Hamburg, Germany, 1961)
L. Feather: "Ella Today (and Yesterday too)," DB. xxxii/24 (1965). 20
L. Feather: From Salchmo 10 Miles (New York, 1972)
H. Pleasants: The Great American Popular Singers (New York, 1974)
by
$. Colin: Ella: the Life and Times of Ella Fitzgerald (London, 1986)
5-
R_ Nolden: Ella Fitzgerald: ihr Leben, thre Musik, ihre Schallplatten (Gauting,
Cermany, 1986)
J. BRADFORD ROBINSON
Five Pennies. Recording group led in the late 1920s by RED
no
NICHOLS.
Five Spot (Café). Nightclub in New York; see NIGHTCLUBS AND
Eila Fitzgerald, 1958
OTHER VENUES.
240
700
Carrie Fisher
CELEBRITY REGISTER 1990
high-fidelity sound. With a reverence for
"There was a sort of fear of mine when I started acting that I would come off
music and an inventor's imagination, he pio-
like Tammy the eternal virgin, and in fact, the opposite has happened.
neered the concepts and the products that
Because I started out with Warren Beatty, asking him 'Want to fuck?' and in
allowed hi-fi's to become commonplace in
Jedi I'm in space shooting people and saying, 'Got you, you asshole.'
every home. He entered the field in a rather
There are a lot of people who don't like [Leia]; they think I'm some kind of
roundabout fashion, having majored in Eng-
space bitch." After playing such a strong character, "part of me goes, 'When
lish and biology as a New York University
does the cooking and sewing and gossiping and, you know, putting on make-
student. His first job in the early 1930s was at
up start to happen?" She lived in a one-room Los Angeles log-cabin until
the publishing house of Dodd, Mead and
her August 1983 marriage to singer-writer Paul Simon after a five-year on-
Company, where, he recalls, "I held two jobs
again-off-again relationship. "Let's just say we had a stormy romance, and
in order to earn a salary [$18 a week] equal to
the storm's finally over." (Not quite; the couple split in 1984.) Shortly after
half a job." Music had been prominent in his
her marriage, she scoffed, "The National Enquirer says I'm
pregnant.
home as a child, and in his publishing days, he
They also say I've quit show business, so I guess that's my plan for now
became more and more determined to im-
Yeah, I believe everything I read." The witty actress muses, "Everybody
prove the sound then available from traditional home audio equipment. He
wants to be a celebrity. But you know what happens to old celebrities. They
scouted Radio Row (a downtown district in Manhattan that sold outsize
die or go to Vegas. Star-life duration is getting shorter and shorter. It could
electronic and audio equipment) and began creating his own home-grown
be me at the Tropicana Lounge any minute."
system. Eventually he capitalized on the interest people took in his inven-
Securing her star status, Carrie branched out and conquered the literary
tions and opened his first company, Philharmonic Radio, in 1937. In 1945,
field with the release of her first novel, Postcards From the Edge (1985). She won
Fisher resigned as president to start Fisher Radio. His innovations weren't
the PEN Award for her book and the story is being optioned for the movies
just technical; Fisher also insisted that audio components should sport
by Mike Nichols. Also keeping active in films, she's starred in a variety of
ample control features but still present an attractive look for home appeal.
pictures throughout the 1980's: Hannah and Her Sisters (1985), Hollywood Vice
Eventually the "pioneer" in home entertainment became "the Establish-
Squad (1986), Appointment With Death (1987), Amazon Women on the Moon
ment." For the wealthy Mr. Fisher, music is the sweet-sounding mainstay of
(1987), Bloodshot Lightning (1988), The Burbs (1989), Harry, This Is Sally
his life. He's an "enthusiastic amateur," and his retirement from business
(1989) and Loverboy (1989).
and full involvement in Lincoln Center and the Marlboro Music Festival
allow him to enjoy chamber music sessions in his home, besides regularly
attending concerts at Avery Fisher Hall where getting a last minute seat is
never a problem. He is the founder of the Avery Fisher Prize, which is
awarded every year to an outstanding American instrumentalist and carries
Ella Fitzgerald
with it a $5,000 cash stipend and engagements with the Great Performers
Series in Avery Fisher Hall, the New York Philharmonic, the Chamber
At the age of 15, it was the "short straw" Ella
Music Society of Lincoln Center, and the Mostly Mozart Festival.
Fitzgerald drew that launched her singing
career "One day two girlfriends and I made a
bet-a dare. We drew straws to see which of
us would go on the amateur hour at the Apollo
Theatre." Fitzgerald went on stage to dance,
Carrie Fisher
but got "cold feet" so she sang instead.
Fitzgerald later won an audition to sing
"You are not allowed to grow up with parents
with Arthur Tracy, the early king of radio
who are famous and then get into one of the
known as The Street Singer. The death of her
biggest movies of all time and run around with
mother, however, caused that deal to collapse
famous people-it's resented after a while.
since she wasn't of age and she had no one to
And I would always try to emphasize some-
accept legal responsibility. It was back to
thing really wrong with me, so that people
amateur hours until finally, after many efforts,
wouldn't be put off." More confident now, the
she got her big opportunity to sing with the late Chick Webb, who later
daughter of Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fish-
adopted her, and together in 1938 they composed her first big record hit, "A-
er-a self-declared Hollywood brat with
Tisket, A-Tasket." "It wasn't easy," she concedes, "but it has given me a
"high-velocity-verbiage"-gained her own
better sense of value.
I've had some hard knocks and a couple of missed
fame as Princess Leia in the phenomenally
meals, but I don't think I'd want to change a thing."
successful Star Wars ('77) and its equally popular
Born 25 April 1918 in Newport News, Va., Fitzgerald has entertained the
sequels: The Empire Strikes Back ('80) and Re-
world with her ballads, swing, Dixieland, Calypso, pop, jazz, scat and
turn of the Jedi ('84) "Who's more famous than
whatever else she chooses to sing. A critic once said she "could sing the Van
Debbie and Eddie? C-3PO and Darth Vader, and Jesus Christ and God.
Nuys telephone directory with a broken jaw and make it sound good."
There's a whole lot of freight that goes with being movie stars' kids-on the
Among her many Grammy Awards was S special Bing Crosby Award in
cover of Life when you're two minutes old. I remember the press diving
1967, honoring her "superb musicianship and consistent musical integrity."
through trees to get pictures of me, my brother and my mother. Poor Debbie;
In 1979, with President Jimmy Carter leading the applause, Fitzgerald was
that bastard Eddie; and Liz. We've been the public domain all our lives. I
awarded Kennedy Center Honors for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts. In
was trained in celebrity, so I did the only thing I knew. I went into the family
1985 she was inducted into the Jazz Hall of Fame.
business
My brother and I went in different directions on the Debbie
and Eddie issue. He's gotten involved with Jesus, and I do active work on
myself, trying to make myself better and better. It's funny."
Born in Los Angeles on 21 October 1956, Carrie Fisher began her
Geraldine Fitzgerald
professional career at 13 performing in her mother's Las Vegas nightclub
act. She dropped out of Beverly Hills H.S. at 15 to join the chorus of Irene,
Debbie's 1972 Broadway outing. Her film debut as a nymphet in Shampoo
She's been called "an enchantingly free spirit who roams
fast
and
far
on
('75) was followed by studies at London's Central School of Speech and
her facile intellect and voluble Irish charm." Indeed for over forty-five years
Drama. Her other films include The Blues Brothers ('80), Under the Rainbow
she has roamed from theatre to screen and back again capturing both
('81) and Garbo Talks ('84). On TV she appeared in "Come Back, Little
audiences with her artistry. In the last decades not only has she had the
Sheba" ('77) and "Thumbelina" for Shelley Duvall's cable "Faerie Tale
opportunity to secure her place as one of the most luminous stars of the
Theatre" ('83). She returned briefly to Broadway in 1983 in Agnes of God.
American stage, but has become a concert singer of "street songs," a
146
FITZGERALD
223
ulty of New College. Oxford (1888-1912; 1925-40), H.A.L.
playwright and manager Harrison Grey Fiske, she ran
Fisher, a member of the Liberal party, served as minister
New York's Manhattan Theater (1901-07) and starred
of education (1916-22) and sponsored the act (1918)
there in such productions as Hedda Gabler, Rosmers-
Int 'l Dict.
that set up a national public education system and pro-
holm, and Becky Sharp. She encouraged young actors
vided for compulsory education to age 14. An advocate
and playwrights and toured extensively until shortly before
of historical liberalism. he wrote many works, including
her death.
See Archie Binns, Mrs. Fiske and the Amer-
The Republican Tradition in Europe (1911), The Com-
ican Theater (1955).
of 20thCent.
monweal (1924), and The History of Europe (3 vols.,
1935).
See biography by David Ogg (1947).
FITCH, VAL LOGSDON (1923-
), U.S. physicist. After
working on the Manhattan Project (1945), which created
FISHER, IRVING (1867-1947), U.S. political economist.
the first atomic bomb. Fitch received a Ph.D. in physics
Biography
A student of mathematics at Yale University (Ph.D. 1891),
from Columbia University (1954). While a member of the
Fisher applied mathematical methods to solve funda-
faculty of Princeton University (from 1954). Fitch con-
mental economic problems. His main contribution was
ducted experiments with James W. Cronin (1964) that
his investigation of the relationship between the supply
demonstrated. contrary to the accepted laws of physics,
of money and prices. To ensure stability he advocated
that asymmetry governs the behavior of subatomic par-
the adoption of a "compensated" or "commodity dollar"
ticles during the decay of neutral K mesons. Their find-
of constant purchasing power; its worth would be fixed
ings were later incorporated into cosmological theory to
by its given value as determined by an index number of
explain that similar asymmetries could have taken place
commodity prices of a given amount of goods. He taught
at the birth of the universe and thus have permitted
economics at Yale (1895-1935), was active in many reform
matter to survive. Previously it was thought that matter
organizations. and wrote several books including The
and antimatter, formed in a symmetrical "big bang" at
Purchasing Power of Money (1911), The Making of Index
the birth of the universe, would have annihilated each
Numbers (1922), and The Theory of Interest (1930).
other almost immediately. For their research, Fitch and
Cronin shared the 1980 Nobel Prize for Physics.
FISHER, JOHN ARBUTHNOT FISHER, 1st BARON (1841-
1920), British admiral. As a midshipman Fisher served
FITZGERALD, ELLA (1918-
), U.S. singer. Fitzger-
in the Crimean War and in China and later played a major
ald was discovered at a Harlem amateur night at age 16
role in the modernization of the navy during the 1890s.
and made her first record. "Love and Kisses," the follow-
He worked for British naval supremacy as first sea lord
ing year. In the late 1930s she worked with bandleader
(1904-10), introducing efficiency, organization, and the
William "Chick" Webb, winning fame and taking over his
big-gun "dreadnought" battleships. Recalled to the Admi-
band at his death. Known for her technical virtuosity-
ralty at the start of World War I (1914), he resigned over
a remarkably clear tone and flexible range-she endowed
his opposition to the 1915 Dardanelles expedition, mov-
even trite music with style, as in her 1938 novelty hit,
ing to the Board of Invention (1915-18).
See his Mem-
"A-tisket, A-tasket." Managed in the 1950s by jazz impre-
ories and Records (2 vols., 1919-20), his correspondence.
sario Norman Granz. she gained new stature in the mus-
Fear God and Dread Nought (3 vols., 1952-59), and
ical world with popular recordings of the smoothly
Richard Hough. Admiral of the Fleet (1970).
sophisticated songs of Cole Porter, George Gershwin, and
others. One of the most respected vocalists of her day,
FISHER, SIR RONALD AYLMER (1890-1962), British
she performed at the Copacabana, the Hollywood Bowl,
statistician and geneticist. Fisher, who studied math and
and Carnegie Hall.
physics at Cambridge (1909-15), gravitated to statistics
and biology when he was appointed head of the statistics
FITZGERALD, F. SCOTT (Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald;
department at the Rothhamstead Experimental Station
1896-1940), U.S. novelist and short-story writer. Fitz-
1919). There he revolutionized the field of statistics by
gerald left Princeton to enlist during World War I. In the
ntroducing the concept of randomization and the tech-
first year of the decade so closely identified with his work
lique of analysis of variance. His pioneering work is
he published the best-selling This Side of Paradise (1920),
lescribed in his books Statistical Methods for Research
based on his Princeton experience. The Great Gatsby
Vorkers (1925) and Design of Experiments (1934).
(1925), his masterpiece, concerned a bootlegger obsessed
Applying his new methods to the field of genetics, he
with making his fortune. Some of Fitzgerald's most bril-
rrived at a neo-Darwinian reconciliation of Darwin's
liant writing went into short-story collections, notably
volutionary theories and Mendel's genetic theories which
Tales of the Jazz Age (1922) and All the Sad Young Men
le described in The Genetical Theory of Natural Selec-
(1926). He captured poignant, lyrical moments of the
ion (1930). Fisher taught eugenics at the University of
1920s, but these proved as elusive in his own life as in
ondon (1933-43) and genetics at Cambridge (1943-
his fiction: after Tender Is the Night (1934), which reflected
)7).
See biography by Joan Fisher Box (1978).
increasing strain on his psyche and marriage, Fitzgerald
suffered the acute depression of a self-proclaimed has-
ISKE, MINNIE MADDERN (Marie Augusta Davey; 1865-
been. titling his next book Taps at Reveille (1935). He
932), U.S. actress. A professional performer from the
was at work on the Hollywood novel The Last Tycoon
ge of three, Fiske was one of the most popular and tal-
(1941) when he died at age 44. Fitzgerald was married
nted actresses of her time. She was a pioneer in the-
to the writer Zelda Sayre (1900-47), the inspiration for
trical realism and was best known for her portrayals of
his heroines. She suffered mental breakdowns in 1930
sen and Shakespeare heroines. With her husband.
and 1932 and spent the rest of her life in and out of
nT6
1732
990
OH
The Enjoyment
of Music
An Introduction
to Perceptive Listening
Sixth Edition
Standard
JOSEPH MACHLIS
Professor of Music Emeritus,
Queens College of the City University of New York
WITH
KRISTINE FORNEY
Professor of Music, California State University, Long Beach
W. W. NORTON & COMPANY
New York London
478
DRGWT ARI
King Oliver's Jazz Band in 1923. The young Louis Armstrong may be seen
kneeling in front playing a slide trumpet. (William Ransom Hogan Jazz Archive,
Tulane University)
clarinet was often featured in a countermelody above the main tune; the
trombone improvised below the trumpet and signaled the chord changes;
and the rhythm section-consisting of string bass or tuba, guitar or banjo,
and drums-provided rhythmic and harmonic support. Among the "greats"
of New Orleans jazz were Joseph "King" Oliver on cornet, Sidney Bechet
on soprano saxophone, Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton on piano, and Louis
"Satchmo" Armstrong on trumpet.
In the early 1920s, many New Orleans musicians went up the Mississippi
River to Chicago, where "King" Oliver had a New Orleans style ensemble.
Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong (c. 1898-1971), a native of New Orleans, joined
this band in 1922, at a time when King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band had ten
players. The young Armstrong, playing cornet, made his first recordings in
1923 with this ensemble, and went on to revolutionize jazz.
Armstrong was unquestionably the most important single force in the
development of early jazz styles. He was a great improviser who expanded
the capacities of his instrument in range and tone colors through the use
of various mutes. His was a unique melodic-rhythmic style of performance
Swing
for which his admirers coined the term "swing," which became a standard
description of jazz. His 1926 recording of Heebie Jeebies introduced scat
Scat singing
singing, a jazz style that sets nonsense syllables (vocables) to an improvised
vocal line. Ella Fitzgerald later brought this technique to a truly virtuosic
level.
Armstrong's style of jazz introduced a number of new features: stop-time
choruses (solos accompanied by spaced staccato chords); double-time cho-
mL3556
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933
DCT
THE
MUSIC OF
BLACK
AMERICANS:
A HISTORY
SECOND EDITION
Eileen Southern
"
Professor Emerita, Harvard University
W.W. . NORTON & COMPANY
NEWYORKLONDON
488
Lift Every Voice
You know, they always any an instrumentalist tries for perfection by imitating the
human voice. But by the same token, the singer can use what he learns techni-
cally about an instrument in developing his style.
You can sing
just as if
you were playing an
taking a vocal solo like you would an instru-
mental solo.¹⁴
Both Eckstine and Vanghan were able to improvise melodic lines based
on instrumentalists. the chord progr of standard songs in the same way as bop
Another singer of the period was Babs Gonzalez (1919-80, né Lee
Brown), who is credited with having invented much of bop's vocabu-
lary-for example, the word "expubidence" to refer to the joy of life-
and who had a singing group called Three Bips and a Bop. The roster
of McRae. bop singers also in Juded Oscar Brown, Jr., Betty Carter, and Carmen
It was in the 19404 that Edgar ("Eddie") Jefferson (1918-79) invented
the "jazz vocalese"; he wrote lyrics to the melodies of improvised solos,
of which the best known were sets of lyrics for James Moody's saxophone
solo on I'm in the Mood for Love and Charlie Parker's Now Is the Time.
Among those who later popularized the concept were King Pleasure
(1922-81, né Clarence Beeks) and John ("Jon") Hendricks (b. 1921),
who by 1960 was called the "poet of the jazz solo."
During the next 1wn decades, black singers began moving freely
between jazz, gospel, pp. and rhythm 'n' blues. Among those who sang
jazz at one time or another were Ernestine Anderson, Lena Horne, Cleo
Laine, Abbey Lincoln, Lou Rawls, Nina Simone, Dakota Staton, and
Dinah Washington. Among the younger singers were Dee Dee Bridge-
water, Roberta Flack, AI Jarreau, Gil Scott-Heron, and Leon Thomas.
Ella Fitzgerald, when began singing in the swing era, as we have seen,
moved through the years with supreme success. In the bop era she
improvised scat vocals on the standard songs; in later years her singing
moved in the mainstream jazz tradition, but subtly absorbed and reflected
the new sounds.
Public interest in jam increased greatly during the mid-century years,
not only in the United States but all over the world. White promoter
Norman Granz successfully instituted his "Jazz at the Philharmonic"
concerts, which were first held at the Los Angeles Philharmonic Audi-
torium in 1944. Grand sent JATP units on tour throughout the world
and sponsored the touring of other groups as well. The recordings that
resulted from these performances had a distinctive and innovative fea-
ture: they were made 111 the concert hall rather than in studios.
Another innovation arising from the increasing popularity of jazz
was the jazz festival. The first one took place in July 1954 in Newport,
Rhode Island, sponsored by wealthy residents of the city, who engaged
14. Eileen Southern,
Music 8 (Spring 1980): 56.
with William Clarence ("Billy") Eckstine," The Black Perspective in
ML3506
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04
THE STORY OF JAZZ
MARSHALL W. STEARNS
11
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
LONDON OXFORD NEW YORK
THE CONQUEST OF JAZZ - 291
Eldridge, Don Byas, and James Moody accompanied by
French jazz musicians. The French Ministre de L'Educa-
tion Nationale put in an official appearance and stayed
over to see the films.
The experiences of American jazzmen abroad leaves
them dazed and shaken. The iron curtain swung wide for
trumpeter Rex Stewart-formerly with Duke Ellington-
when he played a concert in Berlin. 'Man, I nearly got
cheered to death,' he told me. The hall was filled with
shouting Russians who crossed official boundary lines in
unofficial droves.
When Louis Armstrong visited Europe in 1950, armed
guards had to be called out to protect him in each of nine
countries. His worshipers threatened to trample him
down. 'My trip to Europe was something that I shall never
forget,' he wrote later, and added, apprehensively, 'My
Gawd, how could Il' He had an audience with the Pope,
who inquired kindly about his children. Armstrong re-
plied that he had no children but that this state of affairs
was not due to lack of effort-a remark that was deleted
from the version appearing in Holiday Magazine.14 On his
return, Armstrong received a thank-you note from the
State Department.
In 1952, a jazz trio composed of Gene Krupa, Teddy
Napoleon, and Charlie Ventura toured Japan. 'It was the
most tremendous thing I've ever experienced,' exclaimed
Krupa wonderingly, 'even greater than any of the big days
with Goodman.' Saxophonist Ventura was stunned: 15
The experience was just too much
There was nothing
the people wouldn't do for us. And they'd wait for hours just
to get an autograph, or take your picture, or shake your hand.
We'd get off the stand, and waiting for us in the dressing room
would be three little baskets of cold towels, three big bottles
of beer, three stacks of sandwiches-everything in threes.
292 - JAZZ TOMORROW
Weeks later, the three jazzmen were still unwrapping gifts
that had been showered upon them.
There was some doubt among bookers whether Norman
Granz's package of nine musicians and Ella Fitzgerald,
billed as Jazz at the Philharmonic, would make a hit abroad.
The first concert in Stockholm was sold out six hours after
it had been announced, and the group proceeded upon a
highly successful tour of Sweden, Denmark, France, Bel-
gium, Holland, Switzerland, and Germany. Mr. Granz, a
former philosophy major at the University of California,
was hard hit by the attitude of the audiences: 16
The wonderful thing about the people of Sweden
is
their treatment of jazz artists. The moment we arrived, there
was a press conference at which all of the newspapers took
pictures and interviewed us
The European audiences
have a healthier respect for all art forms, whether it be dance,
painting, or in this instance, jazz.
'Daddy-O,' reported Miss Fitzgerald happily, 'it was the
most.'
