My morning with Barber(a Heyman)

This Spring, Community MusicWorks has been awarded a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to have the Fellows Quartet present Samuel Barber’s String Quartet, Opus 11 in concert and school settings as an “American Masterpiece.” Heath asked me to be involved by writing up some program notes, be in touch with the Fellows about the project and put together a podcast on the Barber quartet for our website. 

I started off by heading down to our wonderful downtown library (a real resource for the amateur musicologist) to find some source-material on Barber. Sure, I had played the Barber violin concerto and played the “Adagio for Strings” a couple of times in orchestra concerts, but to be honest, I knew next to nothing about Samuel Barber. 

I found a couple of books on the shelf and one caught my eye in particular, “Samuel Barber, The Composer and his Music,” by Barbara Heyman. I started reading a couple days later and found myself engrossed as if I was reading the latest John Grisham book.  The book is exhaustively (and I mean exhaustively) researched, wonderfully written and really fun to read, and for a musicology book that is no short order. “Hmm,” I thought to myself, “who is this Barbara Heyman?” 

A quick Google search produced a link to Brooklyn College, CUNY where she had been on the faculty. I thought, “Why, the quartet just so happens to be traveling to New York City in a couple of weeks for two concerts. Perhaps I could meet Dr. Heyman and talk Barber-shop and even invite her to one of the concerts?” I was able to rustle up a phone number and left her a message on voice mail. I felt like I was cold-calling a celebrity! Would she be annoyed, even angry with me for calling her? When I didn’t hear back from her for a few days, I was afraid my fears were confirmed. Why would a big-time music scholar bother to call back some violinist who calls her wanting to talk about Barber?  Oh well…at least I gave it a shot.

I was picking up my bows after getting them re-haired about a week later and I got a call on my cell phone. I checked the message an hour later and it was Barbara Heyman! She said that she would love to get together and even attend one of the concerts. I was so star struck; it felt like Oprah was calling me. We spoke on the phone a couple of times to work out logistics, but meanwhile the Providence Quartet’s Sunday afternoon performance in Manhattan was canceled. We were still looking around for another venue and I explained to Dr. Heyman that I was not sure when I would be free until our concert re-scheduling was resolved. “We could have the concert at your place,” I quipped, half-jokingly. “Sure, that sounds like a lot of fun,” was her response. It was that easy. I would meet Ms. Heyman in the morning to discuss Barber and then the PSQ would play a concert at her apartment in the afternoon.

I was nervous when I rang the bell of her apartment on East 86th Street in Manhattan, but she made me feel completely at ease. This was no stuffy musicologist. Barbara, as she asked me to call her, was warm and friendly and we became fast-friends. Her knowledge of Barber is astounding and she still bubbles with excitement about new projects and things to discover. We spent the next several hours talking about Barber, listening to music, talking about Community MusicWorks and just getting to know each other.

Listen to a portion of my conversation with Barbara Heyman here.

Then the rest of the quartet arrived for a short rehearsal before the guests arrived. Our friends Ljova and Inna (see earlier blog post) even showed up for an impromptu performance of some of Ljova’s music after we performed the Ravel String Quartet. It was a wonderful day. 

-Jesse Holstein, PSQ