c o m m e n t a r y
(Since 1996)
February 11, 2013
A Tribute to Isidor Saslav (1938-2013)
c o m m e n t a r y
(Since 1996)
February 11, 2013
A Tribute to Isidor Saslav (1938-2013)
Trade liberty for safety or money and you'll end up with neither. Liberty, like a grain of salt, easily dissolves.
The power of questioning -- not simply believing -- has no friends. Yet liberty depends on it. ***
S U P P O R T S W A N S
Thank you Aleksandar Jokic for your financial contribution. Year to date: $535.47.
Note from the Editors:
By the time we wrote our Note from the Editors a fortnight ago Sunday, wishing Isidor Saslav to be well and beat the cancer beast, we were unaware that he had already died a day earlier. We have been grieving ever since. Gilles d'Aymery has been particularly affected by the loss of a man he deeply loved.
So in tribute to him, and in honor of his family, we have assembled this entire issue of Swans around Isidor Saslav. We begin with a bio that he wrote about a year ago, then we carry on with reflections by Jan Baughman, Jonah Raskin, Peter Byrne, Gilles d'Aymery, Glenn Reed, Manuel García, Jr., and Guido Monte. We then repost a few of his essays that exemplify the richness of his writing, the diversity of his interests, and the depth of his culture. You can find his entire repertoire of Swans articles on his personal page, www.swans.com/contrib/saslav.html.
The world has lost a remarkable and irreplaceable man.
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A Tribute to Isidor Saslav
Dr. Isidor Saslav - b. March 18, 1938; d. January 26, 2013
After studies with master teachers Mischa Mischakoff, Josef Gingold, and Ivan Galamian and after receiving the Bachelor of Music from Wayne State University in Detroit in 1961 and the Master of Music and Doctor of Music from the School of Music (now the Jacobs School) of Indiana University 1961-69, Dr. Isidor Saslav became the concertmaster of and soloist with the Buffalo Philharmonic and the Minnesota, Baltimore and New Zealand Symphony Orchestras and the orchestra of the Round Top Festival in Texas, which he helped to found with conductor Leon Fleisher in 1975. Dr. Saslav also served as concertmaster of the Indiana University, Dallas, Kennedy Center Terrace Theater, and Baltimore Opera Orchestras and was a member of the Detroit Symphony, the Chautauqua Symphony and the Orchestra of the Festival Casals (Puerto Rico). More... Isidor Saslav was a retired concertmaster who lived with his wife, concert pianist Ann Heiligman Saslav, in Overton, Texas. He passed away on January 26, 2013.
A Humble Farewell
Isidor Saslav was one of the few Swans contributors we've had the pleasure of meeting in person, and what a person he was. Twice I saw him at the home of his son, David, and daughter-in-law, Melissa Smith, and each time his presence was magical -- a star-like quality that immediately drew you in, yet his genuine love and knowledge of culture was exuded with great humility. He was curious and caring about everyone in his presence. More... Jan Baughman is a clinical researcher and Swans' co-editor.
My Isidor Saslav
I never met him. I never even e-mailed or talked with him. But I thought I knew who he was -- who he had to be. With the first name Isidor, I was sure that he was much older than me and perhaps even belonged to my parents' generation. No one my own age was named Isidor. There certainly was no one who answered to the name Isidor Saslav at my public school or in my high school and later at college. The name Isidor Saslav smacked of the old world -- of the shtetl -- the small town in Russia or Poland that was inhabited by Jews. Only a Jew could have had the name Isidor Saslav -- or someone strange enough to want to pass for a Jew. More... Jonah Raskin is a professor emeritus in communication studies at Sonoma State University, California.
Artists Don't Die
Of Isidor Saslav's writing, the piece that touched me most was "How I Found Shaw" in Swans (March 23, 2009). I knew what he was talking about. His Detroit of 1950 was not that different from my Chicago. Isidor had a commute from his suburb to the city center. He filled it with serious reading. The people around him had their noses in the Reader's Digest and William Randolph Hearst's Detroit Times. The very ground they were passing over had seen the anti-Semite Father Coughlin's push for American fascism in the 1930s. More... Peter Byrne is an American-born teacher and writer who lives in Lecce, Italy.
The One And Only Isidor Saslav
In the early 1990s, Jan Baughman and I lived in a small 2-bedroom apartment in a 28-unit rental building located at 1010 Noel Drive in Menlo Park, California. The property was owned by the Sobrato family, perhaps the wealthiest independent real-estate family in California. Our rent was $850 a month. Sobrato, without notice, decided to increase the rent by 25%. I organized a renter rebellion against that slumlord, which we won. That's how I met David Saslav, Isidor's son, and his wife Melissa Smith. They too rented an apartment in the complex. More... Gilles d'Aymery is Swans' publisher and co-editor.
Isidor Saslav And The Strings That Connect Us All
How to compose something worthy of someone's life? How to do so without having known that individual personally and on the basis of an awareness formed solely through some of his writing, from less than a year? I fear writer's block. I worry about saying the wrong thing. I read articles on-line that show this person was loved by, and influenced, a great many people in his life; was a tremendously talented musician; was a wonderful husband, father, and contributing member of his community. What can I possibly add to this? Who am I to say something fitting in 500 or 5,000 words? More... Glenn Reed is a long-time activist and author who lives in Fair Haven, Vermont.
Sympathetic Vibrations: Recollections Of Isidor Saslav
I knew Isidor only through e-mails sent back and forth in the summer of 2011, when I was editing a special edition of Swans, where regular contributors listed their recommendations to the readers for musical selections, books, and motion pictures. More... Manuel García, Jr. is a retired physicist, author, and family man who lives in Oakland, California.
To Isidor Saslav
past is destroyed, es todos los hombres, Guido Monte teaches Italian and Latin literature in Palermo, Italy.
Some of the best of Isidor Saslav
Concerts And An Opera In New York Review of American Symphony, NY Philharmonic, and Metropolitan Opera. American premieres of violin concertos. More...
Josef Gingold Turns 100 A violin legend and his memorials. More...
How I Found Shaw The political and literary conversion of a teenager: How Isidor Saslav discovered George Bernard Shaw and became a lifelong collector of everything Shavian he could unearth. More...
Galway In Texas The Texas Music Educators' Association, world's largest, joins with flutist Sir James Galway, world's greatest. More...
The Great Meyerbeer-Mendelssohn Mystery As part of Bard College's 2009 Summerscape Festival, Leon Botstein revives two operatic gems of converted Judaic culture -- Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots, and Mendelssohn's St. Paul -- in the context of the anti-Semitic Richard Wagner. More...
Lunch With Louis Auchincloss Following the deaths of three great historians/fictionalists -- Louis Auchincloss, J.D. Salinger, and Howard Zinn -- the author recounts his 40-year admiration of and ultimate meeting with Auchincloss -- a lifelong book collector's ambition fulfilled. More...
Requiem For An Iconic School Detroit continues the process of destroying itself. More...
My Offerings For Your Pleasure Isidor Saslav's recommendations for the 2012 Swans special edition about books, music, and films. More...
2012 Year End Report A look at a few notable events and noteworthy deaths in 2012. More...
Swans by Subject
- Activism under the Radar Screen Keep in Mind...
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