510 Pearl Street
Ypsilanti, MI 48197
18 April 2008
CBC Radio Music
Heres To You
Education Monday
P.O. Box 500,
Station A
Toronto,
ON M5W 1E6
Dear CBC Radio:
First, I would like to thank CBC radio for designating a day to celebrate music education. It provides me the opportunity to pay tribute to my high school choir director, Mr. Keith Strudevant, his brilliant and talented high school and community college choral students from 1954-1969, and the community of Highland Park, Michigan.
We grew up in the small Detroit suburb of Highland Park, just 15 miles from the Ambassador Bridge and the Canadian border. I am sure that many people have very fond memories of their high school. But, during our time, the 1950s and 1960s, Highland Park was indeed a particularly special place. Our city and school had everything. Heavily due to the taxes paid by Ford, Chrysler, and Excello Corporation, the schools had wonderful curricula, faculties, and facilities. While most communities around the United States were pursuing The Dream, Highland Park, Michigan, was living The Dream: white children and black children singing together in perfect harmony. In terms of achievements, for most people, Highland Park represents outstanding basketball programs and players, most notably Bobby Joe Hill who was portrayed as the hero in the movie Glory Road. However, in spite of its legendary basketball program, I believe that arguably the most outstanding program at the high school was its choral program, lead by Mr. Keith Sturdevant (now 87 years old); and since I was not only a member of the concert choir but also the co-captain of the 1967 basketball team, my opinion is based on experience.
Mr. Sturdevant states that his primary objective was to achieve outstanding performances of great and difficult literature. During his tenure, our repertoire included songs such as How They So Softly Rest (Healey Willan), To Her I shall Be Faithful (Arnold Schoenberg), Psalm 98 (Hugo Distler), Neue Liebeslieder (Johannes Brahms), Symphony of Psalms (Stravinsky), and Christmas Cantata (Daniel Pinkham), just to name a few.
Each semester we had to audition for the right to remain in the choir and we had to qualify for each concert as well. Choir mates that have written to me remember going alone into Mr. Sturdevant's office, being presented a song and the pitch, and expected to sing their part perfectly, unaccompanied. His organizational and artistic skills, professionalism, artistic passion, and indefatigable energy lifted us to a level of excellence rarely demonstrated by high school students.
Not only did we have a brilliant director leading us, but we also had a brilliant accompanist and composer in residence, Mr. Norman Gifford. He was quiet, unassuming, supportive, and brilliant! He supported us as we tackled some of the most difficult music in the choral repertoire. He also composed music just for our choirs, including a memorial to John F. Kennedy called Let the word go forth: 6 excerpts from the inaugural address of John F. Kennedy. (Can you imagine, a high school that had its own composer in residence writing brilliant music just for us!).
A number of years ago now, I recovered from a closet a couple of old reel-to-reel tapes of our 1966 and 1967 Spring Tour Concerts, purchased for me by my mother in my junior and senior years. I somehow acquired an old reel-to-reel player and listened to them. Halfway through the 1966 tape, I was reduced to tears. I could not believe what I was hearing. We, as mere high school kids, sang the rich and complex choral selections as if we owned them. I can remember that sometimes we thought we would break under the weight of the difficulty of the music, but as I could hear on those tapes, there was no backing down, just beautiful voices singing with precision and control. After I caught my breath, it became clear to me that somehow I had to save those tapes. With the help of a small recording company, I had the two tapes converted into digital format and copied onto a CD.
I was now determined to find out if Mr. Sturdevant was still alive and to share this uncovered treasure with him. After considerable effort over two to three years, I found his son Pace Sturdevant in Canada, and he informed me that his father was alive and well at age 87. (Pace is a world-class trumpet player and is now on the staff of the Canadian National Orchestra). After I sent Mr. Strudevant the draft CD, he was so impressed that he said he was willing to back my project financially so that all of his choir kids from 1954-1969 could have a copy. For more than a year now I have been searching across the United States as well as Canada for concert choir members from 1954-1969.
Since that first discovery, I have discovered more reel-to-reel tapes of our performances. I was invited to visit Mr. Sturdevant, to celebrate the production of our first CD set. During that visit, while touring his first house (now a guesthouse), I discovered more reel-to-reel tapes neatly stacked high in a closet, perhaps placed there by his late beloved wife. Mr. Sturdevant was stunned because he says he didn't know they existed. He hadnt heard any of our music since 1969. This discovery has resulted in a 3-CD box set of songs from those concerts, which is now being sent as gifts to concert choir members 1954-1969. I am currently producing a 4th CD to add to that box set.
As a tribute to Mr. Sturdevant, Mr. Norman Gifford, members of his Highland Park High School concert choirs 1954-1969, and the city of Highland Park, Michigan, which nurtured us, I would like you to play one of our performances from the list provided.
Sincerely,
Clifford Larkins, Ph.D., HPHS 1967