Dead, Not Forgotten

Anybody that pays attention to the history of entertainment legal issues knows that artists in all medias are often separated from the ownership of their works by entertainment business people, resulting in little being paid to artists for their works that have had major impact on the arts and our culture.

As an entertainment lawyer and the president of the Copyright Society of the U.S.A. from 1980 to 1992, Rothenberg did much to change that. His seminal books, “Legal Protection of Literature, Art & Music” (1960, reissued in 1988) and “Copyright and Public Performance of Music” (1954, reissued in 1987) educated generations of artists and protected them from their own naiveté and the business practices of others.

Stanley Rothenberg died on Friday November 3 2006 in Manhattan. He was 76.

For more information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Rothenberg

Popularity: 15%

On Monday October 23rd, 2006, the music world lost a great man who touched so many lives in so many surprising ways. Lee Hambro, a world class pianist, died from complications of a fall suffered six weeks ago.

The scope of music that his talent embraced is truly inspiring. I first encountered his name as a teenager exploring the music being made by synthesizers when he played piano on “Gershwin Alive & Well & Underground” with keyboard synthesizer artist Gershon Kingsley. Recorded in 1970, the album was not ground breaking but it did feed my appetite for all things synthesizer and my growing love of the music of Ira Gershwin.

Though unknown to me, music fans around the world did know Hambro well as the pianist for the New York Philharmonic orchestra starting in the late 1940s, and for performing as a soloist for the orchestras of Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston, London and others. He also distinguished himself has a pianist for radio station WQXR in New York and through his performance duo with pianist Jascha Zayde. Hambro released nearly 100 records throughout his brilliant career. Music from the classics to the modern all received the respect and musicality that Lee possessed such a wealth of.

He also possessed a wonderful ability to take himself with a sense of humor; this was well illustrated in 1967 when he began a ten-year-long collaboration with Victor Borge, the Denmark-born musical comedian that entertained audiences by poking good fun at the “serious” music world. Borge was reported to say of Hambro, “I think as much of Leonid Hambro as I do of myself, but not quite so often.”

I met Leonid Hambro in August of 1973 when I began attending the California Institute of The Arts in Valencia, California as a music composition major. He was the head of the Piano Department and the Assistant Dean of the School of Music. Having arrived early to get established I was recommended to him to perform the flute part in a concert he was to give because none of the school’s flute students had yet arrived for the start of the school year. My first musical performance in California, this effort was the beginning of a friendship and mentorship which rewarded me deeply during my time at CalArts. Though I did not study in his department I always benefited from his support and encouragement as was well illustrated when I received an accelerated graduation from the composition program due in large part to his help and belief in my abilities.

Goodbye Lee, and thank you for everything.

See the New York Times obituary
http://www.improbable.com/airchives/paperair/volume7/v7i1/hambro-borge-7-1.html

Popularity: 23%