Stewart Taylor and friends of the Israel Philharmonic

This fellow is Stewart Taylor. He was the principal trombone player with first the Montreal Orchestra and then the Israel Philharmonic. Now he is the Orchestra's manager.  You can read his music story here.

On a personal note, we went to school together, and played in groups together (musical stuff) and his dad was a violist and owned 20th Century Cleaners and one of Stewart's jobs in HS was to deliver dry cleaning so I would ride along.  He was my first encounter with a Jewish friend, which, as a Lutheran of German stock in a post war town that still seethed....well it was a special meeting of minds that I treasure all the more as I look back.

We had something of a segregated town. Highly catholic, very Polish, few WASPS and a highly open minded Jewish community that kept a bit to themselves but were vital to the cultural and intellectual well being of the commuity, both in artistic contribution and in commerce - as I said,we were a dozen years out of WWII and stuff was always pretty ripe - being Germanic was not a badge of honor.

Stew, Ron (a Lutheran minister's son), Bob and Jim (all musicians too) hung out a lot together.  Partly because of mutual respect and a lot because of the support - tacit or not. Nerds by today's standards? Perhaps.  But it was pretty good fun we had and I felt so at home at his parent's house - like one of the family - and I thought about them this morning which prompted this post.

Elizabeth, his sister, was a jewel. Full of spunk and a very bright bulb on the tree.  Thinking back, she was pretty remarkable and held her own..well perfectly.  In my last area of work we could have met up...frankly I wasn't pressing it because times change and remembrances of things past - well you know - she might not have remembered me as fondly as I did her - so guys get a little tepid about such things. Not girlfriend things...but friends things.

His mother and father were great friends to me.  His sister was my musical accompanist in my high school music endeavors. Stewart was like a brother in a lot of ways. His younger brother Mark was just the nicest kid going.   I've sent this link to his sister and to him...just to let him know that I think of him, all the times back then, and always hope he is well.