Michael and Jane Charry

Dear Gloria, 

We are so grateful that you took the trouble to write us, even though we have never met; and it is such a kind, detailed, thoughtful letter. We knew your sister Becky, even baby-sat her in Germany, before we Fulbrighters of 1956–7 (Michael, a student, Bruno, a professor) parted Bad Honnef, where we had an orientation for a week or so before going off to our assignments. Bruno bought a car and drove us around the near countryside in our free time.

We stayed in touch and visited your parents in Detroit when Bruno was teaching at Wayne State. Becky was dancing already then. Bruno or both of them visited us in New York City occasionally and we visited them in Champaign. Bruno introduced me to the University of Illinois Press, who patiently guided me to shape my biography of George Szell (“George Szell: A Life of Music”), and published it in 2011 in cloth and 2014 in paper. You’ll likely find a copy inscribed to your folks on a shelf. I was with Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra from 1961 to 1970, first as apprentice, then as assistant conductor. I stayed with the orchestra two more years and then made a career with opera and orchestra conducting and finally teaching at Syracuse and Boston Universities, and finally at Mannes. I had studied with Pierre Monteux at his school in Maine for four summers, earned BS and MS degrees in conducting at Juilliard under Jean Morel, and then the Fulbright in Hamburg with Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt.

Over the years we kept in touch with Bruno and Wanda, visiting them in Champaign-Urbana and they meeting us in New York City and Princeton, Illinois—where our son and his family were living—or halfway between. We exchanged annual holiday letters for years. When we didn’t receive Bruno’s usual brilliantly rhyming holiday letter this year we feared the worst. Give our love to your mother. We’ll look your dad up on the web and the in the obit you mention. He shared his recent books with us, so we know he was creative until relatively recently.  

Fortunately, we are still here and together at ages 87 (M) and 91 (J—as of 1/20).  I (M) taught at The New School University’s Mannes School of Music until spring semester 2020. Began with Mannes in 1988, conducted the orchestra until 1999, and taught various graduate courses until spring 2020, after which the virus caused drastic cuts. Hoping for possibility by fall 2021. 

We’re attaching a photo from ca. 2012, in our sailboat in Southwest Harbor, Maine. We had a house there from 1992 to 2014.

Thank you again. Please give our profoundest sympathies to your family. May we meet some day and may the new year be better than the old.

Warmly,
Michael and Jane Charry