4 minute read
An 80th Birthday Concert
Celebrating decades of song and the friends who’ve supported my musical journey
By Jim Reilly, Epsilon Alpha, Minneapolis Alumni
When I held my 50th birthday recital — back in 1993 — I thought it would a one-time thing: fun, a nice group of friends, a benefit for FNVW (Friends for a Non-Violent World, a local Friends organization). I wasn’t so sure I should do one at 60; who wants to admit to 60, anyway, and I was in a difficult period of my life. But I went ahead, and it was fun again, even more friends, and this time the beneficiary was “I Love a Parade,” an organization that worked with people without homes to create visual arts.
When 70 came, there wasn’t much doubt I should go ahead, this time with a benefit for the piano fund at the local Alliance Française, and because of space limitations, I had to do it twice. I thought my 70th birthday concert would be the last. I’ve already lived longer than any of my immediate relatives, and also didn’t think I’d still be singing at 80, or maybe even playing the piano; problems resulting from a broken wrist many years before were making piano playing increasingly painful, and 80 is awfully old for a singer.
But in September, I performed an 80th birthday concert, twice. Surgery has helped the wrist, and, to my surprise, my voice still works. Back in my 40s, one of my Mu Phi colleagues said she worried I might not sing too long if I kept on using my voice “like that,” but I’m happy to say she was wrong. But any singer knows, whatever way one is using one’s voice, there is always someone who thinks it’s the wrong way!
Selecting the program was difficult. This concert feels like a summing up, and it’s tempting to want to showcase every kind of music I’ve ever done, with homage to every person and every organization I’ve ever worked with. So instead, I decided to honor the two institutions where the performances will occur — one Norwegian (Mindekirken, a Norwegian language church, where I am music director emeritus) and one French (the local Alliance Française).
The first half of the concert featured piano music: Haydn, then three pieces by the Haitian composer Ludovic Lamothe — whose acquaintance I owe to both the Alliance and a local Mu Phi program of composers from “South of the Border” — and finally Grieg. The second half was vocal, starting with a group of songs in French, including songs by the Norwegian composers Johan Svendsen and Halfdan Kjerulf.
Finally, I closed with a Grieg song about Italy and three songs of my own with texts by the Italian poet Giacomo Leopardi. My own ethnic heritage, a genetic jumble, is more Italian than any other single thing. I did my own new translations of the Leopardi, a foolish thing to do in the face of the greatness of this poet, important in Italy, but little known in English speaking countries.
Friends and loved ones, most now gone, whom I thought about fondly during the preparation and performance of my 80th birthday concert:
My patient and long suffering voice teachers: Geraldine Braden, Mabel Jacobs and Bettina Bjorksten
My mother, Maria Pavia Reilly, the first pianist I ever heard. My first piano teacher, my aunt Estelle Pavia, and all my subsequent piano and organ teachers
Many singers who encouraged me as both pianist and singer, the first was Mary Jane Munson who, when I made the decision to be a musician after graduate work in the wrong field (English literature), was there to support me; I’m sorry I’m not mentioning all the others!
My friend Margaret Campbell, a Mu Phi colleague, who first introduced me to Nordic music, resulting in my job at Mindekirken and many other opportunities
And finally, one person very much with us, my dear longtime accompanist, pianist Beatrice Giere, who’s an SAI, but is otherwise perfect
