Vincent Lionti
George Trautwein was the Father of the Blind Brook High School Music Department. He was there on Day 1 when the school finally opened and, along with Gary Cialfi who arrived a year later, presided over the birth of Blind Brook's musical Golden Age. I knew I was going to like this man when, on that first day, he called the roll and mispronounced Sal Pagnani's name as "Salvatore Paganini", an obvious nod to the great 19th Century violinist and composer.
He was the "Toscanini of Blind Brook"; an old school, no-nonsense, hardworking, thoroughly educated and principled musician who indeed had observed Toscanini and other great conductors of the time from not only the audience, but in some cases singing on stage under them. I remember fondly our talks about music and musicians, Brahms in particular, as that composer's "A German Requiem" was revered by him. Our Music Theory class with him was an open forum, since there were only three or four of us in the class.
He took a group of us to a recital by the German mezzo Christa Ludwig at Avery Fisher Hall in 1974, an unusual field trip for sure. I could not have foreseen that some fifteen years later, I would be playing in her performances at the MET.
I was fortunate, along with what seemed like 200 other kids in the school, to be in the first ever Blind Brook High School musical, which by now is so well documented that it has become a legend. I was also there for the final performance of the Trautwein Era, some twenty years later. He left in his prime.
I'll never forget performing Robert Schumann's "Marchenbilder" with Mr. Trautwein at the piano for Daphne Dewey's Romantic Literature class in the beloved LGI. During rehearsals he said, "You are a slave to the composer." It was one of his favorite and most often repeated phrases. Those words have haunted me ever since. He taught us to be true to the composer's intentions and to continually search for the music's meaning.
Even though a final curtain has come down on a great performance, George Trautwein's legacy and the memory of that performance will live on in his students, and all the people who knew him.
Vincent Lionti
BBHS '77
George Trautwein was the Father of the Blind Brook High School Music Department. He was there on Day 1 when the school finally opened and, along with Gary Cialfi who arrived a year later, presided over the birth of Blind Brook's musical Golden Age. I knew I was going to like this man when, on that first day, he called the roll and mispronounced Sal Pagnani's name as "Salvatore Paganini", an obvious nod to the great 19th Century violinist and composer.
He was the "Toscanini of Blind Brook"; an old school, no-nonsense, hardworking, thoroughly educated and principled musician who indeed had observed Toscanini and other great conductors of the time from not only the audience, but in some cases singing on stage under them. I remember fondly our talks about music and musicians, Brahms in particular, as that composer's "A German Requiem" was revered by him. Our Music Theory class with him was an open forum, since there were only three or four of us in the class.
He took a group of us to a recital by the German mezzo Christa Ludwig at Avery Fisher Hall in 1974, an unusual field trip for sure. I could not have foreseen that some fifteen years later, I would be playing in her performances at the MET.
I was fortunate, along with what seemed like 200 other kids in the school, to be in the first ever Blind Brook High School musical, which by now is so well documented that it has become a legend. I was also there for the final performance of the Trautwein Era, some twenty years later. He left in his prime.
I'll never forget performing Robert Schumann's "Marchenbilder" with Mr. Trautwein at the piano for Daphne Dewey's Romantic Literature class in the beloved LGI. During rehearsals he said, "You are a slave to the composer." It was one of his favorite and most often repeated phrases. Those words have haunted me ever since. He taught us to be true to the composer's intentions and to continually search for the music's meaning.
Even though a final curtain has come down on a great performance, George Trautwein's legacy and the memory of that performance will live on in his students, and all the people who knew him.
Vincent Lionti
BBHS '77
