In 2004 I returned from the Gergiev Music Festival in Rotterdam, Holland. The Festival is named after the dynamic conductor Valery Gergiev, who devoted that year's concerts to the composer Serge Prokofieff, marking the 50th anniversary of the composer’s death. This ten day festival revealed, in retrospect, how much Prokofieff's music has been a source of hope and inspiration throughout my life.

Most people know of Serge Prokofieff (1891-1953) by his most famous work, "Peter and the Wolf," which was my first introduction, as it was for many, in childhood. The haunting motif for the duck, as played by the English Horn, cast a spell unlike any other music I was listening to as a child. As an adolescent I was introduced to his more dramatic music, which was used in an early sci-fi TV show, "Tales of Tomorrow." Each week the half-hour program would open with a segment from Prokofieff's ballet score for "Romeo and Juliet," an electrifying scene which conveyed the intense energy and hate between the Montagues and Capulets. Later in the program music from "The Scythian Suite" would be used for the wondrous and unknown in this TV show.

On March 5 1953, Prokofieff died in his native Russia, followed two hours later, ironically, by the death of Stalin, an event that completely overshadowed the funeral services for the composer. Prokofieff was at one time one of the Soviet's greatest composers, and in the final years, vilified, disgraced, and consigned to oblivion by Stalin.

During my youth I read the few biographies that existed of Prokofieff in an attempt to understand this man whose music had such an effect on me. With the advent of long playing records and hi-fi, much of his work could now be readily heard. There are certain elements such as the driving, pounding rhythms, unrelenting tempestuous energy and brash dissonance that naturally appeal to a mischievous teen. But there was also the composer's soaring lyricism and romanticism, which later as an adult I would appreciate, but could not readily conceive as being created by the same person whose music I had adored in my youth.

The highly concentrated performances I attended in Rotterdam provided a perspective on how Prokofieff's music has been a source of energy and inspiration, much needed to recharge my batteries, often battered from the organization fund-wars of the past three decades. If there is one underlying quality to Prokofieff's music it is the positive energy and sense of ultimate triumph that runs throughout. Prokofieff’s impassioned works (symphonies, ballets, operas, piano works) have served to inspire and give me the energy to persevere in spite of seemingly overwhelming obstacles in creating and running a growing organization.

Return to Index