Allegro
Requiem
Volume CI, No. 6June, 2001
Joseph Barsh – Piano/Accordion
Sydney Beck – Violin
Charlie Camilleri – Trumpet/Piano/Arranger
Joseph Connolly – Saxophone
Edwin Finckel – Piano/Composer
Ralph L. Franco – Piano
Arty Ilardi – Piano
Sy Mann – Piano
Ray Miller – Drums
Billy Mitchell – Saxophone
Joseph Rasa – Guitar
G. Herbert Resnick – Piano
Henry Schuman – Oboe/Composer
Mitchell Stern – Violin/Viola
Dominic T. Veri – Drums
Joseph Barsh
Joseph Barsh, 85, a pianist and accordion player and a 60-year member of Local 802, died on March 23. Born in Poland, Mr. Barsh was an entertainer and a gifted pianist who had a long career in the Jewish theatre. He lived in Brooklyn until 13 years ago, when he and his wife, Nettie, moved to Brick, N.J.
He is survived by his wife, sons Dennis and Preston, daughter Elisa, brother Samuel, sisters Stella and Feiga, and many grandchildren and great grandchildren.
Charlie Camilleri
Charlie Camilleri, 63, a trumpet player, pianist, arranger and composer, died on April 4. Mr. Camilleri played and wrote for such musicians as Eddie Palmieri, Larry Harlow, Ambergris, Victor Paz, Joe Henderson, Maynard Ferguson, Lionel Hampton and Machito. In the last 10 years alone, as principal arranger for the Astoria Big Band, he wrote more than 50 arrangements.
His long friendship with musician/innovator Marshall Brown began in high school, where Brown organized group outings of students to Manhattan jazz clubs to hear many of the “greats.” Mr. Camilleri later collaborated in Brown’s founding of the “Newport Youth Band,” out of which came many of today’s finest players.
A memorial concert tribute is planned for Sunday, June 17, at 7 p.m. at St. Peter’s Church, at 54th and Lexington Avenue. For more information, call 802 member Carol Sudhalter at (718) 278-5331 or e-mail Sudsax@aol.com.
Edwin Finckel
Edwin Finckel, 83, a composer, jazz pianist and music educator, died on May 7. A member of Local 802 since 1944, Mr. Finckel worked in a wide range of musical genres. He composed more than 200 pieces for a variety of ensembles, including orchestral works, concertos, ballets, choral and vocal music, and incidental music for the stage and screen.
Born in Washington, D.C., he taught himself piano by studying the work of jazz artists such as Teddy Wilson and Art Tatum. Performing regularly in jazz clubs by the age of 18, he became a close associate of Lester Young. Mr. Finckel wrote and arranged for Boyd Raeburn, Gene Krupa, Ted Heath, Sam Donohue, Les Brown and Buddy Rich, and was one of the first arrangers to incorporate strings into big band settings.
In 1951 Mr. Finckel became the musical director at the Far Brook School in Short Hills, N.J., a post he held for 39 years. During the 1950s he began composing classical music. In 1963 he and his wife, Helen, founded Point Counterpoint, a summer chamber music camp in Vermont which they ran until 1980.
Mr, Finckel is survived by his wife, his son David, who is the cellist for the Emerson String Quartet and an 802 member, and a grandchild.
Henry Schuman
Henry Schuman, 69, an oboist, conductor and teacher who founded and directed Our Bach Concerts, a series of midnight performances at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in the 1970s, died on May 9. He had been an 802 member since 1948. He was the longtime principal oboist of the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the Westchester Philharmonic and the Opera Orchestra of New York, and the music director of the Washington Square Music Festival.
Mr. Schuman attended the Juilliard School, where he studied oboe with Harold Gomberg. He became principal oboist with the Piccola Accademia Musicale in Florence, and then served in the armed forces, playing principal oboe with the Seventh Army Symphony in Europe from 1956-58. Returning to New York in 1958, he became the principal oboist with the Clarion Orchestra.
Mr. Schuman was solo English horn under the conductor Leopold Stokowski with the Symphony of the Air from 1958-62, and the next year became the principal oboist with Stokowski’s American Symphony Orchestra.
Among the ensembles he conducted were the Mostly Mozart Orchestra, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Municipal Orchestra of São Paulo in Brazil. Since 1970 he had taught at the Manhattan School of Music. He also taught at Queens College, the City University of New York and the Winter Music Festival in São Paulo, and was a visiting professor at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester and at Indiana University.
He is survived by his daughter Kathy, the artistic administrator of Carnegie Hall, and his companion Suzette Jacobs.
Mitchell Stern
Mitchell Stern, 45, a violinist and violist who taught at the Manhattan School of Music, died on April 9 of complications after surgery for a brain aneurysm. He had been an 802 member since 1981.
Born in Cleveland, he studied the violin and viola at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in music in 1978, and at the Juilliard School. He won several competitions, and was awarded the Leventritt Award in 1978.
From 1980 to 1990 he was the first violinist in the American String Quartet, with which he made several recordings. He also performed as a member of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and Music From Marlboro. He was the concertmaster of the American Symphony Orchestra from 1991 to 1994 and of the Little Orchestra Society in 1994.
In addition to teaching the violin and viola and coaching chamber music at the Manhattan School of Music, Mr. Stern held faculty positions institutions including the State University of New York at Stony Brook, the State University of New York at Purchase, the Philadelphia Music Academy, the Hartt School of Music in Hartford, the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y., and the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore.
He is survived by his wife, Local 802 member Katherine Livolsi, father Myron, and brothers Eric and Joel.