 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Biased R13 Guy
Date: 2008-06-07 03:31
Today I had the pleasure of playing duets with former NBC staff orchestra clarinetist Matt Utal. I studied with Matt for many years and we have remained friends (I am young and he is 80). Anyways, we were talking about clarinet soloists in the 40's and 50's. Names such as Reginald Kell, Louis Cahuzac and others came up. One that I had not heard of was an obscure hollywood clarinetist name Harry Keller. Matt studied with Keller as a student at the (now defunct) Westlake College of Commercial Music. Apparently Keller was quite eccentric and a bit of a recluse. He recorded some of the Mozart violin concerti on clarinet (even at this time!). Has anyone here heard of Harry Keller?
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Author: GBK
Date: 2008-06-07 03:47
There was an in depth 4 page feature profile/article about Harry Keller in the Volume 16 Number 2 (February/March 1989) issue of The Clarinet.
It was titled: "Born 30 years Too Soon! Who Was Harry Keller, and What Made Him So Outrageous?"
...GBK
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Author: bienaimy
Date: 2011-11-20 23:40
Its just a fluke that I found this - I'm sure I knew your Harry Keller! He was definitely an eccentric but very kind man; he smelled of liniment, wore slicked back dark but graying hair, had kind brown eyes, dressed to a T, wore rimless glasses. He could play "Flight of the Bumblebees" as effortlessly on the piano as on the clarinet...of his clarinet, he loved to say, "I'm married to my Clara". He drove an old sky-blue car (Was it a Studebaker?), and at the end of the day, it was not uncommon to see the smoke rising out of the trunk of his car off his hibachi, he busying about in his suit and tie and overcoat at the task of dinner. He was a guest at our family home for dinner several times after my mother observed this!
There was curiousity surrounding him; it seemed odd that such a talented man was teaching piano and clarinet at a small Lutheran school in Napa, CA, around 1968 - 1970 (St. Johns Lutheran School - still going strong); I believe he was living in Angwin (Perhaps he taught there also at Pacific Union College?), and it seems vaguely familiar that he might have taught through a music store in Napa (Adamo's?). He didn't seem to mind that I had no real talent at the clarinet, (or my sister at the piano!) and that I did not practice as I should.
I remember him talking about Benny Goodman and Chicago...but mostly he did not talk about himself too much...he was just there for the joy of the music. Too bad I didn't have a real artist in me...he inspired me in many ways...and obviously, he made an impression - 40 years later, here I am looking him up on the internet...
a1j1rose@yahoo.com
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