AN INTERVIEW WITH LARRY MAXEY - The University of Kansas

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auditioned me. That’s how I got in as a first-semester freshman—I was must in the right place at the right time. It was really a great experience for four years. Q: Did you play in the marching band in college? A: If you had a scholarship, you had to be in marching band and you had to be in symphonic band. Again, the symphonic band was what I wanted to do. The marching was something I did because I had to do it. I did my student teaching during the fall so I wouldn’t have to march. Q: Did you think you might be a high school band director? A: I never intended to do that. It is the sort of thing where you get the degree in case you need it, but I never envisioned myself doing that. Q: When did you get your undergraduate degree? A: That was 1959. Q: Did you go directly on for a masters? A: Yes, I went straight on to the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, which is part of the University of Rochester. Again, there was a very distinguished teacher there. The school is very distinguished. It ranks with Julliard and Curtis--Julliard, Curtis, and Eastman kind of all go together. So that was a fantastic place to be and I loved it there. Q: Did you have influential teachers there? A: Stanley Hasty. He was the clarinet teacher and he had formerly been principal clarinetist of the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra. He has turned out lots and lots of outstanding students. Q: I suppose you played in musical groups while you were there too. 8
A: Yes, I was a member of the orchestra and a member of the Eastman Wind Ensemble, which had a very famous conductor by the name of Frederick Fennell. We recorded several albums that year, which was, again, very lucrative. At the time we were paid, I think, something like $40 an hour to record, which for us was really big time. Q: In those days that was a lot of money. A: You played 20 and you took 10 off. Those were the union regulations. So essentially we were getting a dollar a minute to record. Q: Was this classical music? A: The wind ensemble is a small band, so we were playing band music and some orchestral transcriptions. The whole wind ensemble concept was started by Frederick Fennell at the Eastman School. Now everybody, including KU, has a wind ensemble. Q: You went to the same place for your doctorate. Did you just continue on? A: No, I didn’t. After my masters, I was drafted. Those were the days of the draft. So I spent two years defending you all from the godless hoards of Communist invaders as a member of the Army. Q: Were you in the band? A: Actually, it’s a long story. After I finished at Eastman with a master’s, I went on a tour with a USO show to Europe. While we were in Stuttgart I auditioned for the Seventh Army Symphony, which was in existence at that time there. They said, “All right, when you get drafted, let us know and we will requisition you and you will come here.” So I went through basic training and notified them that I was in. Typical Army, I was assigned as a clerk typist in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, at a missile site. So I was there for a while and then I manipulated the system, because I knew as a clerk typist I knew what 9
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AN INTERVIEW WITH LARRY MAXEY - The University of Kansas

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