I expect this to be the first of two posts about music in my life before returning to a discussion of my spiritual development at FBC Bellflower. My continued growth in music continues both at Bellflower and at UCLA and they are really intertwined. A key to this whole issue was the hiring of a new Choir Director at the church. His name was Ralph Freese (sp). He was not the youth choir director, he was the Adult Choir Director. He was also a voice teacher. My mom and I thought that it would be good to start voice lessons from him. I am not sure whether this was in my senior year at Bellflower High School or my freshman year at UCLA. I could continue lessons because I didn't live on campus my freshman year, but commuted.
Mr. Freese started me doing some serious singing. When I say serious, I just mean that I was learning to sing correctly and use my voice effectively. Was it all opera? No, although I did some opera. I sang serious church songs, Broadway, German Lieder and some pop songs. Basically, I just learned to sing. I loved it! He also helped me at UCLA. In my freshman year I was lost. UCLA was so large! I don't think I would have made it if it hadn't been for my friend John -- he was not shy and there were no strangers to him. I was a tag-along. That year we commuted and I was still very involved at the church -- weekends and even some evenings. But, I was really lost when we moved up to school in my sophomore year. I wanted to do some music. I went to the auditions for the A Capella Choir but quickly backed out after watching someone else audition. The director was Roger Wagner (who was also director of a rather famous group at the time -- the Roger Wagner Chorale). He started yelling at the person auditioning because they missed a b flat while sight reading a musical score. I said to myself, "I can't do that. Let's get out of here." I did.
In my sophomore year, I did become a member of the Men's Glee Club. This was a lot of fun. Our big event was when we were a part of the program for the Sport's Illustrated Athlete of the Year Presentation. Rafer Johnson, who was President of the UCLA student body was the athlete. He won the decathlon at the Olympics that year. I remember that Danny Thomas was the Master of Ceremonies. Those of us in the Glee Club got to mix in with the celebrities -- really neat. Most were athletes, but some were also movie stars. I was quite taken with Esther Williams (you have to be real old to remember her -- beautiful -- a swimmer -- and a star.) That was the first time that I ever ate Filet Mignon. This was a big event (for me.) This was my only musical involvement until my Junior year.
Then, in my Junior year, I received an invitation to attend a "rush" party for some fraternity (Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia) at a home in Beverly Hills. I had no idea what this was, but it sounded good, so I borrowed the MG from one of my room mates and went to the party. To make a long story short, I was asked to pledge the fraternity and later that year became a full member. It was a professional, music honorary fraternity. I looked it up on Wikipedia a few minutes ago, lots of famous people were and are members -- I began to wonder how I had been picked for this group -- all of the others in my chapter were music majors! Then I remembered Mr. Freese -- he was a friend of the academic sponsor of the group.
Membership in the fraternity opened many doors for using and developing my music even though I was a premed rather that music major. I sang in a number of groups, played in string quartets -- and performed in many venues. One of the neatest events was the UCLA Spring Sing that year. This was an event for fraternity's, sorority's and other clubs to put together a musical performance as a competition. We held the event at the Hollywood Bowl. That year we one the sweepstakes award as the best group in the competition. We performed along with our sister sorority, Mu Phi Epsilon (for any Chula Vista people, Becky Schoultz was a Mu Phi Epsilon.)
One other thing that helped me in my music was that I became a Wedding Singer. FBC Bellflower was THE church for weddings at that time. My mom was the wedding coordinator. She would always ask who they had to sing. If they had no one, she would give them my name. At first, I was always unsure of myself when asked, "How much do you charge?" Mom said if I sold myself too cheaply that no one would want me. I finally began to feel comfortable asking for $50. Guess what, the word got around and I began to get invited to sing at other venues also. By the way, $50 was the tuition for a semester at UCLA (and included football tickets -- even the Rose Bowl), gas was $0.18-0.21 per gallon and as a union worker at the Ford Automotive Assembly Plant (in the summer), I made $2.10 an hour. What I am saying is the $50 was a goodly sum of money in those days. But, this is how I earned a significant part of my money for school.
Everything about music seemed so positive. Certainly there was no movement toward the Belly of the Whale in this. This saved me and gave me a social life outside of the Bellflower church. But, in my next post, my activity in music starts me on the long slide into the abyss -- the Belly of the Whale.
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