AN INTERVIEW WITH LARRY MAXEY - The University of Kansas

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
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