Gordon Wright Memorial Website, 1934

Gordon Wright Memorial Website, 1934 - 2007

MEMORIES

John Luther Adams
1985

Composer John Luther Adams (www.johnlutheradams.com) of Fairbanks was planning to picked up by Gordon Wright at the Anchorage airport. When Gordon didn't show, Adams called Wright's neighbors, and they found Gordon under the birch tree that grows through the deck of his cabin. It seemed an appropriate place for him to be, there on the deck of the cabin with a view of the waters of Turnagain Arm.

Adam's new work, Dark Waves, was performed by the Anchorage Symphony February 17th. Gordon had planned to attend. Instead, John dedicated the first performance of Dark Waves to Gordon.

In John's words:

"Gordon told me several times about a piece he intended to write, inspired by the sea at Timber Cove, California, where he's been spending his winters in recent years. Whenever he talked about this piece, he spoke rhapsodic, poetic words. And I always told him: 'You should write it!'

"The week before the premiere of Dark Waves, I gave Gordon his copy of the score. He looked it over for a few minutes, looked me in the eye and said: "Well. I don't have to write my Timber Cove piece...You've written it for me!"

"So although he never heard it in the air. He heard the new piece in his mind's ear. And he seemed to like what he heard."

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Gordon Wright was the friend of a lifetime. For some thirty years he and I shared our two great passions: music and nature. Gordon was my musical collaborator, my fellow environmentalist, and my next-door neighbor. Along with my dear wife Cindy, he was my best camping buddy.

Last spring at our annual tundra camp, Gordon and I talked as we always did about life and death, about the fate of our human species, and the meaning of it all. Gordon had little use for religion, which he held accountable for much of the intolerance and suffering of humanity. (I can't say that I disagree). Yet although he might scoff at the notion, Gordon had faith.

Like the landscapes of the North that he loved so deeply, Gordon was expansive. He gave refuge. He embodied myth. His spirit lives on in so many ways, in so many people, in so many places. And I know he'll be with us again on the tundra this spring.

I wouldn't presume to speak for Gordon. But I offer these lines in his honor.

Credo
(in memory of Gordon Wright)

I believe in the mystery of being,
in the wholeness of life,
and the spirit in all things.

I believe in the tundra,
in the forests, in the rivers,
and the nameless mountains stretching to the sea.

I believe in the music
of the rising wind, the rushing water,
and the bell-tones of the hermit thrush ringing in the twilight.

I believe we are relatives
of the moose, and the swans,
of the birch, the cranberry, and the wild rose.

I believe that our destiny
is to know our place, to live in peace,
and to listen to the earth.

John Luther Adams

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During the summer of 1985, Gordon Wright led the Arctic Chamber Orchestra and Chorus to Europe, where concerts were performed in Switzerland, Norway, Finland and Sweden. Various orchestra members wrote limericks during this tour, and they were "performed" at the very end of the tour, fittingly, by a swimming pool. Thanks to Dorli McWayne, for hanging onto these fine rhymes all these years!

JLA conducting the ACO "Chorus Without Sleeves" (pun on "Forest Without
Leaves"). Lead singer Birch Pavelsky had just finished the ACO Limericks
performance.

A forgotten composer named Reznicek,
Was revived by a conductor who said, "What the heck."
But the orchestra swore,
If he finds any more,
We'll just have to wring his neck.
    --Anonymous, someone who wanted to be invited on future tours

There once was a bus full of people,
Who stopped at every steeple.
With no time to spare,
They played on a prayer,
And they never got any sleeple.
    --Julie Burud, soprano

There once as a man named Gordon,
Who tried to keep us from boredom.
The climb to Mt. Titlus,
Nearly scared us all shitless --
Said one to another, "When's this tour done?"
    --Irene Lucas, bassoon

Gordon was a sauna guy:
A friend of ours went to the sauna,
Opened the door and saw the bare fauna.
I saw the surprise as she widened her eyes,
And said, "I don't think I'm gonna!"
    --Ken Kokjer, baritone

In Engelberg folks like to say,
The group from Alaska did stay.
They spent all their change,
And acted quite strange,
But we hope they return someday.
    -- Irene Lucas

There once was an orchestra from Alask-a
Which -- for free food -- would do any task-a.
On Mt. Titlus they would gorge,
And the same when in "Norge,"
Then out in the sun they did bask-a.
    --Irene Lucas

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Dorli McWayne
on ACO tour

Gordonisms
Compiled by Dorli McWayne

Gordon could conduct Mahler as if he were channeling the Maestro himself. He found added musical inspiration at the concerts far beyond anything we produced at a rehearsal.

Playing in the pit orchestra for FLOT (Fairbanks Light Opera Theater) he jotted down a new name for the group in German: Fairbanks Leicht Oper Gesellschaft : FLOG.

