L-R - Alice Harnell,
Judy Drucker, Van Cliburn,
John Williams, Joe Harnell
|
Summer 2000
We arrived home in L.A. and
wanted all of you to know what's been going on in our lives. After
the two recent sold-out concerts (May 14th at the Beverly Hills
Library and July 27th at the Jazz Spot). Alice and I flew to New
York to celebrate and re-connect with some good friends, among
them Mike and Martha (Wright) Manuche. Martha had taken over the
Mary Martin role in SOUTH PACIFIC, which she performed for three
years and then became a star herself. I worked and toured with
her as musical director, and we made several albums together.
She's a lovely lady and still sings great! We saw some shows,
ate some wonderful food and enjoyed, as always the "New York
experience."
We then drove up to Lenox, Massachusetts
to Tanglewood where I studied composition, orchestration and conducting
for four summers in the late 1940's and early '50's with Aaron
Copland, Leonard
L-R - Joe Harnell,
Van Cliburn, Alice Harnell
|
Bernstein and Serge Koussevitsky. I had the chance
to re-live some of the memorable moments I spent there as a young
man and even saw the tree under which I would sit and study (or
dream).
We went to concerts given
by Van Cliburn, Daniel Barenboim, John Williams, Seiji Ozawa and
more. We were invited to the rehearsals which were even more fun
than the actual performances, as we could sit in the first row
and listen not only to the music but the alterations (re: tempo,
dynamics, and other nuances) suggested by the conductor to the
orchestra.
More |
