How Mr. A Influenced My Life

Posted on February 12, 2019

By Walter Maddox (PJS 1950-55)

At my oral exam at Juilliard (1958), I appeared before the entire Composition Faculty. They tried to fool me, asking, “What is this music?” I looked it over quickly and said, “This looks like Schubert, but it isn’t. It’s Brahms’ Serenade in D. Early Brahms. I’ve played it.” I learned it with the Portland Junior Symphony, Jacob Avshalomov conducting. The faculty was flabbergasted. They must have fooled just about everybody who came in there. I’m probably the only one who also named the work and had played it. I recognized the clarinet solo, plus other parts. Needless to say, I passed.

Many years later I shared this story with Mr. A, and he replied, “We were tickled to read about how you stunned ‘em at Juilliard. The Brahms was a sweet piece.”

Walter Maddox was Music Director Jacob Avshalomov’s first concertmaster. He went on to study at University of Portland and Juilliard, and played violin in the Detroit Symphony Orchestra from 1964-1999. He currently lives in Michigan with his cat Klein and still practices every day. Walter performed Mr. A’s piece, “The Taking of T’ung Kuan,” with PJS in 1954 when Mr. A auditioned for the position; PYP will be performing that work on March 2, 2019. Walter had discovered an alternate fingering for the piece and recently shared it with our current concertmaster, connecting the generations.