Summer 2013 - The American Viola Society

The flexible personnel did not detract from a
certain stability; there was always a violist, and
then there were really two violinists who were
on the faculty for ten or more years: Mischa
Lefkowitz (long-time Los Angeles Philharmonic
first violinist) and David Margetts, who now
makes his home in Provo, Utah. The cellist for
many years was Marjory Enix. The Chapman
Chamber Players failed to achieve financial
support after 1996, which gave us a twentyeight-plus-year
career, on campus and off,
presenting two different programs a year,
mostly traditional chamber music repertory;
some not so traditional with multiple benefits to
students, faculty, campus, and community.
TT: Tell us about William Hall and John
Koshak, your teaching colleagues at
Chapman, who were often described in
California as the “Face of Chapman.”
TH: The choral conductor at Chapman for many
years was William Hall. He had many “careers,”
and I have been involved slightly in just a few.
Not blood related, he is months younger than I,
and he was at Chapman when I arrived. He was
doing a great deal of church music, which put us
on opposite poles. Bill’s strictly non-Chapman
William Hall Chorale did major concerts of big
choral-orchestra works like Britten’s War
Requiem and the Beethoven Missa Solemnis in
and around the greater Los Angeles area—big
churches mainly. When I joined the Chapman
faculty, he made a serious effort to include me
in the orchestras for these performances, which
were frequent and frequently spectacular. I
always thought I was included with reluctance
on the part of contractors as I was never a part
of the Los Angeles commercial player scene.
No matter how involved Bill Hall was with
professional choral music and other enterprises,
he always put his Chapman responsibilities first.
He liked to do big choral-orchestra literature at
Chapman too. Flos Campi was a natural; one
January we performed the Vaughan Williams
multiple times on tour, although it was difficult
to coordinate those forces for an effective recruiting
trip. Bill Hall, Chapman College, and
an oboist friend (Dr. Donald Leake, my college
roommate, prominent surgeon, and UCLA
Professor of Surgery, who also commissioned
Darius Milhaud’s Stanford Serenade, for oboe
and the Stanford orchestra) cooperated in
commissioning three good-sized works for
oboe: Double Concerto for Oboe, Viola, and
Strings by Alice Parker; Four Songs (Love Song
Cycle), a set of songs featuring oboe and choir
by Robert Linn; and a bigger work for oboe,
orchestra, and choir by Mark Volkert (Concerto
for Oboe, String Orchestra, and Chamber
Choir).
Speaking of recruiting, the Chapman director of
instrumental activities during Chapman’s
developmental years was John Koshak. He
enjoyed great energy and skill in many areas of
constructive importance to the school, but
professionally we had little interaction, with the
exception of the Harold in Italy performances. I
never saw a better orchestra conductor who
excelled especially in working with high school
honor orchestras; John’s statewide and national
prominence in music education and instrumental
conducting was greatly helpful in developing
our music department. His student recruiting
and retention was remarkable, and I especially
admired his ability to prepare average talent for
above average accomplishments!
VOLUME 29 SUMMER 2013 ONLINE ISSUE
70