A touching composition

Jacob Avshalomov's memoir offers an insightful look at his relationship with his father.

The Oregonian - Tuesday, August 13, 2002 - by David Stabler

For 40 years, Jacob Avshalomov embodied the heart and soul of the country's first youth orchestra, the Portland Youth Philharmonic. Zealous, exacting, yet affectionate, he promoted opportunities for his young musicians at every turn. As he writes in his recently self-published book, "Avshalomovs' Winding Way," his tenure from 1954 to 1995 spanned five Oregon Symphony conductors, six mayors, seven governors and 20 philharmonic board presidents. About 3000 students passed through his musical care, an unparalleled legacy that included six international tours and concerts in New York and Washington, D.C>, not to mention sitting through 10,000 auditions and writing three books about the orchestra.

Since his retirement seven years ago, Avshalomov has busied himself with long-delayed projects: composing music, recording CDs with his son, David, and writing about his life as it intertwined with that of his Chinese-born father, Aaron, who was also a composer and conductor. Jacob's devotions to composition, young musicians and his family, particularly his father, come through in the 600-page book, subtitled "Composers Out of China - A Chronicle," which recounts two musical live separated early, then reunited.

Jacob, whose memory for names and dates is legendary, included family letters, postcards, telegrams, testimonials from luminaries such as Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein, newspaper clippings, concert programs, 38 photos and illustrations and lists of works by father and son.

A third of the book is drawn from letters that Aaron wrote to Jacob between 1935 and 1965. For many of those years, they were separated. Jacob was born in Tsingtao, China, in 1919 and moved with his mother to the United States in 1937. Aaron remained in China until 1947, then moved to this country. The level of detail is his letters to Jacob is daunting, even though Aaron is a lively writer and jacob's narrative thread sparkles. But for those who are interested - and there are many; Jacob's circle of friends and philharmonic alumni is large - their correspondence offers a mid-century chronicle of a father and son striving in similar fields, with similar dreams. Both men achieved success, drawing attention from leading composers and concert presenters of the day. Their letters recall the lives of two busy musicians: concerts planned, rehearsals attended musicians met, performances reviewed.

Like most fathers, Aaron also couldn't resist offering advice to his son. In a 1940 letter, he cautioned 21-year-old Jacob against marrying too soon. "...do not entangle yourself in the net of family life. Wait a while... I say you will not be happy and content if you tie yourself by marriage now, while you are still in the making."

A few months later, he advised jacob on rehearsal technique. "In your conducting, do not get hoarse from singing all the entries. It is not necessary: indications made by the hand should be sufficient."

Such advice recalls the intimate communication between another musical father and son, Leopold and Wolfgang Mozart, but with one exception: The relationship between Aaron and Jacob was apparently free of exploitation or competition.

The book begins with Aaron's own account of his early life in China, where he spent 30 years composing symphonic and dramatic works. In 1946, Madame Sun Yat Sen sponsored his music drama "The Great Wall," which received acclaim in Shanghai and Nanking. He came to the United States in 197, but in his 18 remaining years, he struggled to achieve the same recognition, despite encouragement from Eleanor Roosevelt and conductors Leopold Stokowski, Serge Koussevitsky and Bernstein. Still, The New York Times ran a respectful obituary when he died in 1965.

But if their relationship was mutually supportive, it was not without regret on Jacob's part. Aaron left the family when JAcob was 12, "to follow his Muse," Jacob writes. Hi death decades later brought back that boyhood pain of separation.

"The tears from 1932 welled up again, as I thought of the many ways he had touched me...his encouragement of my compositions, and his rejoicings at my honors were a pilot-light for me."

Jacob grieved not only for the man but also for his music. "as much as I mourned the death of Arosha (Aaron's familiar name), I grieved at the thought of his life's work remaining is obscurity. ... Overwhelming the feeling of my loss was the weight of all his unrealized aspirations."

One of Jacob's proudest moments came in 1997, when he and his own son, David - both sons of Jacob and Doris Avshalomov are professional musicians - recorded several of Aaron's works with the Moscow Symphony Orchestra. They took turns conducting three of Aaron's concerto's. two symphonies and other works. Naxos/Marco polo issued the three CDs in 1999.

Jacob closes with the hope that more of his father's music may be recorded by his son, David, continuing the musical circle.

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