Published on Oct 25th, 2021
1972: Marian McPartland teaching at Eastman
Forty-nine years ago this week, on October 29th, 1972,renowned jazz pianist Marian McPartland (1918-2013) was photographed while working with Eastman students in the classroom. By this time Ms. McPartland was easily one of the jazz world’s best-loved personalities and of its most sought-after performers. Her first visit to Eastman had been in March, 1971 while she was fulfilling an extended professional engagement at a Rochester venue. On that occasion Director Walter Hendl had invited her to Eastman for a visit that included a performance for Eastman students in Room 120 (today the Rayburn Wright Room) and also a gala dinner party hosted by Mr. and Mrs. Hendl. That visit had marked the beginning of what would be her longtime association with Eastman; once introduced to Rochester, Ms. McPartland would appear extensively in Rochester venues over the years, as well as maintaining from 1971 onwards a connection with Eastman that took the forms of performing, teaching, and patronage.
It was while Ms. McPartland was fulfilling a six-week engagement at a Rochester venue in the fall of 1972 that Professor Rayburn Wright invited her to teach piano improvisation at Eastman. The Louis Ouzer photographs displayed here capture the unified sense of purpose in the room while Ms. McPartland is at the keyboard, surrounded by the students in rapt attention. In one of the press articles, local writer Cliff Smith offered his favorable observations on her classroom activity at Eastman. In the other article, printed a few weeks earlier, Theodore Price described being in “a corner of heaven” while listening to Ms. McPartland and her colleagues. The venue where she was booked that fall, the Monticello Room at the Rowntowner Motor Inn in Henrietta, was a vibrant center for live music in Rochester in earlier decades. The Monticello Room is pictured (at lower right) on the postcard image displayed here, which was accessed here
When visiting Rochester in May, 2002, Ms. McPartland wrote, “Rochester is like my second home, and all because of the wonderful Eastman School; I have so many great memories of various performances, and of course, my friend Alec Wilder who introduced me to Eastman and the many fabulous people in it.” By those words she acknowledged Rochester’s Alec Wilder (1907-1980), with whom she enjoyed a long professional collaboration and personal friendship. Mr. Wilder—a native of Rochester and a student at Eastman in the 1920s (did not graduate)— admired Ms. McPartland’s artistry and wrote numerous solos for her; those compositions are considered some of his best work for keyboard. In particular, he wrote his “Jazz Waltz for a Friend” as a tribute to Ms. McPartland in 1974; it was subsequently published by Ambrose Music. The Sibley Music Library holds a manuscript copy of the song that Ms. McPartland gave to Sibley out of her personal collection. Among her innumerable performances of the “Jazz Waltz” was a special rendition that she gave at Eastman on February 13th, 1991 during a celebration of Alec Wilder that marked the dedication of the newly named Alec Wilder Reading Room in the Sibley Music Library. (The finding aid for the The Alec Wilder Archive at the Sibley Music Library is accessible here.)
Later in her life, Marian McPartland would be the recipient of a Grammy Award (2004), the Order of the British Empire (2010), and an honorary Doctor of Music degree from the University of Rochester (2007). After her death in 2013, the Sibley Music Library received her extensive collection of personal papers. The finding aid for the Marian McPartland Collection is accessible here
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The Weekly Dozen
►October 27, 1953 José Echániz, pianist
September 30th-October 6th: The dynamite plot
On October 1st, 1960, a plot to dynamite the Eastman School was discovered and thwarted by local law enforcement officials.
September 27th-October 3rd: The Note Book and more
On September 27th, 1921, an occasional issue of The Note Book was published and was circulated to students.
Sep 26th – Oct 2nd: Howard Hanson at the UNESCO Fourth General Conference.
In late September, 1949, Eastman School Director Howard Hanson was in Paris serving as a U.S. delegate to the Fourth General Conference of UNESCO.
September 20th-26th: Robert Freeman inauguration and more
The inauguration of Robert Freeman as the Eastman School’s fourth Director on September 20th, 1973 marked the beginning of a new era for the school.
