In memoriam 2012

The more-or-less annual tribute from Polyphonic.org to our colleagues who left us in 2012 is finally online; my apologies to those who were waiting for it and no doubt lost patience many weeks ago.
I knew a distressing number of those on this list. Some I knew just in passing (Mark Flint, Geoffrey Fushi, Bob Bonnevie, Marvin Hamlisch). But a few were people with whom I’d worked closely on union business. Fred Fuller was a member of my orchestra with whom I worked very closely during our difficult negotiations in 1993-94, into the middle of which was parachuted George Sartick to become trustee of our local, and from whom I learned a great deal about the business of running a union during his time as Local 8 trustee and president. And Jim Clute, who I knew in passing from my years in the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, was on the ICSOM Governing Board when I became Senza editor in 1993. I shared many a metaphorical foxhole with Fred and Jim, and I miss them.
For this year’s edition, the musical accompaniment is Sibelius’ Surusoitto for organ. Surusoitto was the last piece Sibelius composed that was published, and is a work that I find terrifying. It is believed by many Sibelius scholars that it has much in common stylistically with his possibly-unfinished and likely-destroyed Symphony No. 8. If that’s true, I can see why he might not have finished it; the world of Surusoitto is a very alien place, at least to my ears.
Polyphonic welcomes corrections and suggested additions to this list; please send them to me at rob at robertlevine dot org.