CLASS OF 1972 | 2026 | SPRING ISSUE

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The class has increased its activities outside of our quinquennial reunions (there is one coming next year…). Our quarterly class Zoom reunions, which actually originated with planning committee meetings for our 50th Reunion, continue, and all are cordially invited to join in. Announcements of these calls go out to the whole class mailing list, but if for some reason you are not receiving them, please send me a note, and I will see that you get them in the future. Dave Hagerty, Ron Ashkenas, and Bonnie Blair are continuing the work of the Reunion Program Committee and arranging more structured Zoom meetings, with speakers of interest from our class and the Wesleyan community in general discussing a wide range of interesting subjects. Again, if you are not getting notice of these, please let me know. And finally, the University is developing a new program for superannuated folks like us who have survived their 50th reunions—College Row Classes. As such, we are entitled to participate in special programs, both on campus and remotely. Plus, we get a special lunch and other benefits at the spring Reunion weekend. Since I am lucky enough to live close enough to drive up for the day, I have not missed a reunion in several years, and I encourage all of you to come as well.

John Manchester has released a new album—Bach Keyboard Works Arranged for Virtual Orchestra. It’s available on Apple Music, Amazon, and Spotify. I’ve acquired it and enjoy it a great deal. It’s very reminiscent of Stokowski’s orchestral transcriptions of Bach organ works, except this time the orchestra is virtual. As John describes it:

“When I returned to music five years ago after a long break, all I wanted to do was play J. S. Bach on the grand piano my wife found me. My old hands, neck, and back had other ideas—variations on “ouch!” I was halfway through learning the long, difficult G Major Fugue from book one of the Well- Tempered Clavier when I came to the terrible realization that I wasn’t going to make it to the end of the piece without my hands falling off. . .

“I’d been toying with the notion of returning to composing using the recently impressive digital tools of theVirtual Orchestra. If I couldn’t finish playing the G Major Fugue, I could arrange it for my glorified ‘band in a box.’ When I started inputting the piece to my computer, the results sucked. I’d made my own music with a computer in the past . . . I started on an album and gradually discovered why the fugue sounded wrong. My new digital tools were shiny and sharp but required new skills on my part to make decent music with them. . .

“Composing an album of my music was great fun. So, I did another. At that point, I felt I’d said what I needed to for the moment. Now that I’d mastered my new tools, what about that Bach fugue? I’d originally wanted to orchestrate it because I hate not finishing things I start. I had another reason— orchestrating this piece might reveal aspects to me and a listener that weren’t apparent when played on a keyboard. . .

“Aside from my own compositions, I only perform Bach. And I listen to a lot of it, mostly his vocal music. It does something for me that no other music does. It arouses the deepest feelings. The majority of his music is devoutly Christian, which might be enough to convert me if I didn’t know better.”

Steve Scheibe reports: “Angela and I recently returned from a month in Japan, and my Japanese continues at the level of my first trip in 1985. I was thinking now that I met up briefly with Connie (Sutherland) Hernandez on that first trip and have not had contact since, at least to my recollection. All good in California and still going back and forth to Brazil. Finally, I speak frequently with my brother, Karl, and he is doing well and has nice recollections of our class. Ha ha!”

I will leave it to the rest of you to interpret that “ha ha!”

Stay well! I hope to hear from you soon!