Music has been an important part of my life and remains so to this day.

FAMILY BACKGROUND

My grandmother Rose was a pianist as were four of her sisters; the fifth was an opera singer.  My mother was both a performing coloratura soprano and fine pianist.  She took me to Chicago Symphony Orchestra youth concerts before I was old enough to appreciate them.  My brother Milton took violin lessons for nine years, starting around age 5.  His teacher was Eugene Addison, a member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.  My brother Charles, despite having lost his left arm to the shoulder at the age of 2½ from falling out of a moving automobile, played trumpet in the Von Steuben High School band. 

MUSIC EDUCATION

My music education has included individual lessons, performance groups in which I have been a member, and college-level courses.

Piano lessons
1948-1949 (ages 5 and 6), either with Bernice (“Bootie”) Targ, the daughter of Max and Fannie Targ, at Roosevelt College, or with Sylvia Goldman Sarche, a cousin.
1950-1952, with Opal Moore, at North Park College
1953-1956, with Roberta Brown, at my home, ending at age 13
1961-1962, with Malcolm Bilson, at the University of Illinois, as part of the requirement for a music minor.

Voice lessons
1958-1959, with Alice Hoke in my senior year of high school
1959-1963, with William Miller in the School of Music at the University of Illinois
1998-1999, with David Holloway at the Music Center of the North Shore (now called the Music Institute of Chicago)
2014-present, with Barbara Ann Martin at the Music Institute of Chicago (repertoire is eclectic, including art songs and lieder, arias from operas and oratorios, songs from musical theater, and popular standards)

Choral groups
1955-1959, at Von Steuben H.S.: freshman year, Mixed Chorus; sophomore year, Choir and Boys’ Chorus; junior year, Choir and Girls’ Chorus (student director 1958); senior year, Choir (student director 1958-59), all conducted by Charles Stief
1956-1959, Chicagoans, a choral group of high school singers who gave occasional concerts for charity (student director 1958-59)
1958-1959, Friday evening choir at Kehilath Jeshurun Synagogue, conducted by Cantor Maurice Levy
1959-1963, at University of Illinois: various years, Oratorio Society; Concert Choir, Madrigal singers, all conducted by Harold Decker
1959-1963, at the Hillel Foundation at the University of Illinois: Hillel Foundation Choir (cantor, choir organizer and conductor)
1963 Summer, European tour with the University of Illinois Concert Choir, led by Harold Decker
1963-1964, at Harvard University: Harvard Glee Club, conducted by Elliot Forbes
1964 Summer, North American tour with the Harvard Glee Club, led by Elliot Forbes
1966-1969, at University of Michigan: School of Music Chamber Choir
2020-present, Music Institute of Chicago Chorale, conducted by Daniel Wallenberg

Courses
1958, Summer, at Roosevelt College, orchestral conducting
1959-1963, at the University of Illinois: the courses required to have a teaching minor in music with emphasis in choral music

SOME NOTABLE PERFORMANCES

An asterisk (*) indicates that I have a recording of the performance.

May 23, 1959: Conducting and singing in the Kehilath Jeshurun Synagogue Choir, at a soireé for American for a Music Library in Israel (AMLI) in which the entertainment is often by very well-known Jewish professional musicians, my mother at the piano accompanying the choir in Mozart’s “Lacrimosa”

*May 8, 1960: Singing Bach’s St. Matthew Passion as a member of the University of Illinois Oratorio Society, performance conducted by Ernst Ansermet

April, 1961: One of 12 voices singing Andre Jolivet’s 12-part “Epithalame” on the University of Illinois Choir’s spring tour, at the Graham Chapel at Washington University in St. Louis, MO, conducted by Harold Decker

July 16, 1963: As part of a 23-day European tour, University of Illinois Concert Choir and Brass Ensemble, singing music of Giovanni Gabrieli with brass players brought along the tour, at St. Mark’s Cathedral, where Gabrieli himself worked

*January 19, 1964: Singing the Mozart “Requiem” at a requiem mass for President John Kennedy celebrated by Richard Cardinal Cushing in the Boston Cathedral of the Holy Cross, the home church of the Kennedys, as a member of the massed choirs of the Harvard Glee Club, Radcliffe Choral Society, New England Conservatory of Music, and Pro Musica, accompanied by the Boston Symphony Orchestra directed by Erich Leinsdorf, the most emotional performance of my life – we sang our hearts out for the assassinated president who had attended Harvard, recorded and distributed by RCA in a 2-LP set, “A Solemn Pontifical Requiem Mass in memory of John Fitzgerald Kennedy…” Parts available on youtube: Dies Irae at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9-fiZFsBA8; Lacrimosa at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ev_0DVHNTZ4. Complete performance available at https://www.classicalarchives.com/newca/#!/Work/19725 - scroll down to Boston Symphony Orchestra. (Thanks to my son-in-law Jason Robins for finding this link.)

June 18, 1964: As part of the North American Tour of the Harvard Glee Club and Radcliffe Choral Society, singing the Faure “Requiem” and the Poulenc “Gloria” at Ravinia in Highland Park, IL, under the direction of the then-young Seiji Ozawa

*November 15-18, 1967: Playing the role of Pooh-bah in Gilbert & Sullivan’s operetta “The Mikado”, four performances of the G & S Society at the University of Michigan

April 23, 1972: At a party in honor of Shakespeare’s birthday, singing and accompanying myself at the piano in a program containing eight songs from Shakespeare’s plays, introducing me to the rich collection of songs that have been written to Shakespeare’s lyrics

November 12, 1982: Banquet presentation (speaking, singing, and accompanying myself at the piano) at the annual meeting of the Illinois Council of Teachers of Mathematics (ICTM), in the Auditorium at the University of Illinois, titled “Mathematics and Diamonds: The Many Facets of Mathematics”, my first presentation for mathematics teachers incorporating music; see the Thumbnail Sketches of presentations in the Mathematics and Mathematics Education section of this website for a summary and list of the songs performed

April 10, 1987: Repeating the ICTM banquet presentation, at the annual meeting of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) in Anaheim, CA

*April 23, 1999: Banquet presentation (singing, speaking, and accompanying myself) at the annual meeting of NCTM in San Francisco, CA, titled “Sum of the Powers of Mathematics: A Theme and Variations”; see the Thumbnail Sketches of presentations in the Mathematics and Mathematics Education section of this website for a summary and list of the songs performed

June 25, 2021: Singing in the Music Institute of Chicago Chorale, performing Carl Orff’s “Carmina Burana” during the pandemic, the performance enabled by putting together audio and visual recordings of its members, available (January 2022) on youtube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHESo4Xmm_w

October 14, 2021: Singing in the 52-voice choir backing up Andrea Bocelli in his concert at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, IL, amateur recordings of parts of the concert available on youtube

April 30, 2022: Adult student recital at the Music Institute of Chicago. Singing in Ukrainian Silvestrov’s “Proshchai, Svite, Proshchai, Zemle”, No. 5 of his Silent Songs. Mark George, piano. Video at <https://youtu.be/NG5WkHhVV6Y>.

September 29, 2023: Major presentation (speaking and singing with cousin Andy Chukerman collaborating at the piano) at the annual meeting of NCTM in Los Angeles, CA, titled “Circling Through a Century of NCTM: A Celebration Sprinkled with Music”; see the Thumbnail Sketches of presentations in the Mathematics and Mathematics Education section of this website for a summary and list of the songs performed