After five furious weeks in Europe in 1953, Stan Kenton
and his orchestra came home for a rest. The high point of
the trip took place in Dublin, when the close of the con-
cert was greeted by 'a solid wall of sound. You couldn't
distinguish anything-cheers or whatever-it was just con-
tinuous sound.' The emotional impact was literally inde-
scribable: 17
A man came up to us in Germany and was very much car-
ried away by the concert. He said: 'Jazz is not only music but
also a way of life, and that's a thing we want to know more
about.'
Then there were the kids who couldn't speak English.
They'd grab me by the arm; I could feel them trembling.
Tears came into their eyes and all they could say was 'Stan!'
mL200
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1988
WH
third edition
MUSIC
IN THE UNITED STATES:
A Historical Introduction
H. WILEY HITCHCOCK
Distinguished Professor of Music,
City University of New York
and
Director, Institute for Studies in American Music
at Brooklyn College
PRENTICE HALL, ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, NEW JERSEY 07632
235
The 1930s and Early 1940s
The rhythmic basis of swing was a strong, even 4 ("solid" was a favorite march
adjective along in 1. Swing drummers typically overlaid the regular thumping 2 and
of the period) as opposed to the tendency of earlier jazz to four-
beats-to-the-measure of the bass drum with a slight emphasis on beats drumstick
played
with
4 through a conventional pattern
brush on a high-hat cymbal, with totally different effect from the
or wire beats 1 and 3 of early jazz. One of the first drummers to establish iden-
accents this convention on was Chick Webb (1902-39), but it was more closely
tified with the Kansas City style of jazz as played by the bands of Bennie
and his successor, William "Count" Basie (1904-84). Basie's band,
Moten with Ellington's, was probably the most influential of all in establishing of white
along the style, but nationally the style was diffused by the bands and
leaders swing like Goodman, Tommy Dorsey (1905-56), Artie Shaw (b. 1910),
Glenn Miller (1904-44), perhaps mainly because discriminatory practices to
made it difficult for the black bands to get the same degree of exposure
the mass audience.
The swing era seemed to breed virtuosos. Some were dazzling solo-
like the peerless pianist Art Tatum (1910-56); from 1933 on, Tatum that
ists, made more than six hundred recordings (some with small combos)
display his Harlem stride-based style, enriched with harmonic elaborations, fleet-
rhythmic and contrapuntal complications, and an almost unbelievable and Too
of hand (cf. his solo performances of Willow Weep for Me few
ness Marvelous for Words on SCCJ:s5/1-2). Virtuosos of another sort were a
legendary singers, notably Ella Fitzgerald (b. 1918), who began a very Chick long
with beguiling songs like A-Tisket, a-Tasket (1938) backed up by of
career Webb's band (which Fitzgerald joined in 1935) and with scat singing an
immense range of timbres and pitch (from d to c³), and Billie Holiday (ca.
1912-59), whose singing between about 1936 and 1944, a fresh synthesis
based that of Bessie Smith's blues and Louis Armstrong's improvisatory
style, justified on claims for her as the pre-eminent jazz singer of the period. Basie's
Holiday had a special empathetic musical relationship with Count celebrated
tenor saxophonist Lester Young (1909-59); among her most That
recordings are ones in which they worked together (as in He's Funny
Way or All of Me, on SCCJ:s4/6-7, or I Can't Get Started with You, on
NW 295:s1/1).
Other jazz performers rose to virtuoso status as star soloists who
improvised brilliantly over the background riffs of the big bands' "sidemen." devel-
Some of the misplaced values of any star system were evident in this
opment of the swing era, as the star performers seemed to be trying musicians to play
fast or as high, or both, as possible. One thinks of several
as associated with the Benny Goodman band during this period: the trumpeter
Harry James (1916-83), who was celebrated for machine-gun-like velocity
inL200
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1987
WH
Gilbert Chase
America's Music
From the Pilgrims to the Present
Revised Third Edition
With a Foreword by Richard Crawford
and a Discographical Essay by William Brooks
University of Illinois Press
Urbana and Chicago
Jazz: Tradition and Transformation
52I
that his aim was to create a kind of music with "improvisation, content,
and shape becoming one."³⁰
Yet Taylor's innovations were not entirely divorced from the New Or-
leans tradition. In spite of his conservatory training, he was not bound to
sight-reading from a definitive score. He told an interviewer: "I had found
out that you get more from the musicians if you teach them the tunes by
ear, if they have to listen for changes instead of reading them off the page,
which again has something to do with the whole jazz tradition, with how
the cats in New Orleans at the turn of the century made their tunes."
At this point we must risk a historical hiatus in order to look at the
role of women in jazz. Hitherto their fame has rested largely on their
singing and piano playing. Mildred Bailey (1907-51) is tagged as "the
first female to sing with a band" and "the first white female to be com-
pletely accepted in jazz circles." The others who became famous were all
black, including Ella Fitzgerald (b. 1918), who at age sixteen began to
sing with Chick Webb's band. At his death in 1939 she took over the
band for a short period. Her first big hit was with "A-Tisket, A-Tasket,"
recorded in 1938. Eventually she developed a large and varied repertory
that included "high-class" popular songs such as those by Gershwin,
Cole Porter, and Harold Arlen. With a dynamic personality, she at-
tracted large audiences everywhere and was hailed as "the public's
singer."
Billie Holiday (1915-59), who experienced both fame and personal
tragedy, began as a nightclub singer in New York and immediately dis-
played a highly individual style. It has been said that "her distortions of
pitch are wedded, welded rather, to her manipulations of the beat," and
her "incessant modifications of the pulse are the most expressive devices in
her art."32 Typical numbers are "He's Funny That Way" and "All of Me,"
both recorded with strong support from saxophonist Lester Young.
Sarah Vaughan (b. 1924), both singer and pianist, launched her bril-
liant career performing with Earl Hines's orchestra in 1943. She had wide
versatility, and in the 1950S she recorded both for a large studio orchestra in
Hollywood and with a trumpet and piano duo in New York. The songs
were, respectively, "Dancing in the Dark" and "Ain't No Use." She was
highly successful, from Europe to Latin America, and was dubbed "the Di-
vine Sarah."
What is less known is the role of women in jazz bands, playing such in-
struments as trumpet, saxophone, string bass, vibes, and so on. Often they
I.M. (Ieoh Ming) Pei was born in Canton, China in 1917. He was
educated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and then at
Harvard. He was the Director of Architecture at Webb and Knapp in
New York City from 1948 to 1955. Currently he has an office in
New York City, Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, where he designs
administration buildings, department stores, and urban planning
projects.
Pei's first most important work was The Mile High Center in
Denver, Co. (1956) The emphasis here was on structural elements,
such as, for example, exposed air conditioning ducts. This was
typical of the International Style of the 1950s.
Examples of the turn towards monumentality of simple stereometric
forms:
The National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, CO. (1967)
Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, NY. (1968)
East Wing of the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. (1971-8)
Pei used horizontals and vertical in his architectural structures
to produce strength. With glass he was able to achieve an
"endless series of changing effects. " He pursued the path of
multifarious possibilities for the metal-and-glass formula. His
style is marked by an extreme simplicity.
Some notable works by Pei are:
Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City
expansion and modernization of the Louvre Museum in Paris
West Wing Museum of Fine Arts in Boston
East Wing of the National Gallery of Art in Washington
WHO
IN
AMERICA
2623
PEIRCE
USRTS
1969). Sigma Xi. Pi Mu Epsilon. Phi Kappa Phi
Corp., Stamford, Conn., Plumrose, Inc., Can.. East Asiatic Co. de Mexico,
MND (pres Chi Alpha. Baptist (deacon, chmn. 1986). Club:
4517 Foxhall Cres NW Washington DC 20007-1056 Office: Sutherland As-
West Indian Co., Ltd., St. Thomas. V.I., EAC Nevada Inc., EAC Can. Inc.,
Lastids Home 419 Poinciana Dr Birmingham AL 35209-4129
EACOM Timber, Vancouver, DAK Foods Inc. Trustee Am. Scandanavian
bill & Brennan 1275 Pennsylvania Ave NW # 1000 Washington DC 20004-
2404
:
Found. 1987-. Mem. Graphic Arts Tech. Found. (bd. dirs. 1977-80, 84-),
JOSEPH, metals company executive; b. St. Louis, Aug.
Nat. Printing Equipment and Supply Assn. (bd. dirs. 1975-77, 80-83),
JUICE
J and Melba (Rahning) P.; m. Mary Jane Hazlewood,
Soderstrom Soc. of Nat. Assn. Printers and Lithographers. Danish Am. C. of
PEI, IEOH MING, architect: b. Canton. China, Apr. 26, 1917; came to
Gary. Steven. Scott. B.S., Purdue U., 1945,
C., German Am. C. of C. Clubs: North Hempstead Country (Port Wash-
U.S., 1935. naturalized, 1954; S. Tsu Yee Pei and Lien Kwun Chwong: m.
schiren Advanced Mgmt. Program. Harvard, 1967. Oper-
ington. N.Y.): Royal Danish Yacht (Copenhagen); Dansk Samvirke (bd. dirs.
Eileen Loo, June 20, 1942; children: Ting Chung. Chien Chung. Li Chung.
Corp.. Canton. Ohio, 1948-54; various sales posi-
1986-). Avocations: gardening. fishing, bridge, golf. reading. Office: The E
Liane. BArch, MIT. 1940; MArch. Harvard U., 1946; DFA (hon.), U. Pa.,
& Inc., Chgo., Cleve., 1954-63; v.p. marketing Handy
Asiatic Co Inc 73-45 Woodhaven Blvd Glendale NY 11385
1970, Rensselaer Poly. Inst., 1978, Carnegie Mellon U., 1980, U. Mass.,
1963-71: dir. Handy & Harman. 1971-75, group v.p.
1980, Brown U., 1982. NYU, 1983, Dartmouth Coll., 1991. Northeastern U.:
chmn.. pres., chief exec. officer Multi-Metal Wire
PEEVEY, MICHAEL ROBERT, electric company executive: b. N.Y.C.,
LLD, Chinese U., Hong Kong. 1970; LHD. Columbia U., 1980, U. Colo.,
pres Holyoke Wire Cloth Co., 1975-88. Multi-Wedge
Feb. 8, 1938; S. Willard Michael Bliss and Miriam Gardiner (Cooke) Bliss
1982, U. Rochester, 1982, U. Hong Kong, 1990, Am. U., Paris, 1990.
13. sued-Holyoke Corp., 1980-86; pres., chief exec. officer
Peevey; m. Lauretta Ann Peevey, Mar. 17. 1961 (div. 1976); children: Darcie
Practice architecture N.Y.C., 1939-42; asst. prof. Harvard Grad. Sch. Design,
Corp.. 1988-: chmn. Phillips Steel Fabricators.
