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Vol. XIX No. 5 February 2004 |
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 Dear Editor: Please thank David Wallace for his article in the October issue describing Mark O'Connor's fiddle camp. His article captured the camp's palpable creativity and the musical epiphany that often overcomes its fiddlers and violinists, regardless of genre. My 13-year-old daughter and I have attended the Nashville camp for the past four years, and in 2002, my camp highlight was playing an impromptu duet with David Wallace on the "Westphalia Waltz" during his class. The open and inclusive teaching approach described by Mr. Wallace repeatedly proves valuable to professional and amateur musicians of all levels of experience, and many camp alumni owe Mark O'Connor a debt of gratitude for creating and maintaining this unique endeavor.
Sam Orbovich St. Paul, Minn.
Dear Editor: How splendid it was to see the article "Organ Outreach" in your November issue! One of Bryan Lohr's questions put to Craig Whitney was, "What can be done to get the organ enthusiasm to what it was, say, 50 years ago?" Which brings me to the reason for writing to you. Fifty-seven years ago, I entered Juilliard as an organ major like many others on the G.I. Bill. I studied organ with David McK. Williams, anthem accompaniment with Vernon de Tar, and keyboard harmony with Harold Friedell—all on the faculty! When David McK. retired, I was assigned to Lilian Carpenter to complete organ study. Of course, we were a much larger group in the organ department than now. Perhaps 30 or 40—I really don't know how many! In any event, after a lifetime career as an organist and choirmaster, I am now retired. But while active, I was the dean of a N.J. chapter of the American Guild of Organists for some 20 years, and rectors, ministers, and church vestries would call me and ask what guidelines they should follow to establish a fair salary for an organist and choirmaster. As Craig Whitney said, "I would raise their salaries in churches." Quite so, but I used to tell inquiring churches to consider as a base 10 percent of their total operating budget as the minimum salary–plus teaching privileges on the premises, plus inclusion in a health-care plan. Sometimes , it worked! Two things are quite clear, however. One is that no person will get rich as an organist and choir director. The other is this: Being a church musician is really a professional "calling," much as is teaching or the priesthood. I agree with Craig Whitney when he said organists should persevere against all odds and fight the good fight! Hopefully, we can rediscover the King of Instruments.
Robert Hazen (DIP '50, organ)Jamesburg, N.J.
Dear Editor: Through all these many years you've persisted in sending me The Juilliard Journal, which I've only glanced at in search of a few familiar names and tossed aside with a sense of "what has all that to do with me?" I was only there one winter season in the Dance Division—merely an interim experience.I came to Juilliard from an insular ballet background, and of course was delighted to work intensively with Margaret Craske and Antony Tudor. But I also encountered José Limón, Martha Hill, and fellow student Joyce Trisler, among others, who, as artists, mentors, and friends, introduced me to a world I'd always considered myself temperamentally and physically unsuited to: modern dance. The experience allowed me to move on (at 32) to a second career as a designer—mostly in the modern field. The Juilliard curriculum was also a factor: I wrote my first comments on the dance experience in a sociology class, and the agony of dance notation clarified what I valued most about it: the magic between the symbols that cannot be documented or understood. Recently I've completed 15 years of research and writing, culminating in the publication of a book co-authored with Nancy Reynolds called No Fixed Points. It is a history of dance in the 20th century in which my chapters describe the evolution of modern dance and its merging with ballet. I would like very much to acknowledge that my part in this project is the fruit of that "interim experience" at Juilliard, by being included in your pages.
Malcolm McCormick ('57, dance)Canton, N.Y.
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