Fernando Laires
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Founded in 1964 Volume 32, Number 2 Founded in 1964 Volume 32, Number 2 Founded in 1964 Volume 32, Number 2 An officiIn AMemoriam:l publicAtion of the AmericFernandoAn liszt society, Laires inc. TABLE OF CONTENTS 3 January 1925 – 9 September 2016 1 In Memoriam: Fernando Laires In Memoriam: Fernando Laires TABLE OF CONTENTS 3 January 1925 – 9 September 2016 2 President's Message In Memoriam: Fernando Laires TABLE OF CONTENTS 3 January 1925 – 9 September 2016 31 LetterIn Memoriam: from the FernandoEditor Laires 1 42In Memoriam:"APresident's Tribute toMessage Fernando Fernando Laires Laires," by Nancy Lee Harper 2 3President's Letter from Message the Editor 5 More Tributes to Fernando Laires 3 4Letter "A fromTribute the to Editor Fernando Laires," 7 Membershipby Nancy Lee Updates, Harper Etc. 4 "A Tribute to Fernando Laires," 85by NancyInvitationMore TributesLee to Harper the to 2017 Fernando ALS FestivalLaires in Evanston/Chicago 5 7More Membership Tributes to Updates, Fernando Etc. Laires 10 "Los Angeles International Liszt Competition Overview" 7 8Membership byInvitation Éva Polgár Updates, to the 2017 Etc. ALS Festival in Evanston/Chicago 8 InvitationIn Memoriam to the 2017 ALS Festival in Evanston/Chicago 10 JALS"Los AngelesUpdate International Liszt Competition Overview" 10 "Losby Angeles Éva Polgár International Liszt 11 Competition Chapter News Overview" In Memoriam by Éva Polgár 12 Member News In MemoriamJALS Update 1511JALS FacsimileChapter Update News Frontispiece of Liszt's "Dante" Symphony Fernando Laires with his wife and fellow pianist, Nelita True, in 2005. Photo: Rochester NY Democrat & Chronicle Staff Photographer Carlos Ortiz: http://www. 11 12Chapter Member News News democratandchronicle.com/story/lifestyle/music/2016/10/02/fernando-laires-eastman-liszt- 16 Picture Page obituary/91266512, accessed on November 12, 2016. Photo supplied by Nancy Lee 12 Member News Harper. Please see Dr. Harper's tribute to Fernando Laires on page four. and additional 15 Facsimile Frontispiece of Liszt's tributes beginning on page five. "Dante" Symphony Fernando Laires with his wife and fellow pianist, Nelita True, in 2005. Photo: Perpetuating the ideas of Rochester NY Democrat & Chronicle Staff Photographer Carlos Ortiz: http://www. 15 FacsimileFranz FrontispieceLiszt through excellence of Liszt's in democratandchronicle.com/story/lifestyle/music/2016/10/02/fernando-laires-eastman-liszt- 16"Dante" Picturemusic Symphony performance Page and scholarship Fernando Laires with his wife and fellow pianist, Nelita True, in 2005. Photo: Rochesterobituary/91266512 NY Democrat, accessed & Chronicle on NovemberStaff Photographer 12, 2016. Carlos Photo Ortiz: supplied http://www. by Nancy Lee democratandchronicle.com/story/lifestyle/music/2016/10/02/fernando-laires-eastman-liszt-Harper. Please see Dr. Harper's tribute to Fernando Laires on page four. and additional 16 Picture Page obituary/91266512tributes beginning, accessed on page on five. November 12, 2016. Photo supplied by Nancy Lee Perpetuating the ideas of Harper. Please see Dr. Harper's tribute to Fernando Laires on page four. and additional Franz Liszt through excellence in tributes beginning on page five. music performance and scholarship Perpetuating the ideas of Franz Liszt through excellence in music performance and scholarship PRESIDENT Jay Hershberger* President's Message Concordia College Music Department Moorhead, MN 56562 [email protected] VICE PRESIDENT Alexandre Dossin* University of Oregon School of Music and Dance Eugene, OR 97403-1225 [email protected] EXECUTIVE SECRETARY Justin Kolb* 1136 Hog Mountain Road Dear Fellow Lisztians, Fleischmanns, NY 12430 [email protected] I cannot think of the late Fernando Laires without reminiscing about his generous devotion to MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY students wherever he encountered them. Such was my own experience with him as a piano major Alexander Djordjevic* PO Box 1020 in Oklahoma. Fernando had traveled to the University of Tulsa to participate in the inaugural Wheaton, IL 60187-1020 Liszt Festival of the local chapter there where I was a student. Not only did I have the privilege of [email protected] hearing him play for the first time - his playing was awe-inspiring, a veritable feast of aristocratic TREASURER music making in the grand tradition - but I also was fortunate to play for him the Ballade No. 2 in Daniel Paul Horn* B minor by Liszt in the festival master class. I still have his notes, and whenever I review them the The American Liszt Society memory of that encounter comes flooding back with surprising clarity. Even more, Fernando PO Box 1020 Wheaton, IL 60187-1020 agreed to meet with me privately to visit about music making, career, and life in general. This was [email protected] above and beyond anything I could have imagined at the time, though looking back, it was part and parcel of Fernando’s commitment to passing on to the next generations