BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//wp-events-plugin.com//7.2.3.1//EN TZID:America/New_York X-WR-TIMEZONE:America/New_York BEGIN:VEVENT UID:270@bluehillpeninsula.org DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20151230T200000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20151230T200000 DTSTAMP:20151231T140754Z URL:https://bluehillpeninsula.org/events/tribute-to-kneisel-hall-artistic- director-seymour-lipkin/ SUMMARY:Tribute to Kneisel Hall artistic director Seymour Lipkin DESCRIPTION:On Wednesday\, December 30th at 8:00 p.m. Maine Public Radio (w ww.mpbn.net) will air a one-hour tribute to the memory of Artistic Directo r Seymour Lipkin. We thank Robin Rilette and Barry Darling for the program . In Maine turn on your radio and in the rest of the world turn on your co mputer: www.mpbn.net.\nThe program will include:\nSchubert: Sonata for pia no Four Hands\; Lipkin\, Jane Coop (Kneisel Hall July 7\, 2013)\nRachmanin off: Sonata for Cello and Piano\; Lipkin\, Dmitry Kouzov (Kneisel Hall Jul y 15\, 2013)\nMozart: Piano concerto No. 27\, K. 595\; Lipkin\, Midsummer Mozart Orchestra (San Francisco July 26\, ‘15\n\nSeymour Lipkin\, Born 1 927\, Detroit\, Mi.\, died Mon\, Nov. 16 2015\, Blue Hill\, Me. He was a p ianist\, conductor\, teacher\, musical collaborator\, and for 29 years\, A rtistic Director of the Kneisel Hall Chamber Music School and Festival in Blue Hill\; which\, at his death\, he had conveyed to the very pinnacle of American musical life.  He was a pianist prized for the purity\, clarity and humility of his performances. Never indulging in device or grand gest ure\, he employed his intelligence\, introspection and discipline to illum inate the shape and architecture of the music he played\, paring away extr aneous mannerism to make clear the line in the music\, drawing the listene r along. Because his playing was so free from artifice or additional ‘fl uff’\, one would suddenly hear the composer’s (and the music’s) purp ose\, often making even pieces that might be familiar\, more alive and ava ilable to be understood.\n\nA diminutive\, somewhat spare man\, he quietly \, over years of un-flamboyant dedication in teaching and performance\, at tained a standing of pre-eminent respect – reverence even\, among both h is colleagues and the musical community at large.  It was typical of his concerts that they should be as populated by fellow musicians as by member s of the general public.  He enjoyed a spectacular early career. A studen t of Rudolf Serkin and Miecyslaw Horzowski at the Curtis Institute in Phil adelphia\, at 17 he was selected to accompany the famous violinist Jascha Heifetz on a USO tour during the second world war\, two years later winnin g the Rachmaninof Prize\, a national piano competition adjudicated by Vlad imir Horowitz\, which earned him debut performances with all the major Ame rican symphony orchestras. However\, he did not appear to seek the large-s cale public prominence that these beginnings offered. His parallel interes t in conducting led him first to an apprenticeship under George Szell at t he Cleveland orchestra\, followed by a position as Assistant Conductor at the New York Philharmonic. Ultimately this interest\, and his frustrations with the shortcomings of the piano as an insufficiently lyrical instrumen t\, led him to put aside performing for twenty years\, serving in that per iod as Conductor of the Joffrey Ballet and the Long Island Symphony Orches tra.\n\nHe returned to performance in 1981\, joining the faculty of The Ju illiard School and assuming the Directorship of Kneisel Hall in 1987\, hav ing earlier been appointed to the faculty at Curtis as well as teaching at a series of other music schools. Lipkin’s exacting standards\, and the quality he sought\, created a demanding framework.  Not\, however\, a pit iless demand for abstract perfection\, but an insistence that musicians pl ay with engagement\, honestly and without self-indulgence\, attentive to h earing both colleagues and themselves\, attending tirelessly to details\, however minute or thankless.  He liked to refer to a story perhaps reveal ing of his own attitudes\, which involved the tyrannical conductor Arturo Toscanini. A psychiatrist and amateur musician was asked after attending a rehearsal where the conductor had been particularly difficult “But why do the musicians take it? Why don’t they just walk out?”  The psychia trist answered “Because he doesn’t do it for himself”.  This was ep igrammatic of Mr. Lipkin. His approach to music making was selfless\, his adherence to musical ideals quite unrelated to questions of ego or career. He would tell students\, “We become the greatness of the composer we ar e dealing with”\, in this one statement both encouraging the student\, a nd shining the light on the composer\, deflecting the attention from the p erformer.\n\nHis rigor was applied in far greater measure to himself than to students or colleagues. In the hours before every single faculty perfor mance at Kneisel Hall\, students on the campus would hear his preparations \, a methodical march through a series of finger-exercises of his own devi sing  - simple and maddeningly dull-sounding patterns which he used to fo ster control of the individual muscles of the hands and arms. Generally mu sicians before a performance will be heard playing and re-playing all the most demanding passages in the music to be played. Lipkin\, instead\, fait hfully adhered to this routine – before every single concert. His specia l ire was reserved for young pianists who\, in the heat of performance\, m ight play with too much self-involvement (and volume)\, not listening or d eferring to their colleagues.  In avoiding this himself\, Mr. Lipkin desi gned a lower music stand for the piano\, which though it made reading the score more difficult (and turning his pages a terror)\, blocked less sound \, so he might more accurately gauge his interaction with fellow performer s.\nIn 1995\, after a first marriage\, he met and later married Ellen Wern er\, who became his partner in guiding the development of Kneisel Hall. He is further survived by his son from his first marriage Jonathan and wife Danae Oratowski\, stepchildren Daniel Walker (Melisa)\, Benjamin Walker (J ennifer)\, Sarah Hodges (Curtis)\, grandchildren Sophia Lipkin\, Eve Lipki n\, Louis Walker\, Harry Walker\, Melina Walker and niece Claire Schwarz ( Mark Zdziarski).\n\nOne might easily misunderstand the determination with which Lipkin addressed what he saw as his duty as a musician. It was somet imes joked that his only manifested weakness was a fondness for cookies\, in particular New York style Black-and-Whites.  He could appear unswervin g\, unrelenting or sometimes\, fierce. In fact\, the dedication with which he addressed himself to his craft was in service to his absolute delight in the music he played\, a joyous liveliness in all his performances\, whi ch inspired generations of both colleagues and students\, and allowed that music to remain relevant in a much-changed world.\n\n--- H. Max Treitler END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York X-LIC-LOCATION:America/New_York BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20151101T010000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR