Klarinet Archive - Posting 000593.txt from 1995/06

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re: Leon Russianoff
Date: Mon, 26 Jun 1995 05:56:16 -0400

I add to David Neithamer's excellent description of Leon a personal
note.

I knew Leon reasonably well and always attributed his excellence as
a teacher to the fact that he was not a stupendous player. He was,
like many of us, very normal and not a genius at execution. That
was his strength as a teacher.

When a student would come to him for help he was invariably able
to help because, no matter what the student was trying to accomplish,
Leon had already been there trying to accomplish that himself. At the
same time, a number of New York's stupendous clarinet player group
were also teaching and some of them simply could not comprehend why
their students were unable to do certain things. THEY had never had
those problems and could not relate to someone who could not surmount
difficulties of that nature.

I always watched Leon's lessons with a bit of awe. He invariably
chose the right word picture to describe what he (the student) needed
to do. And he was more of a bear than I when it came to words that
he perceived as having little or no standard meaning.

He was especially good with the very superior student and the inferior
student, making sure that he did not injure the latter with a careless
remark. Once at a symposium/master class he gave in Denver, he worked
with a student who simply did not have the necessary equipment to play
the work effectively. Leon went after all the things the student did
well and never mentioned that he probably thought the student would never
be able to be an effective player. He had rhythm problems that were
innate. But Leon was very careful not to humiliate him in front of
other people.

Perhaps Leon and I got along so well because we had different interests
in clarinet playing, his being central to performing and mine being
centeral to performance practices. He was always deferential to me and
I was in awe of the things he did well.

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Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
(leeson@-----.edu)
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