We shared many a wonderful potluck dinner with him at his cabin when a visiting soloist was treated to a special night in the Alaskan woods. This always included a bit of a nighttime trek through the spruce forest, as there was no road right to Gordon's door. Even in that rustic setting he had his generator-operated stereo and extensive record collection (and TV!!).

A history buff, Gordon told the most wonderful stories about composers' lives and deaths. Every time I'm walking my dog, I'm reminded that the composer Wallingford Rieger met an untimely end when his dog wrapped the leash around his master's legs, tripped him and he hit his head on the ground (a sidewalk, presumably). The tale of Anton Webern's demise obviously impressed others in the ACO as well. On a tour to Kenai, two members of the wind section who were not playing in a particular Webern piece, proceeded to don theater costumes they found backstage and act out his accidental shooting death as he lit a cigarette at night on his porch during a blackout in Europe during the war.

His favorite line at the end of every fall ACO tour (especially the airborne ones): We walk away from another one.

Gordon's dedication to the orchestras was all-consuming. In addition to the conducting and musical concerns, he spent huge amounts of time considering personnel matters, fundraising and publicity. A detail and list kind of guy, he also compiled the ACO roommate list every fall, and would never divulge his rational behind the assignments.

As the founder of the ACO and staunch supporter of the FSO, Gordon returned from time to time to hear the orchestra and visit with friends. We all thought his visits would continue indefinitely, I guess.

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From Carol and Jack Sanders:
Following is a letter written by the orchestra director out at Pomona college, when he found out about Gordon's passing. At the end is a link where people can hear the piece that Gordon arranged for guitar and orchestra.

Hello Orchestra,

On its November 2003 program, the PCO performed a harpsichord work called Fandango, attributed to the baroque composer Antonio Soler, in an arrangement for guitar and small orchestra done by Gordon Wright. Jack Sanders was our guitar soloist, and ours were the permiere performances of the arrangement.

A few current members of the orchestra were involved in that piece, including Abby Browning, Eric Tang, Alma Zook, and Elicia Whittlesey. Others, including Debra Hurwitz, Jonathan Wright (no relation), Corinna Cook, Lucie McGee, Hollie Lohff, and Don Lawrence, played on the same program (which included Copland's Appalachian Spring and the Ives Second Symphony) but were not assigned to that piece.

I thought you should know that Mr. Wright passed away last week at his home in Alaska, at the age of 72. During his career he was active as a conductor, founded multiple orchestras, and championed neglected composers. He attended our performances of his arrangement and was enthusiastic and friendly throughout his visit.

The arrangement of Fandango was colorful, effective, and fun to perform. If you would like to hear the PCO's rendition -- still the only live performances of it, so far as I know -- go to www.music.pomona.edu/orchestra/fandango.mp3.

Eric

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Sandy Clark

Remembering Gordon:

Gordon loomed large in my life and mind during the years I played in the flute section of the FSO under his baton (January 1979 until he retired). It was my first experience playing in an orchestra and I felt incredibly fortunate for the opportunity, and often terrified in the rehearsals. Although I grew to love Gordon dearly, enjoyed his humor enormously, and appreciated the incredible experiences he made possible for the Arctic Chamber Orchestra, always lurking near the surface was the knowledge that a few critical words from him could intimidate me completely.

Perhaps we were paranoid, but it seemed to the flute section that we were held to some higher standard than the rest of the orchestra. Whenever we had a piece with a busy flute part, we felt certain that we were going to have to play our parts alone in the rehearsal. This had the beneficial effect of making us practice our tushes off and meet for frequent sectionals, more than any time since then, but didn't seem to get Gordon off our case.

In contrast, Gordon seemed remarkably patient when the ACO was touring in China and there was a piccolo solo in a piece for solo clarinet (Ted DeCorso) and orchestra which I couldn't play for the life of me. It wasn't even difficult, and I could nail it over and over when I was warming up or practicing, but every time we came to that spot in a performance there was silence, or some weird stuff that WASN'T the solo. The one time Gordon said anything piercing about my woeful solo was when the orchestra was on the way to tour a polyester factory, and I offered my opinion that "Reznicek is to good music as polyester is to silk." Of course, that may not have been the best thing to say to the man who was probably the world expert on Reznicek, and it seemed quite restrained that his response was a grumbled, "Just play that piccolo solo, Sandra." (For the record, at our final concert of the China tour, in Shanghai, I played the solo correctly. Apparently this was so disconcerting that at least one violinist lost her place!)

I will always be grateful to Gordon for his dedication to sharing music. The impact this had on me was the unique experience of playing great, and even not-so-great, orchestral pieces. But his far wider impact was in the towns and villages of Alaska where the Arctic Chamber Orchestra performed for people who had never heard a live classical concert; and in the Fairbanks audience who benefited from Gordon's development of the Fairbanks Symphony and founding of the Arctic Chamber Orchestra; and most of all in the hearts of the musicians who played in his orchestras.

Sandy Clark

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