Classical Music
Ben McKlveen had a very colorful life as a service man during World War II and a piano technician who cared for the instruments of many top performers and orchestras. He played oboe in the military band before serving in George Patton’s Third Army and traveled straight across Germany with Patton....
Stanley Leonard, the principal timpanist emeritus for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, was interviewed during PASIC 2010 on the very day he was inducted into the PAS Hall of Fame. It was an exciting day and Stanley expressed his gratitude for the honor. He also recalled his life in music,...
Neil Grover was playing percussion in the Boston Symphony Orchestra when he discovered a bright and unique triangle. When he bought a new triangle he realized it was nothing like that of the symphony and thus started a quest to find, produce and play the perfect triangle. Along the way, quite by...
Michael Udow served as principal percussionist with the Santa Fe Opera from 1968 until his retirement in 2009. His work with Keiko Abe in Japan as part of Summit Brass, Equilibrium and the seasons with the Michigan Symphony Band have been widely regarded within the world of percussion. Michael’s...
Beverly Grigsby was enrolled in medical school in Los Angeles when on the way home from class one day she stopped into a small music studio. There she met electronic composer Ernst Krenek who would later become her mentor after she decided to drop out of medical school and focus on becoming an...
Charlotte Atkinson is an organist extraordinaire! Showing an aptitude for music early on, Charlotte continued with formal education earning Bachelor and Masters degrees in music. At San Diego State University, she first met her husband, William, in Howard Brubeck's theory class. In her junior year...
John Kozar is the founder of Piano Productions Press in Philadelphia. This music publishing company was formed to release the works of the First Piano Quartet, which began broadcasting a 20-minute radio program in the 1940s that ran for 12 years. The amazing output of the quartet were mostly based...
Imero Fiorentino was considered by many the father of pro-lighting! He began his career just as television was coming into its own in the early 1950s. He worked on live broadcast with new cameras that were not tested with many light sources, causing more than a few issues to correct. Many of the...
Gladys Krenek was married to the world-renowned composer Ernst Krenek from 1950 until his passing in 1991. Like many women married to noted artists of that era, Gladys’ own remarkable life in music has been largely overlooked. In addition to being a composer in her own right, she played trumpet in...
Jim Hughart was born into a family of professional musicians and is proud of the many musical experiences he had growing up in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Right after graduation from the University of Minnesota with a Bachelor’s degree in Music Theory, Jim was drafted into the Army. For two years, he...