Ann, Maria Beth: m. Carole Jean Liu, May 27. 1978; I child. Jared Liu. BA
1945-48; dir. archtl. div. Webb & Knapp, Inc., 1948-55; with Pei Cobb Freed
bd. Lucas Milhaupt. Inc., Cudahy, Wis., 1967-75.
in Econs., U. Calif.-Berkeley, 1959, MA in Econs., 1961. Economist U.S.
& Partners (formerly I.M. Pei & Ptnrs., I.M. Pei & Assos. ), N.Y.C., 1955-
1043-46. 51-53. Mem. Am. Mgmt. Assn., Nat. Indsl.
Dept. Labor, Washington. 1961-65; coord. community programs Inst. Indsl.
Prin. projects include Mile High Ctr., Denver, Nat. Ctr. Atmospheric Rsch.,
Mining and Metall. Engrs., Tau Beta Pi, Kappa Delta
Rels., U. Calif.-Berkeley, 1969-70; dir. rsch. Calif. Labor Fedn., AFL-CIO,
Boulder. Colo., Dallas City Hall, John Fitzgerald Kennedy Libr., Boston.
125 Conglist. Clubs: Mount Kisco Country, Cornell of N.Y.
1971-73, 65-69; pres. Calif. Coun. for Environl./Econ. Balance, San
Can. Imperial Bank Commerce Complex, Toronto, Overseas Chinese
Lake Rd Katonah NY 10536 Office: PO Box 9
Francisco, 1973-84; v.p. So. Calif. Edison Co., Rosemead. 1984-85, sr. v.p.,
Banking Corp. Ctr., Singapore, Dreyfus Chemistry Bldg. MIAT, East-West
1985-86, exec. v.p., 1986-90, pres., 1990-; chmn. Electric Transp. Coalition.
Ctr. U. Hawaii, Honolulu, Mellon Art Ctr. and Choate Rosemary Hall Sci.
1991-; chmn. electric transp. steering com. Edison Electric Inst., 1991-.
Ctr., Wallingford, Conn., U. Pa., N.Y.C., Johnson Mus. Art Cornell U.,
literature educator: b. Ogden, Utah, Jan. 2. 1942; $.
Bd. dirs. Calif. Housing Fin. Agy., Sacramento, 1984-86; mem. Commn. to
Ithaca. N.Y., Washington Sq. East, Phila, Everson Mus. Art. Syracuse, N.Y.,
of H. Edna Celina (Baron) P. BA, Brigham Young U., 1963,
Rev. the Master Plan for Higher Edn., Calif., 1985-88; trustee Calif. State U.
Nat. Gallery Art. East Bldg., Washington, Wilmington Tower, Raffles City,
and Colls., 1977-85; mem. Gov.'s Infrastructure Rev. Task Force, Sacra-
Singapore, West Wing Mus. Fine Arts, Boston, expansion and modernization
Md. 1969. From asst. to assoc. prof. U. Ga., Athens,
my
Brigham Young U., Provo, Utsh, 1975-78, prof..
mento, 1983-84; bd. govs. Econ. Literacy Coun. of Calif., 1982-; bd. visitors
of Louvre Mus., Paris, Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Ctr., Dallas, MIT
dept comparative lit. U. Ga., Athens, 1973-74, Brigham
Calif. Maritime Acad., 1980-83; mem. steering com. State Solid Waste
Arts and Media Ctr., Jacob K. Javits Conv. Ctr., N.Y.C., Fragrant Hill
2-3-81. pres. Western Regional Honors Coun., 1978-79.
Mgmt. Bd., 1980-83; commr. Nat. Commn. on State Workmen's Compensa-
Hotel, Beijing, Tex. Commerce Tower, Houston, Bank of China, Hong
Hsworth. 1984, The Reasonable Romantic, 1986, The Ro-
tion Laws, Washington. 1971-72; bd. dirs. Consumer Fedn. Calif., 1972-78;
Kong. Creative Artists Agy., Beverly Hills. Calif., Mount Sinai Hosp.
1338 Mem. MLA. Am. Comparative Lit. Assn. (exec.
co-chmn. Citizens for Adequate Energy, 1979-82; chair Commn. on Innova-
Extension, Rock 'Roll Hall of Fame and Mus., Cleve., Mus. Contemporary
Soc. for Aesthetics, Rocky Mountain Soc. for Aes-
tion, Calif. Community Colls. Mem. Calif. C. of C. (bd. dirs.), L.A. C. of C.
Art, Luxembourg, Shingi Shumeikai Mus. Art. Shiga, Japan, Bilbao (Spain)
- Internat. Byron Soc., Internat. Bronte Soc. Mem.
(bd. dirs.), World Trade Club, Sutter Club, Calif. Club. Democrat. Epis-
Estuary Project, Regent Hotel, N.Y.C., others; planning projects include
travel. Office: Brigham Young U Comparative Lit
copalian. Office: So Calif Edison Co 2244 Walnut Grove Ave Rosemead CA
S.W. Washington Redevelopment Plan, Govt. Ctr. Redevelopment Plan,
91770-3714
Boston, Oklahoma City Downtown Redevelopment Plan, Bedford
sse02
Stuyvesant Super Block, Bklyn., master plan Columbia U. Mem. Nat. Def.
Research Com., Princeton, N.J., 1943-45. Nat. Council Humanities, 1966-70,
film director: b. Bronx, N.Y.: 5. Jan Peerce. Dir.: One
PEGELS, C. CARL, management science and systems educator: b. Baren-
Nat. Council on Arts, 1980-. MIT traveling fellow, 1940, Wheelwright
1964. The Incident, 1967, Goodbye Columbus, 1969,
drecht, South Holland. Netherlands, Feb. 26, 1933; came to U.S., 1962,
fellow Harvard, 1951; Thomas Jefferson Meml. medal for Architecture, 1976,
1971. A Separate Peace, 1972, Ash Wednesday, 1973,
naturalized, 1968; S. Bertus and Adriana Maria (Denotter) P.; chil-
gold medal for architecture Am. Acad. Arts and Letters, 1979, Nat. Arts
the Mountain. 1975, Two Minute Warning, 1976. The
dren-Janice Joy, Kevin Carl. BS in Mech. Engring., Detroit Inst. of Tech.,
Club Gold medal of honor, 1981, Mayor's award of Honor for Art and
Mountain-Part II, 1978, The Bell Jar, 1979, Why Would I
1961, MS, PhD; Mgmt., Purdue U., 1963, 66. Prodn. engr. Ford Motor,
Culture, N.Y.C., 1981, La Grande Medaille D'or L'Académie 'Architec-
all 1982. I Take These Men, 1983, Hard to Hold, 1984,
Windsor, Can., 1955-62; instr. Purdue U., W. Lafayette, Ind., 1962-66; prof.
ture, 1981, Pritzker Architecture prize, 1983, Medal of Liberty, 1986, Medal
41 The Fifth Missile, 1986. A Prison For Children, 1986;
SUNY-Buffalo, 1966-; v.p. Ctr. for Mgmt. Systems, Buffalo, 1978-91.
of French Legion of Honor, 1988, Nat. Medal of Art, 1988, Praemium
880 Office: care Geof Brandt The Brandt Co 12700
Author: Basic for Business, 1973, Health Care & Elderly, 1980. Japan VS The
Imperiale Japan Art Assn., 1989, UCLA Gold medal, 1990, Calbert Found.
City CA 91604-2429*
West, 1984, Q.C. in Health Care, 1985, Decision Support Systems for
first award for Excellence, 1991, Excellence 2000 award. Fellow AIA
Production and Operations Management. 1986, Management and Industry in
(Medal of Honor N.Y. chpt. 1963, Gold Medal 1979); hon. fellow ASID;
BERNARD, lawyer; b. N.Y.C., Oct. 18, 1931; S. Jacob
China, 1987, Strategic Management for Hospitals and Health Care Corpora-
mem. Nat. Inst. Arts and Letters (Amold Brunner award 1961), Am. Acad.
Cats (Alpern) P.; m. Lois Peerce; children: Steven L.,
tions, 1987. Health Care and the Older Citizen, 1988, Decision Support
Arts and Scis., Am. Acad. and Inst. Arts and Letters (chancellor 1978-80),
Fuerst. Carol L. A.B., Columbia U., 1952. J.D., 1954.
Systems for Management Science / Operations Research, 1989. Krannert
Royal Inst. Brit. Architects, NAD, Urban Design Council. Office: Pei Cobb
Assoc Donovan. Leisure, Newton & Irvine, N.Y.C., 1954-
fellow, 1966; Krannert scholar Purdue U., 1963. Mem. Ops. Research Soc.
Freed & Ptnrs 600 Madison Ave New York NY 10022-1615
Harlan Fiske Stone scholar, 1952. 53. Mem. ABA, Assn.
Am., Inst. Mgmt. Sci., Am. Inst. Decision Scis. Avocations: long distance
Home: 245 E 58th St New York NY 10022-1201
runner. Home: 63 Ruskin Rd Buffalo NY 14226-4255 Office: SUNY at
Buffalo Sch of Mgmt Buffalo NY 14260
PEI, MING L, civil engineering educator; b. Peking, China, Apr. 17. 1923;
Lessure Newton & Irvine 30 Rockefeller Pla New York NY
came to U.S., 1944; S. I. Hsiang and Chao H. (Wu) P.; m. Yen Fen Kiang,
Sept. 2, 1951; children: Victor C., Daniel C. B.S., Oreg. State U., 1945;
PEGIS, ANTON GEORGE, educator; b. Milw., Feb. 21. 1920; S. George
M.S., Cornell U., 1946, Ph.D., 1948. Asst. prof. civil engring. Nat. Central
GORDON, magazine editor; b. Mattoon, III., Apr. 25,
Anton and Eugenia (Stathas) P.: m. Harriet Louise Stevens, June 1, 1949;
U., Nanking, China, 1948-49; mem. faculty City Coll. CUNY, 1950-, prof.
and Irene (Monen) P. B.S. with highest distinction.
children: Stefani Elizabeth, Penelope Eugenia. A.B., Western State Coll.
civil engring., 1963-86, prof. emeritus, 1986-, chmn. dept., 1965-68, chief
1953. postgrad., Cornell U., 1953-54; B.D., Yale, 1959:
Colo., 1949; M.A., Denver U., 1951, Ph.D., 1956. Jr. engr. N. Shore Gas
Computation Ctr., 1963-71. chmn. dept. computer sci. Computation Ctr.,
call 1967. With Christian Century Found., 1959; copy
Co., Waukegan, III., 1946-47; instr. Ft. Lewis Coll., 1952-53; process control
1968-71; cons. to govt. and industry. 1951-. Home: 104 River Edge Rd
Century mag. 1959-61, assoc. editor, 1961-64, mng. editor,
technician Gates Rubber Co., Denver, 1953-54; prof. English Colo. Sch.
Bergenfield NJ 07621-1132
aswr. 1981-85, ST. editor, 1985- Author: (with M.E.
Mines, Golden, 1954 asst. to pres. Colo. Sch. Mines, 1964-68, v.p. for
1963. (with Marty. L.M. Delloff. J.M. Wall) A Cen-
devel., 1968-73, v.p. for external affairs, 1973-74, prof. English. 1975-82.
1987. editor: Frontline Theology, 1967; co-editor: (with
prof. emeritus, 1982-; Cons. U.S. Bur. Mines, Office of Mineral Reports,
PEIMBERT, MANUEL, astronomer; b. Mexico City, June 9, 1941; S.
1.10. 1964-73, A Handbook of Christian Theologians.
Washington, Regional Tng. Center, Office of Personnel Mgmt., Denver,
Gonzalo Peimbert and Catalina Sierra; m. Silvia Torres, Aug. 25, 1962;
1984. (with Alan Geyer) Theological Crossings, 1971.
1983, CSC, San Francisco, 1974- Author: Social Theory in the Novels of
children: Antonio, Mariana. BS, U. Nacional Autónoma de Mex., 1962;
over Military Rule. 1974. Active Chgo. community theater
Ford Madox Ford, 1956, An Intensive Course in English for Foreign
PhD in Astronomy, U. Calif., Berkeley, 1967. Postdoctoral fellow U. Calif.,
ACCC. NAACP. Fellowship of Reconciliation. Amnesty
Engineering Students. 1957, Humanism and the Practical Order, 1964,
Berkeley, 1967-68; prof. astronomy U. Nacional Autónoma de Mex., Mexico
and Larry Concerned. Phi Beta Kappa. Democrat. Baptist.
Excellence and the Odyssean Philosophy, 1965, Platonism in the Renaissance
City, 1968- Author over 100 research articles, 1960-: editor Revista
St Chicago IL 60605-1111
Lyric. 1965, Education for Leadership, 1966, Totality in Engineering Educa-
Mexicana de Fisica, 1981-85. Recipient Guillaume Bude medal Coll. de
tion, 1968, Course Recommendations for the Resource Engineer, 1968, En-
France, Paris, 1974, Nat. Prize of Scis. Govt. of Mex., 1981. Fellow Third
croachment of Competing Land Uses on Mineral Development, 1976.
World Acad. Scis.; mem. NAS (fgn. assoc.), Am. Astron. Soc. (councilor
MAIL GEOFFREY, archbishop: b. Vancouver, B.C., Can.,
Chmn. United Way Fund: sec. Colo. Sch. Mines Found.; pres. Roland Valley
1975-78). Internat. Astron. Union (v.p. 1982-88), Royal Astron. Soc. U.K.
Licoffrey Hugh and Dorothy Enid (Mantle) P.; m. Dorothy
Civic Assn., 1974-75. Served with AUS, 1940-46; maj. AUS. ret. Appointed
(fgn. assoc.). Acad. de la Investigacion Cientifica (Scis. prize 1971). Soc.
June 29. 1963; children: Valerie Anne Leslie, Richard
Letter Geoffrey Stephen Arthur. Zert.dolm., U. Heidelberg,
hon. disting. sgt. 121st Field Arty. Regiment. 1988. Named Outstanding
Mexicana de Fisica. Office: Inst de Astronomia, APDO Postal 70-264,
Prof., Tau Beta Pi, 1963, Hon. Colonel 115th Engring. Rgt., 1988; recipient
04510 Mexico City Mexico
emany. 1955: BA, U. B.C., Vancouver, 1956; Licentiate in
Coll. Toronto, Ont., 1959, DD (hon.). 1977; DD (hon.).
Outstanding Prof. award Colo. Sch. Mines, 1976; Amoco Found. awards.
ampeg. Man.. 1981, Wycliffe Coll., Toronto, 1987, Kent
Mem. Golden C. of C. (pres. 1968). Am. Soc. Engring. Edn. (chmn. Rocky
PEIPERL, ADAM, kinetic and video sculptor; b. Sosnowiec, Poland, June
Eas 1988. Montreal Diocesan Coll., Que., Can., 1989, Coll.
Mountain sect.), Am. Alumni Council (chmn. dist. VII 1971-72). Modern
4, 1935: came to U.S., 1953, naturalized, 1958; S. Jacob and Fanny (Alster)
x Chad, Sask., Can., 1990, Vancouver Sch. Theology.
Lang. Assn., Blue Key, Theta Chi, Alpha Psi Omega. Home: 415 Scenic Ct
P.; m. Martha Rose Dorf, June 15. 1958: children: Maury, Laurence,
Golden CO 80401-2533
1991. Ordained to ministry Anglican Ch. as deacon.
Linda. B.S. in Chemistry, George Washington U., 1957; postgrad., Pa. State
one) consecrated bishop, 1977. Asst. curate St. Thomas
U., 1959. Cons. in Russian Lang. sci. lit. Library Congress, Washington,
resi chaplain U. Ottawa, 1961-66; rector St. Bede's Ch.,
PEGRAM, JOHN BRAXTON, lawyer; b. Yeadon, Pa., June 29, 1938; S.
1959-61. 66-67; chemist Nat. Bur. Standards, Washington. 1961-63. Exhib-
& Martin's Ch., Winnipeg, 1972-74; dean of Qu'Ap-
William Bement and Marjorie (Rainey) P.: m. Patricia Jane Narbeth: Aug.
itor one-man shows, Balt. Mus. Art. 1969, Pa. Acad. Fine Arts, 1969,
1974-77: bishop Qu'Appelle, 1977-82, archbishop, 1982-
21, 1965; children: Catherine, Stephen. AB in Physics, Columbia U., 1960;
Marlborough Gerson Gallery, N.Y.C., 1969, Smithsonian Mus. History and
Anglican Ch. Can., 1986-; instr. Ottawa Tchrs. Coll.,
LLB, NYU, 1965. Bar: N.Y. 1965, U.S. Supreme Ct. 1971. Engr. Fairchild
Tech., 1972. Electric Gallery, Toronto, Ont., Can., 1975, Phila. Art Alliance,
High Sch., Winnipeg, 1967-69. Office: Anglican Ch Can,
Camera and Instrument Corp., Clifton, N.J., 1960-66; assoc. Davis Hoxie
1978-, group shows, Washington Gallery Modern Art, 1968, Corcoran
larvis St. Toronto, ON Canada M4Y 2J6
Faithfull and Hapgood, N.Y.C., 1966-71, ptnr., 1972-. Editor The
Gallery, 1968, Kent State U., McKay Art Inst., San Antonio, 1969, NASA
Trademark Reporter jour.. 1984-86, mem. editorial adv. bd., 1986-; contbr.
Manned Spacecraft, Nat. Mus. Am. Art, 1972-82. Houston, 1970-71, U.
ALFRED. JR., home furnishing company executive; b.
articles to profl. jours. Fellow Am. Bar Found.: mem. IEEE. ABA (chmn.
Rochester, 1978, Foster Harmon Galleries Am. Art, Sarasota, Fla., 1982-83,
May 3. 1946; S. Troy Alfred and Lola E. (Jenkins) P.;
Antitrust Law sect. com. on Patents. Trademarks and Knowhow 1986-89,
Artworks Gallery, Santa Barbara, Calif., 1989; represented in permanent
mem. Legal Econs. sect., Bus. Law sect., Patent, Trademark and Copyright
collections, Pa. Acad. Fine Arts. Smithsonian Instn., Mus. Boymans-van
Howard. July 19, 1969; children: Troy III, Casey
Law sect. spl. com. on Ct. Appeals for Fed. Cir. 1984-88. chmn. Patent.
Beuningen, Rotterdam, Holland. John F. Kennedy Center for Performing
Coll. 1966: BS in Acctg., Va. Poly. Inst. and State U.,
WAT acct Arthur Young & Co., Richmond, Va., 1968-72;
Trademark and Copyright sect. com. on small bus. 1987-89, chmn., PTC sec.
Arts. Mus. Electricity in Life, Mpls.; created first kinetic polarized-light
Moven Co., Richmond, 1972-74, treas., 1974-80. sec.-treas.,
ad hoc com. on security interests 1989-, mem., PTC sec. nominating com.
sculpture in water, 1968; designed polarized-light kaleidoscope interiors,
1982-84. exec. v.p., 1984-86, pres.. 1986-, also bd.
1989-90), Fed. Bar Coun., Fed. Cir. Bar Assn., N.Y. State Bar Assn., Assn.
1989; images on book covers for Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1991, 92, Mayfield
7 accig dept. Va. Poly. Inst. and State U., Blacksburg,
of Bar of City of N.Y., Am. Intellectual Property Law Assn. (chmn. Fed.
Publishing Co., 1992, also jours.; poster image for Elektra Entertainment.
Mrst Coll Va. Found., Richmond, 1987-: bd. dirs. Arts
Practice and Procedure com. 1974-76. chmn. unauthorized practice com.
1990; moving images with music publ. as part of video Spectrasphere (with
Inc. 1986-, v.p., 1987-.. Fellow Fin. Execs. Inst.
1977-79), Fed. Cir. Bar Assn., N.Y. Patent. Trade Mark and Copyright Law
B. Mitchell), 1991: TV broadcasts WETA-TV, 1984, WJLA-TV, 1985, Mex-
M. bd. dirs. Va. chpt. 1982-86). Baptist. Clubs:
Assn. (sec. 1981-84, dir. 1984-86, pres. 1989-90). U.S. Bar/Japan Patent
ican TV and Galavision, 1987; designed Bengal Light kaleidoscope, 1991,
d dirs. 1984-, pres. 1987-), Westwood Racquet
Office Liason Coun. (del. 1990-), Am. Phys. Soc., Chartered Inst. Patent
20901-1130 Pipe Dream kaleidoscope, 1992. Home: 1135 Loxford Ter Silver Spring MD
Country (Charlottesville, Va.). Office: Heilig
Agts. (fgn. mem.), Inst. Trade Mark Agts. (overseas mem.). Am. Judicature
the Mill Rd Richmond VA 23230-2946
Soc. Office: Davis Hoxie Faithfull and Hapgood 45 Rockefeller Plz New
York NY 10111-0002
PEIRCE, BROOKE, English language educator, b. Washington, Jan. 2,
as D. JR.. lawyer; b. N.Y.C., Sept. 3, 1935; S. Charles D.
