Influences
Click on the thumbnails or links to visit the websites of these outstanding musicians and teachers.
 Buddy Thomas My father, musician, industrial line mechanic and trouble shooter; taught me that in learning and doing things, nothing is impossible…. |
 Glenn Thomas (on left) Precocious and prodigious, my brother and most tenacious friend, my first student who became my teacher also…. |
 Marshall Taylor The quintessential performer, with exhaustive knowledge and musicianship…. |
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 Will Parsons Percussionist and Musical Inventor, an American heartland pioneer…. |
 Pat Martino As close as family and more than the world’s greatest jazz guitarist, a profound musical thinker and composer… |
 Karlheinz Stockhausen A major historical force in European music, I was among several fortunate American students whose friendship he enjoyed in the mid sixties… |
 Bill Evans Whose music and methods completely redirected my life. |
 Miles Davis Whose music and methods completely redirected my life. |
 Ludmila Ulehla (left) Composition teachers at the Manhattan School of Music, they represent the best of the original ideals of “The Music Conservatory”…. |
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 Vittorio Giannini Composition teachers at the Manhattan School of Music, they represent the best of the original ideals of “The Music Conservatory”…. |
 Raoul Pleskow Hidden treasure… ”Mozart” to Wolpe’s Beethoven …. |
 John Cage Once a year, endless cups of Chinese tea and long talks from 1965 until his death in 1992… |
 Hellmut Gottschild His importance as a revolutionary thinker will not remain hidden forever….More than a Modern Dance Master, a renaissance thinker, the source of “physicality” in my music…. |
 Ron Dewar Anyone lucky enough to have heard him play or (better yet) to have played with him, knows that words are hopelessly inadequate to describe his musical gifts …. |
 Steve Heimel Lifelong discussion partner; art and culture, broadly speaking …. |
 Hobson Pittman (American painter and instructor) A guided tour through the minds of the great painters ... |
 Michael Steinberg Creating a taste for Mahler and introducing us in 1959 to the music of Elliot Carter, Milton Babbit, and other forbidden fruits…. |
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 Maryanne Amacher Took Stockhausen seriously (as I did) in 1964 and applied his innovations to her own innovative soundscapes…. |
 Jon English Composer, trombonist, bassist, and lifelong best friend…. |
 Stefan Wolpe A “Beethoven” for the 20th Century, living in America…. |
 Sergei Rachmininov Haunting beauty made in secret places…. |
 Herbie Hancock Unofficially my greatest Jazz Professor; he is The Boss. |
 Sal Martirano The generous, gentle, wildman of American music…. |
 Dennis Sandole Thanks to Pat Martino's recommendation, Dennis' teaching brought conflict-resolution to my Jazz /Classical quandry |
 Jon Toth I wrote a TRIO ("Music for Violin, Cello, and Piano" for violinist Jon Toth and his cellist wife Liz and pianist Diedre Irons in the mid 1970s. |