his love for music and ALS JOURNAL Jonathan Kregor, Editor musicians. Mary Emery Hall Room 4240 I visited him at a private home where he was a guest during the festival. We sat in the living Cincinnati College-Conservatory room and I peppered him with questions, full of youthful enthusiasm and perhaps a fair bit PO Box 210003 Cincinnati OH 45221-0003 of naiveté. He treated me with great respect. Fernando’s answers were drawn from his own [email protected] experience with Isidor Phillip, the rich cultural environments he himself inhabited as a young man, and his own seasoned abilities as an artist/teacher of young musicians. He spoke to me ALS NEWSLETTER/WEBSITE Edward Rath, Editor/Webmaster* about the importance of the Lisztian ideal of immersing one’s self in all aspects of cultural life: 2603 Coppertree Road art, literature, poetry, architecture, theatre, and the humanities beyond the arts. He encouraged Champaign, IL 61822-7518 me to know the entire oeuvre of a composer’s output when studying an individual piece. He [email protected] offered practical advice about practicing, sight-reading, and ways to maintain one’s motivation BOARD OF DIRECTORS and discipline. He spoke about the necessity of live performances in the shaping and formation Joseph Banowetz of one’s own artistic image. His interest in me as a person was genuine, reflected in his own Paul Barnes Luiz de Moura Castro questions to me about my life, my family, and my aspirations. It was an afternoon that I have Alexander Djordjevic* never forgotten, and ten years later, when we met again, he remembered our time together that Gabriel Dobner afternoon, and he treated me as if we were old friends renewing our acquaintance after many years. Alexandre Dossin* Gila Goldstein Such was Fernando Laires. And such are the principal ideals of The American Liszt Society Jay Hershberger* that embody Fernando’s own vision as one of its chief founders. I am grateful for his tireless Daniel Horn* commitment to The American Liszt Society over the decades, as I am grateful for his successor, Geraldine Keeling Jonathan Kregor the late Thomas Mastroianni, whose own deep devotion to those same ideals was drawn in part Barbara Mellon Kolb from Fernando’s vision and dedication. In a world that seems filled with the banal, the trivial, and Justin Kolb* so much cultural ugliness, artistic organizations like The American Liszt Society play a vital role in Elyse J. Mach Ksenia Nosikova fleshing out Dostoevsky’s famous observation that beauty will save the world. Our task, as artistic Edward Rath* descendants of Fernando Laires, is to follow hard after his example. Nancy Roldán To that end, I invite all of you to attend the next ALS festival, April 28 - 30 at Northwestern Steven Spooner Helen Smith Tarchalski University in Evanston, Illinois. Festival director Dr. James Giles has assembled a marvelous Alan Walker roster of artists and scholars. This festival promises to carry on the festival tradition established by William Wellborn Fernando Laires, and reflected in so many of the recent festivals those in attendance have enjoyed. Richard Zimdars I hope to see each of you there. *Member, Executive Committee Excelsior! In Memoriam: Fernando Laires www.americanlisztsociety.net Jay Hershberger, President 2 The American Liszt Society - www.americanlisztsociety.net Letter from the Editor Happy New Year! May 2017 bring much needed peace to the world and especially in your lives! I have long admired Pablo Casals as having been a humanitarian, teacher, champion of the downtrodden, superb cellist, and author. With regard to the latter, his biography, Joys and Sorrows, is one of the most highly praised volumes when one reads reviews and reactions by contributors of all ages and from all walks of life. The title provides, I think, an immediate overview of what the reader may expect. And it encapsulates my feelings as I think of Fernando Laires. For me, however, I would reverse the words in Casals' title to read, "Sorrows and Joys": the sorrows come from the music world's loss of a great contributor to music, pedagogy, and performance, along with my personal sorrow in not having gotten to know Fernando better. He and I collaborated on an article for this newsletter, after our having met at the 2006 festival in Athens, Georgia. The joys, however, have come from reading the many comments and reminiscences that many of our members have provided for this special memorial edition of the The American Liszt Society Newsletter. It would be presumptuous for me to pick and choose various quotes from such statements, so they are included below more or less verbatim. I would, however, like to focus on one contribution, that from President Jay Hershberger in his "President's Message" on the opposite page: In a world that seems filled with the banal, the trivial, and so much cultural ugliness, artistic organizations like The American Liszt Society play a vital role in fleshing out Dostoevsky’s famous observation that beauty will save the world.