1922; S. Charles Brooke. Jr. and Nancy Ley (Bass) P.; m. Carol Emily
Sherman) P.; m. Penny Levy, July 29, 1967; chil-
PEHLKE, ROBERT DONALD, materials and metallurgical engineering
Marshall. July 12, 1952. B.A., U.Va., 1943; M.A., Harvard U., 1947, Ph.D.,
BA. Yale U., 1957; J.D., Harvard U., 1960. Bar:
educator; b. Ferndale, Mich., Feb. 11. 1933; S. Robert William and Florence
1954. Teaching fellow Harvard U., 1948-51; instr. English U. Va., 1951-54;
M..bank. Tweed. Hadley & McCloy, N.Y.C., 1960-68,
Jenny (McLaren) P.: m. Julie Anne Kehoe, June 2. 1956; children: Robert
mem. faculty Goucher Coll., 1954-85, prof. English, 1966-85, prof. emeritus,
ABA, N.Y. State Bar Assn., Assn. Bar N.Y.C., In-
Donald, Elizabeth Anne, David Richard. B.S. in Engring, U. Mich., 1955;
1985-, chmn. dept. English and dramatic arts, 1964-69, 72-75. chmn.
the Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy 1 Chase
S.M., Mass. Inst. Tech., 1958, Sc.D., 1960; postgrad., Tech. Inst., Aachen,
faculty humanities, 1964-66, 72-73. 79; vis. prof. English, SUNY Coll.-Os-
York NY 10005-1401
Ger., 1956-57. Registered profl. engr., Mich. Mem. faculty U. Mich.,
wego. 1985-87; lectr. Villa Julie Coll., 1989-. Author: (with Carol Peirce)
1960-, prof. materials sci. and engring. 1968-, chmn. dept., 1973-84; cons.
Introduction to English Literature, 2 vols., 1954. Treas. Edgar Allan Poe
PETTWAY JONES, surgeon: b. Warrenton, N.C.,
to metall. industries. Author: Unit Processes of Extractive Metallurgy, 1973;
Soc., Balt., 1959-66, mem. bd., 1959- Served with U.S. Army, 1943-45.
who Henry and Lucy Pettway (Jones) P.; m. Mary
Editor, contbr. numerous articles to profl. jours. Pres. Ann Arbor Amateur
Nat. Endowment for Humanities fellow, 1977-78; recipient Disting Tchr.
-0 children-Marianna Jones. A.B., U. N.C., 1942;
Hockey Assn., 1977-79. NSF fellow, 1955-56; Fulbright fellow, 1956-57.
award, 1979. Mem. Modern Lang. Assn., Raven Soc. of U. Va., Classical
Fellow Am. Soc. Metals (mem. tech. divs. bd. 1982-84, sec. metals acad.
Assn., Phi Beta Kappa. Democrat. Home: 705 Warren Rd Cockeysville
Fellow in pathology Peter Bent Brigham Hosp.,
Hunt Valley MD 21030-2824
officer Mass. Gen. Hosp., Boston, 1947-54; instr.
com. 1977). Metall. Soc. of AIME (Gold Medal award extractive metallurgy
1953-55: asst. to dean Duke U. Med. Sch., Durham,
div. 1976); mem. Iron and Steel Soc. of AIME (Disting. life mem., chmn.
process tech. div. 1976-77, dir. 1976-79, Howe meml. lectr. 1980). Germany,
PEIRCE, CAROL MARSHALL, educator; b. Columbia, Mo., Feb. 1, 1922:
asso prof. Duke U. Med. Sch., 1955-64, prof.
mentus surgery, 1992-; dir. N.C. Nat. Bank,
London, Japan socs. iron and steel, Am. Foundrymen's Soc., Am. Soc.
d. Charles Hamilton and Helen Emily (Davault) Williams; m. Brooke Peirce,
1954-55. Mem. N.C. Surg. Assn., So. Surg. Assn.,
Engring. Edn., N.Y. Acad. Sci., Nat. Soc. Profl. Engrs., Sigma Xi. Tau Beta
July 12, 1952. A.B., Fla. State U., 1942; M.A. (McGregor fellow, DuPont
Surgery Alimentary Tract. Office: Dept Surgery Med
Pi, Alpha Sigma Mu (pres. 1977-78). Home: 9 Regent Dr Ann Arbor MI
fellow), U. Va., 1943; Ph.D. (Harvard tutor, Anne Radcliffe traveling fellow),
NC 27710
48104-1738 Office: U Mich Materials Sci & Engring Dow Bldg 2300
Harvard U., 1951. Head English dept. Fairfax Hall, Waynesboro, Va., 1943-
Hayward St Rm 2122 Ann Arbor MI 48109-2136
44; instr. English Cedar Crest Coll., Allentown, Pa., 1944-46, Harvard U.,
1952-53; asst. dean instrn. Radcliffe Coll., Cambridge, 1950-53; head English
trading company executive: b. Odense, Denmark.
PEHRSON, GORDON OSCAR, JR., lawyer: b. San Antonio, Feb. 18,
extension home study U. Va., Charlottesville, 1953-54; asst. dir. admissions
1974. S. Mads Soren and Gudrun (Pedersen) L.:
1943; S. Gordon Oscar and Frances (Burns) P.; m. Janice Sue Hagedorn.
Goucher Coll., Towson, Md., 1956-62; chmn. dept., prof. English U. Balt.,
children-Anne-Marie, Inge-Lise, Niels Chris-
Merchant Sch. 1960, East Asiatic Co. Comml.
May 17. 1969; children: Christopher Wells, Ashley Stewart; m. Sharon Ann
1968-, gen. edn. core coord., 1985-87, Disting. teaching prof. Coll. Liberal
Fast Astatic Co. Ltd., Copenhagen, 1957-60; mgr.
McNellage. Jan. 1. 1983. AB, Coll. William and Mary, 1964; JD, U. Mich.,
Arts, 1981-82. chmn. humanities div., 1972-79; chmn. bd. New Poets Series,
anok. Thailand. 1962-64; br mgr. East Asiatic Co.
1967; postgrad.. U. London. 1967-68. Bar: III. 1968, D.C. 1969, U.S. Ct.
1975-85; vis. scholar Lucy Cavendish Coll., U. Cambridge, Eng., 1977-78.
Claims 1968, U.S. Ct. Mil. Appeals 1968, U.S. Ct. Appeals (D.C. cir.) 1976,
Author: (with Brooke Peirce) A Study of Literary Types and an Introduction
1964-67: dir mkts Thailand Machinery
US Sunreme a 1976. a and 5th
to English Literature from Chaucer to the Eighteenth Century, 1954, A
PAGE
1
Newsday, November 8, 1992
The most obvious symbol of this renovation is architect I.M. Pei's
71-foot-high glass pyramid that sits in the center of the Napoleon Court,
between the Louvre's two massive wings. You will definitely have plenty of time
to observe this impressive structure as you wait in the long lines to enter the
museum through the Pyramid (That is, if you haven't been smart enough to buy a
Museum Pass.) Then comes another problem: deciding which way to go.
I started in the Sully wing, exploring the dark,
far as I'm concerned, the main event: the impressionist collection. The
paintings that used to be at the Jeu de Paume museum are now exhibited here in
full glory.
One room is more smashing than the next - from Monet's subtle landscapes,
seascapes, snowscapes, the Rouen cathedral series; to Degas' powerful bronzes,
pastel and painted studies of dancers and horses; Renoir's portraits and scenes
with their dappled shadows and feathery brushwork; Cezanne's thorny
still- lifes; Toulouse-Lautrec's big, brown and bawdy pastels; Van Gogh's
intense psyche-on-canvas. Then we get the post-impressionism of Seurat, Gaugin
and Rousseau.
1991 The San Francisco Chronicle, SEPTEMBER 27, 1991
news conference in San Rafael that the $ 47 million first phase of the center
was designed with an eye toward preserving the golden grasses and sturdy oaks
that are typical of Northern California.
'Community concern about the environment is not misplaced,' said Pei,
whose major projects include the pyramid-shaped addition to the Louvre in
Paris and the East Building of the National Gallery of Art in Washington.
The Buck Center building, comprised of four wings of honey- colored limestone
joined with covered atriums, will be constructed on just 2.5 acres of the hilly
488- acre site off Highway 101 north of Novato. Rock was once quarried on a
portion of the site.
laboratory buildings totaling 130,000 square feet. Construction is not
expected to begin on those any earlier than 2010.
About 130 residences for researchers are planned near the southern property
line.
Mary McEachron, administrative director and legal counsel for the center,
said Pei's fee is 11 percent of the cost of the project.
TM
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PAGE
2
The Washington Post, March 9, 1991
and 14th Street to the west, and elaborate federal buildings to the south and
east.)
Such concern was understandable -- the Pei firm has never been identified
with soft architectural insertions in the cityscape. To the contrary, its stamp
ever since its founding by I.M. Pei three decades ago has been strong
contrasts, succinct geometries, superb technologies and extraordinary finishes.
Witness, for one good instance, Pei's own East Building of the National
Gallery of Art.
From the beginning the firm conception. of the ICTC possessed powerful,
daring qualities. It proposed a dramatic new public park opening off
Pennsylvania Avenue and a stupendous new interior court. But its "dressing" " --
the elevations presented for the competition -- had a parched, abstemious look.
Although the competition rules established certain fundamentals of the context
-- heights, roof and facade
in charge of this design, admitted as much in an interview last winter.
"It's hard for me to believe the old rules still apply," he said. "The dilemma
is to maintain the dignity of the government and to celebrate the liveliness of
the ICTC. One cannot just stand on dignity alone. But to design decorative
moldings is something I never thought I would do."
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Services of Mead Data Central, Inc.
PEI
and Other Stories (1970), were
and Boston College. From 1957 to 1959 he served
el. In the interview with his daughter that was pub-
the center of experience, with
as the director of the Arts Council of Ireland.
lished in London Magazine, he described himself
universal: love, shame, devo-
Among the periodicals to which O'Faolain has con-
as "a bit of a loner." "Loneliness-being alone-is
of childhood, the longings of
tributed articles, reviews, and short stories are
important to me," he said. "I have to be able to close
secret abysses of marriage, the te-
Playboy, McCall's, Life, Holiday, the Atlantic,
the door-sometimes for no reason, just to rest.
