It with great sadness that I heard about the passing of my teacher and friend, Roland Kohloff. He was a wonderful man who will be sorely missed. I first met him in 1979 while auditioning for Juilliard and was struck even then by his warmth and positive outlook. A couple of years later I became his student. He was thorough and supportive. He was also a character in the best sense of the word. All of his students have their favorite Rolandisms. I remember a mixed metaphor that I was particulary fond of. He referred to something as “neither hill nor beans,” which I take to be a combination of not worth a hill of beans and neither here nor there. Another time we were discussing sewing timpani sticks and the various things we might use to sew the seams with. I said that I used dental floss and without looking up Roland said, “You should. Every day.” We all laughed but he never cracked a smile. I’ll never know if he was joking or not!
This is one of the only pictures I have of Roland. My wife, Gina, and I were in NYC in 1991 and Roland snuck us into a closed NYP rehearsal. It’s a little fuzzy, but I still like it!
Monthly Archive for February, 2006
Howdy gang. (I think it’s a small gang–maybe more of a couple.)
I’m in classical drum hog heaven this spring. This week is the Hary Janos Suite by Kodaly with the SLSO. I’m on chimes and B.D. It’s really a very nice part and the conductor (Gilbert Varga) is not putting up the old hand either, if you know what I mean.
In May there will be a Saint Louis Symphony sponsored percussion concert extravaganza with soloist Collin Curry and six drummers from the old alma mater, Juilliard, who will be on hand to perform (among other things) George Anthiel’s Ballet Mechanique and Verese’s Ionization. (I don’t think you can have a percussion extravaganza without Ionization, can you?)
I’m also scheduled to play L’Histoire du Soldat by Stravinsky right around that same time. I’m creating a new part in Sibelius 4 (which rocks, btw). That’s probably a topic for a whole entry on it’s own. Maybe two.