Richard Wernick

With Vincent Plush

Media, Pennsylvania

October 11, 1983

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Side a                                                                                                                                  pp. 1-21

Childhood in Boston--Judaism--early musical experiences--piano lessons--juvenile compositions--records--Henry Lasker--clarinet lessons--jazz.

Side b                                                                                                                                           pp. 21-41

Brandeis--Irving Fine, Harold Shapero, Arthur Berger--neoclassicism--Harvard tradition--high-school conducting experience--theater music--Mills College--Leon Kirchner--Wellesley College Theater on the Green--M.A. composition--piece dedicated to Irving Fine--Tanglewood--Copland--Bernstein--A View from the Bridge--McCarthyism--Copland's teaching--Fine's Symphony--serialism at Harvard.

Side c                                                                                                                                pp. 41-59

Serialism at Harvard--Ernst Toch at Tanglewood--move to New York--theater work--documentary films--year in Canada, conducting and composing for Royal Winnipeg Ballet--TV show for children--back to New York--work with Fine on musical--films and TV--decision to do more serious work--Young Composers Project--Hexagrams.

Side d                                                                                                                               pp. 59-80

Move to SUNY Buffalo--work with Creative Associate Program--Lukas Foss--repertoire--relationship to Buffalo Symphony--Stretti--job at University of Chicago--Ralph Shapey--Haiku of Basho--move to University of Pennsylvania--George Crumb--Penn Contemporary Players--more time for composing--Kaddish Requiem--Jewish identity--A Prayer for Jerusalem--Visions of Terror and Wonder--Vietnam--trip to Tanzania--Cadenzas and Variations III, Second String Quartet--Visions of Terror and Wonder--Pulitzer Prize--consultant position with Philadelphia Orchestra--Muti's interest in innovation.

Side e                                                                                                                                pp. 80-84

Muti's plans--nature of Wernick's role--John Cage, Renga--need for better performances of new music--projected violin concerto, chamber music, opera.