He will be missed

The sad passing of cellist and human rights advocate Mstislav Rostropovich made me stop and pause and remember some incredible times in my life.

As as undergraduate at the University of Maryland, College Park, I was a member of the choir there, about 300 voices strong, which was the choir for the National Symphony Orchestra. As such, our opportunities to work with folks, the caliber and status of conductor Rostropovich, were many. My other favorite was Antal Dorati.

Anyway, we worked with maestro Rostropovich from the day he stepped on U.S. soil. We happened to have a Russian-speaking member of the choir (also our secretary) who could translate. How exciting it was, to hear him work with the orchestra, and us. His observations were magical, symbolic, illuminating, always. He was gentle, but you could see the passion rise when something was amiss and you didn't want it to blossom into anger or frustration. He was not large of stature but incredibly huge in impact. His life was passion, for music, for his homeland, for justice. His wife, Galina, sadly, never sang with us on stage, but she was there.

Bravo, Slava. You impacted my life and the world. Music means more because of musicians such as you.