Klarinet Archive - Posting 000695.txt from 2003/07

From: Tski1128@-----.com
Subj: [kl] Ignatius Gennusa remebered
Date: Thu, 24 Jul 2003 13:14:15 -0400

It's true Iggy has left us. He was one of the greats! I was lucky enough to start studying with him when I was 16. He had the most beautiful sound that I've ever heard. I had some great moments up at his farm in Glenn Rock. Lessons that would go 3-4 hrs. or as long as the Schmirnoff held out.
He was an absolute natural clarinet player. To hear him play through the Rose etudes was magic. Years after I was in the army, when I would go up for a lesson I always had to have a few Rose 'tudes ready to go. His sound was amazing, but it paled next to his innate musicality. He was such a natural that for some, he was not the best choice as a teacher, but if you were someone who was capable of watching listening and leaning he was the best! When you finally got it, his eyes would light up. I soon figured out a very non musical way of playing that would warrant my clarinet being snatched from my hands, and being showed how it "should" be played. Those lessons were the best!

He would always call to ask me how the family was doing, am I still doing the army, if I had a good reed. We would both laugh and he would always say. " I haven't had a good reed since 1957." My reeds should sound so bad!

I didn' get much chance to see him once he moved to Ocean City, MD. Once he moved back to the DC area, I had a chance to have lunch with him a few times. He spent the last year in a place called Riderwood Village, It was right on my way to U of MD so in the last year I saw him about 4-5 times. The last time was about 3 weeks before he died. It was sad because on the last visit, he didn't really remember me, a month before he was remembering the time I spent aday fixing a leak in the deep end of his in ground pool. That was aday a lot of holding my breath.

He will be missed, his clarinet playing on this planet will be really missed, what he taught me, about clarinet,music,life and spaghetti sauce will never be forgotten!

Tom Puwalski, Iggy student for almost 30 years.

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