Sometimes to start articulating my feelings through
before the publication of Sean
Envoy, and the New York Times Magazine.
the medium of other, imaginary people."
collection of short stories, Foreign
Sean O'Faolain and Eileen Gould celebrated
Stories (1976). Summarizing it in
their sixtieth wedding anniversary in 1988. The
References: Contemporary Authors new rev vol
(May 1, 1976), G. C. Reedy
O'Faolains, who live in Dunlaoire, Ireland, are the
12 (1984); Contemporary Literary Criticism vol
wonderful stories concern
parents of two children: a daughter, Julia, who is
32 (1985); Doyle, Paul A. Sean O'Faolain (1968);
and love, middle-life mar-
a writer, translator, and language teacher; and a
Harmon, Maurice. Sean O'Faolain: A Critical
Catholics, and Jews, the Irish,
son, Stephen. O'Faolain, who continues to work as
Introduction (1967); International Who's Who,
being outsmarted by cleverer
a journalist, lists as his hobbies gardening and trav-
1990-91; Who's Who, 1990
Moynahan, writing in the New
Review (January 25, 1976), com-
tories "exploit some of the ironies
emerge as the Irish
undergo
the initial structural fiasco of the John Hancock
Perhaps the strongest tension of
modernizing process and certain
Tower in Boston and despite designs that have gen-
ational attitude that conspire to
erated headline-making debate over their fitness to
rounded off his long and dis-
setting or purpose. Most notably, there was the fu-
tory-writing career with Selected
ror, from 1984 on, over the glass pyramid that he
Faolain (1978) and The Collected
designed to serve as the new grand entrance to the
(1980), Volume II (1981), and
Louvre museum. All Paris discussed the suitability
of that startling addition to the august seventeenth-
1979), O'Faolain's first novel in
century palace, making a political issue of it, but
is about Robert Younger, a sixty-
the pyramid has now succeeded the Chinese-
nalist who is approached by the
American's East Building addition to the National
and given the option of ei-
Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., as his most fa-
in an accident or living his life
mous structure to date.
chooses the latter option, howev-
In the course of three decades, I. M. Pei has
begin his life at his present age
evolved from a designer of urban-renewal projects
sively younger, until he becomes
to an independent practitioner whose buildings,
sappears, and, though he will be
according to architecture critics such as the New
from his experiences, he will
York Times's Paul Goldberger, tend increasingly to
of specific people, places, or
be conceived as abstract works of art, isolated from
to the gods, the purpose of the
their surroundings. Most critics, however, agree
to decide, once and for all,
that the elegance of form and refinement of detail
humans call experience teaches
for which Pei's later buildings are noted are com-
In discussing the novel with
bined with due consideration for contemporary
writer Julia O'Faolain, during an
construction technology and functional utility. In
ppeared in London Magazine
the age of postmodern architecture, Pei adheres to
Faolain explained: "The whole
a classic modernism, which he defines simply as
is that destiny is hang-
Pei, I(eoh) M(ing)
"enduring quality." In general, his works do not
born a certain way, and no mat-
(pã lo ming)
stand as manifestoes of any single architectural
times over, you'd still be the
theory, nor has this prolific and innovative master
It's decided once and for all.
Apr. 26, 1917 Architect. Address: Pei Cobb
ever been the subject of a full-scale, objective criti-
writing about." When And
Freed & Partners, 600 Madison Ave., New York,
cal analysis.
published in the United States
N.Y. 10022
Ieoh Ming ("to inscribe brightly") Pei was born
critics gave the novel laudatory
on April 26, 1917 in Canton, China, the eldest son
Gaiser, in her evaluation for
NOTE: This biography supersedes the article that
of a prominent banker, Tsuyee Pei. His mother,
Book Review (September 17,
appeared in Current Biography in 1969.
Lien Kwun Chwong, died when he was very
describing it as a work "of
young. One of his earliest memories is of accompa-
and inventiveness" that ex-
A glittering succession of commissions in cities on
nying her to a Buddhist retreat and experiencing its
nature of memory and how
three continents attests to I. M. Pei's reputation as
contemplative silence. After a childhood spent in
of
self."
perhaps the most famous architect in the world to-
Canton and Hong Kong, Pei moved with his family
Faolain's short stories, "The Man
day and as the creator of an impressive number of
to Shanghai, where I. M., as he has been known to
and "Mother Matilda's Book"
cultural, civic, and corporate structures character-
his family and associates for most of his life, at-
Coppers), were dramatized and
ized by what the Washington Post (May 17, 1983)
tended the prestigious St. John's Middle School.
television- in 1970. During the
has called "bold forms, geometrical daring, and
Shanghai's building boom at the time inspired
O'Faolain lectured or served as
crisp clarity of layout." Known for his flair for deal-
Pei's interest in architecture, and in 1935 (despite
at several American universi-
ing with demanding clients, Pei has maintained an
his father's wish that he become a doctor) he went
Northwestern, Wesleyan,
almost unbroken record of successes, except for
to the United States to study, expecting to return
1990 CURRENT BIOGRAPHY YEARBOOK
495
PEI
home to practice. He enrolled first at the Universi-
space within. Pei's National Center for Atmospher-
ty of Pennsylvania but, finding himself increasing-
ic Research in Boulder, Colorado (1967), regarded
ly uneasy over the school's emphasis on
as a "bellwether of [his] national emergence as an
architectural drawing, then transferred to the Mas-
architect" by a writer for the Christian Science
sachusetts Institute of Technology, where he re-
Monitor (January 12, 1979), is a grouping of ele-
ceived his bachelor of architecture degree in 1940.
mental geometric forms: reddish brown concrete
Prevented from returning to China by the outbreak
towers dramatically silhouetted against the distant
of World War II, he worked for architectural firms
Rocky Mountains. Reportedly, the design was in-
in Boston, New York, and Los Angeles until 1942,
fluenced not only by Anasazi Indian pueblos but
when he volunteered for work with a unit of the
also by the architecture of the contemporary that
National Defense Research Committee in Prince-
Pei most admired, Louis I. Kahn.
ton, New Jersey. There, he was charged with the
The Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, New
task of devising efficient ways to incinerate Jap-
York (1968) is the first of the series of museum
anese buildings, an assignment he found pro-
buildings for which Pei has become especially
foundly distasteful.
famed. Here, four separate galleries, of different
After the war and the Communist takeover of
heights, cantilevered out over a podium, are joined
his homeland, Pei remained in the United States,
by bridges that lead visitors from one level to an-
becoming a citizen in 1954. From 1945 to 1948 he
other. The Everson was followed in 1973 by the
served as an assistant professor in the Graduate
Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell Uni-
School of Design at Harvard University, from
versity, a concrete tower that takes advantage of its
which he received his master of architecture de-
hillside setting, cantilevered to provide sweeping
gree in 1946, after studying with the Bauhaus
views over Cayuga Lake. In 1979 his art gallery for
teachers Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer. It was
Indiana University in Bloomington was opened,
Breuer who exerted the stronger influence on him,
followed in 1980 by his West Wing addition to the
Pei has recalled, "particularly his interest in light,
Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
texture, sun, and shadow"-a lasting influence that
The success of Pei's design for a huge steel-and-
was first noted in the timber house with glass sky-
glass domestic carrier terminal at the John F. Ken-
light and partitions that Pei built for himself in Ka-
nedy International Airport in New York City (1970)
tonah, New York in 1952. With its inner core
makes an interesting logistic and aesthetic contrast
completely enveloped by a screened porch, it is
with the John Hancock building in Boston, which
drenched in sun and shadow.
was constructed three years later. The sixty-story
In 1948 Pei came to the attention of William
office building was sheathed in double-layered
Zeckendorf, the head of the real-estate firm Webb
blue-green glass, designed to mirror and blend in
& Knapp. He joined the New York company as di-
with the nineteenth-century buildings in historic
rector of its architectural division, which was en-
Copley Square below. Even before it was complet-
trusted with the design of multipurpose urban
ed, the Hancock building's windowpanes began to
complexes, generally in connection with slum-
fall out repeatedly, and it was some time before
clearance programs, that would integrate commer-
faulty manufacture was found to be the reason and
cial and residential structures with open plazas.
suit was brought against the glass company.
Conceived within strict budget limitations, Pei's
Throughout what is considered to be one of the
buildings were characterized by what he termed
most complex architectural liability cases ever
their "unified building envelope expression," since
prosecuted, Pei had to share the responsibility,
he saw "no need to express an arbitrary variety on
even though the design was actually the work of
the façade of [a building] designed for a multiple
one of his partners, Henry N. Cobb. Coupled with
and transient tenancy."
a building recession, the case almost spelled disas-
Pei's commitment to those principles continued
ter for his firm in the mid-1970s. According to Pei,
after 1955, when he established his own firm, I. M.
it was "mainly commissions abroad that kept [the
Pei & Associates, shortly thereafter renamed I. M.
firm] alive."
Pei & Partners. Webb & Knapp, which he retained
Pei's image soon revived, however, with his East
as a client, provided important commissions. Espe-
Building annex to the National Gallery of Art in
cially acclaimed among the early urban projects of
Washington, D.C., which opened to the public in
the Pei group are the Mile High Center in Denver
1978 to enormous acclaim. Commissioned in 1968,
(1955); the Place Ville-Marie in Montreal (1961);
it was built at a cost of about $94 million that was
the Kips Bay Plaza apartments and commercial
underwritten by the Mellon family. Its striking de-
spaces on Manhattan's East Side (1962); and the
sign makes optimum use of the difficult trapezoidal
Society Hill project in the area adjoining Indepen-
plot on which it is sited, directly across from the
dence Hall in Philadelphia (1964).
main building. Two triangles, sheathed in the same
Toward the mid-1960s Pei's "repressed taste for
pink marble as the older structure and, at the me-
drama," as one writer termed it, began to break
ticulous architect's insistence, quarried from the
loose, manifesting itself in a diversity of single-
same Tennessee site, are connected by an enor-
purpose structures. Among them is the Henry R.
mous skylight that bathes the atrium lobby in natu-
Luce Foundation Chapel in Taiwan (1963), featur-
ral light. Inside, triangular columns, vaulted
ing curved (and therefore typhoon-proof) walls
ceilings, hexagonal and octagonal galleries, and
that slope up to enclose a soaring, yet intimate,
the tetrahedonal skylight tease the eye (in the opin-
496
CURRENT BIOGRAPHY YEARBOOK 1990
PEI
i's National Center for Atmospher-
ion of some critics, too relentlessly) with variations
determines only the basic design concept for com-
Boulder, Colorado (1967), regarded
on the geometric theme.
missions undertaken by his firm, but he was so
of [his] national emergence as an
The whole structure is in the greatest contrast to
"elated" by the challenges of the Chinese project
writer for the Christian Science
the Beaux Arts bulk and symmetry of the original
that he involved himself in every stage of the work.
y 12, 1979), is a grouping of ele-
building-a dramatic juxtaposition that still pro-
The first wing of the hotel was opened in October
ic forms: reddish brown concrete
vokes debate among casual observers and writers
1982, before a gathering of Chinese and American
ally silhouetted against the distant
on architecture alike. As to its merits on its own
dignitaries and friends, including Jacqueline Onas-
as. Reportedly, the design was in-
terms, the art critic Robert Hughes concluded in
sis.
ly by Anasazi Indian pueblos but
Time magazine (June 5, 1978) that if the lobby,
In April 1979, after a decade of political wran-
itecture of the contemporary that
which is a gathering and dispersal point capable of
gling over sites and plans, I. M. Pei & Partners were
d, Louis I. Kahn.
handling vast crowds, provides "a sense of grand
picked to design a convention center for a five-
Museum of Art in Syracuse, New
occasion," in the gallery spaces adjoining it
block site on the far West Side of Manhattan. It was
he first of the series of museum
"nothing
interferes with the job in hand: to
Pei's first major civic project in the city where he
hich Pei has become especially
display works of art in tranquility."
has spent most of his professional life. Aside from
ur separate galleries, of different
According to some commentators, the watershed
a five-year deadline and restraints imposed by a
ered out over a podium, are joined
in Pei's career came in 1964, when the then rela-
budget that had to cover land acquisition, demoli-
ead visitors from one level to an-
tively unknown architect won the commission to
tion, and financing costs as well as architects' fees,
son was followed in 1973 by the
design a library at Harvard for President John F.
the firm faced the problem of humanizing the im-
on Museum of Art at Cornell Uni-
Kennedy's books and papers. No formal design
mense proportions of what was billed as the largest
te tower that takes advantage of its
competition was held, and, in fact, Pei has always
exposition space under one roof in the United
cantilevered to provide sweeping
refused to enter such competitions. He was chosen
States. Pei's partner James Ingo Freed is credited
ga Lake. In 1979 his art gallery for
by the president's widow, who is acknowledged to
with the solution: the 1.8-million-square-foot mass
sity in Bloomington was opened,
be a person of demanding and unpredictable tastes
is broken up into a main exhibition hall and such
by his West Wing addition to the
and who had considered, among others, Mies van
smaller ancillary spaces as meeting rooms, public
of Fine Arts.
der Rohe, Louis I. Kahn, and Philip Johnson for the
areas, and restaurants. The exterior is softened by
Pei's design for a huge steel-and-
job. It has been rumored that Pei's strategy, taking
a sheathing of reflecting glass and given scale by
rrier terminal at the John F. Ken-
into account his potential client's preferences in
notches and doorways that break the expanse at
al Airport in New York City (1970)
decor, was to repaint his office completely in white
regular intervals. Officially named the Jacob K.
ting logistic and aesthetic contrast
and strip it of all decoration except an enormous
Javits Convention Center, it was opened, two years
ancock building in Boston, which
vase of flowers. Fifteen years later, after plans and
behind schedule, in 1986.
three years later. The sixty-story
locations had been changed many times, the John
Three years earlier Pei had been personally
was sheathed in double-layered
F. Kennedy Library was opened in Dorchester, on
chosen by French president François Mitterrand to
designed to mirror and blend in
a site that slopes down to Boston Harbor. A com-
embark on the first phase of a series of extensions
nth-century buildings in historic
plex of rectangular, triangular, and cylindrical
to and renovations of the Louvre to provide much-
elow. Even before it was complet-
wings in glass and whitewashed concrete, Pei's
needed curatorial offices and storage and conser-
building's windowpanes began to
building is one "of integrity and grace," according
vation facilities as well as shops, restaurants, and
lly, and it was some time before
to the New York Times architecture critic Ada
public parking, or, as Paul Goldberger put it, "a
re was found to be the reason and
Louise Huxtable. Seen from different approaches,
large and efficient machine for the handling of
ht against the glass company.
it changes its shape and form in a kind of three-
crowds and the merchandising of art." No design
is considered to be one of the
dimensional metaphor for the unfulfilled promise
competition or submission of bids was involved.
rchitectural liability cases ever
of John F. Kennedy's administration.
Underlying the doubts about the aesthetic right-
had to share the responsibility,
In 1979, the year of the library's opening, I. M.
ness of Pei's concept of a glass pyramid entrance
design was actually the work of
Pei received the Gold Medal of the American Insti-
was the perception that Mitterrand had exercised
TS, Henry N. Cobb. Coupled with
tute of Architects, its highest award. He also began
a form of cultural despotism by imposing the work
on, the case almost spelled disas-
work on a hotel proposed by the municipal authori-
of a foreigner on a venerated national monument.
the mid-1970s. According to Pei,
ties of Beijing to accommodate the new influx of
Defending his design, Pei pointed out that "the pyr-
ommissions abroad that kept [the
tourists. Rejecting a suggestion made the year be-
amid is the most structurally stable of forms" and
fore that he construct a modern skyscraper in the
that glass would not hide the old facades. Built at
on revived, however, with his East
downtown area because he felt such a building
a cost of some $330 million, the four-sided struc-
0 the National Gallery of Art in
would be out of keeping with the scale and spirit
ture, trussed with thin steel cables, rises 70.5 feet
which opened to the public in
of the city, he chose instead wooded slopes several
from the middle of the Cour Napoléon over an es-
acclaim. Commissioned in 1968,
miles out of town on which to site the relatively
calator and an elaborate spiral staircase that take
lost of about $94 million that was
small Fragrant Hill (Xiangshan) Hotel. A unique
visitors to a lobby below. From there, access to the
the Mellon family. Its striking de-
synthesis of technologies and styles, the hotel com-
galleries is provided by corridors that are lit from
um use of the difficult trapezoidal
prises four low wings, built around formal Chinese
above by the main pyramid and three smaller py-
is sited, directly across from the
courtyards, that zigzag out from a central four-story
ramidons.
VO triangles, sheathed in the same
building with a glass-and-steel atrium lobby. Room
The art critic John Russell, writing in the New
e older structure and, at the me-
appointments are Western in style, and exteriors
York Times (March 21, 1988), praised the "aerial
's insistence, quarried from the
are of traditional Chinese brick and white stucco,
delicacy" of the entrance and the efficiency of the
site, are connected by an enor-
ornamented by gray tiles. Eschewing both the sleek
new spatial organization below ground. Paul Gold-
bathes the atrium lobby in natu-
modernism favored by developing nations and the
berger, also writing in the New York Times (March
triangular columns, vaulted
formality of Chinese palace and temple architec-
29, 1989), on the occasion of the public opening,
al and octagonal galleries, and
ture, Pei evoked the vernacular tradition of mer-
somewhat reversed his earlier doubts and found
kylight tease the eye (in the opin-
chant-class mansions. The architect usually
the pyramid to be "an exquisite object;
an ele-
1990 CURRENT BIOGRAPHY YEARBOOK
497
PEI
gant abstraction" afloat in its setting of reflecting
Pei planned to return to Hong Kong later in 1989
pools and fountains. Taking a contrary stance, the
to "finish quietly" some details of the work, despite
travel writer and critic Olivier Bernier expressed
his alienation from the present Chinese govern-
his disappointment in the New York Times (Octo-
ment. In a rare expression of his political views that
ber 8, 1989) over the dirtiness that often afflicts the
appeared on the Op-Ed page of the New York
glass, the long waits in the open courtyard while
Times (June 22, 1989), Pei declared that the massa-
the crowds funnel down through the entrance, and
cre in Tiananmen Square had dashed hopes for a
the less than direct access to certain galleries. In
more open Chinese society and, on the personal
any event, however, Pei's pyramid is now accepted
side, might well prevent his ever working in his
enthusiastically by Parisians.
homeland again.
In 1989 Pei became one of the recipients of the
In September 1989 the name of Pei's firm was
newly established $100,000 Praemium Imperiale,
changed to Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, reflecting
an international award given by the Japan Art As-
the contributions of his two longtime associates.
sociation that has been hailed as the equivalent of
"I'm passing the baton to a younger generation
a Nobel Prize recognizing lifetime achievement in
while I can still help them," the senior partner has
the arts. In September of the same year, another
explained. Pei's reduced role will allow him to
Pei structure, the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony
work on smaller projects that afford him a special
Center in Dallas, Texas, formally opened. Pei's
personal pleasure, ranging from a bell tower for a
first-ever design for a concert hall, that building,
Buddhist temple in Japan to the Rock-'n'-Roll Hall
too, had provoked a protracted and bitter political
of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio. The latter is currently
controversy, in this case over financing. Always
envisaged as a 200-foot tower rising above a large
pragmatic, Pei strove to accommodate his design
tent-shaped glass atrium-a design to capture "the
concept to the requirements of the acoustical engi-
energy
and the spontaneity of the music."
neer, which he frequently disputed, and to the de-
Other future work includes the second phase of the
mands of the shallow building site.
Louvre project and a Japanese-backed multimil-
The limestone building is a rectangular
lion-dollar hotel in New York that might vie for the
"shoe-box" shape, but Pei has surrounded it with
distinction of being the city's most luxurious.
swooping curves of glass so that, in his words,
I. M. Pei is a member of the American Academy
"everything begins to dance around the box."
and Institute of Arts and Letters, an honorary fel-
Light-filled during the day, at night the building
low of the Royal Institute of British Architects, a
casts light outside. In contrast to the austere gran-
foreign associate of the Institut de France, and a
deur of the enormous lobby, the auditorium is inti-
chevalier of the French Legion of Honor. In 1983
mate in scale and warm in tone. Its mix of
he became the fifth recipient of the international
Pritzker Award for architectural excellence. Car-
limestone and onyx with wall paneling of cherry
and African makore wood evokes for the designer
rying his distinctions lightly, Pei maintains a mod-
the richness and rigor of a violin's tone. The huge
est outward manner that is quietly self-assured.
disc-shaped acoustical canopy suspended over the
His small, compact frame remains trim, and his
stage, compared by some irreverent observers to a
hair is only touched with gray. His round, black-
flying saucer, can be raised or lowered as the music
rimmed glasses frame a somewhat impassive gaze
demands. Postmodernist critics who fault many of
that readily gives way to a jovial smile, and he is
Pei's works for their detachment from their urban
always impeccably tailored. Interviewers describe
settings describe "the Mort," too, as a purely sculp-
him as being warm and patient and as living up to
his reputation for charm and charisma, helping to
tural monument, aloof from the city, at the edge of
downtown Dallas.
explain why he has become the center of a wide
circle of friends among the international cultural
Two other Pei buildings, serving very different
elite.
needs, opened in 1989. One was the Beverly Hills
In 1942 Pei married the former Eileen Loo, the
headquarters of Creative Artists Agency, one of
daughter of another prominent Chinese family,
Hollywood's top talent agencies. For its triangular
which had sent her to be educated in the United
plot, Pei designed a dazzling building with curved
States. They have three sons: T'ing Chung, a real-
façades of stone and glass, surmounted by a fan-
estate developer, and Chien Chung ("Didi") and Li
shaped skylight over the characteristic atrium lob-
Chung ("Sandi"), who are members of their father's
by. The other was the seventy-story Bank of China
firm. Their youngest child and only daughter, Li-
office tower in Hong Kong-the tallest building
ane, is an attorney. Although traditional in their re-
outside the United States. (Neatly rounding out the
gard for family ties, Pei and his wife were SO
human-interest angle of the story, it was Pei's fa-
determined to become Americanized that they re-
ther who had originally founded that branch of the
fused to teach their children Chinese. Their New
mainland bank.) Composed of gigantic triangles of
York town house on fashionable Sutton Place is
glass and steel that seem to twist skyward at differ-
furnished with quiet elegance; against its stark
ent angles, it is "as Western as any building," the
white walls, a collection of contemporary paintings
architect has asserted. While that may be suitable
and sculpture is shown to advantage. Constant
for that crossroads metropolis, it has been pointed
travel to confer with far-flung clients now inter-
out that the triangle is a motif taboo to traditional
feres with the Peis' favored diversion, museum-
Chinese architecture.
going, but they still manage to keep up with the sea-
498
CURRENT BIOGRAPHY YEARBOOK 1990