![\"Two](\"http:\/\/kennethwoods.net\/blog1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/Marvin-and-Jim.jpg\")
<\/a>Two great conductors and beloved mentors, Jim Smith and Marvin Rabin, chatting at the UW Madison Symphony concert, November 2, 2013<\/p><\/div>\n
I last saw Marvin only a few weeks ago at my concert with the UW-Madison Symphony. It meant the world to me that he came to the concert because the main work on the program, Shostakovich\u2019s 5th<\/sup> Symphony, had been the first piece of orchestral music I had ever heard live- played by WYSO under Marvin\u2019s baton when I was just a very little boy. After the concert, we spoke at length about the piece, and Marvin\u2019s intimate knowledge and love of the score was as inspiring as ever. Although he had not conducted the piece in decades, he remembered every metronome marking- something far too many conductors never bother to learn in the first place. Although Marvin\u2019s eyesight and hearing had both been failing in recent years, it was clear to me that he had taken in every note and every nuance of that concert, and every other one he had been to in recent years, through sheer force of will and love of the art. Marvin was pleased to know I was living and working in Britain, and talked with great fondness about the year he came to this country to observe how the British youth orchestra programs worked. \u201cMy favourite program,\u201d he told me, \u201cwas the one founded by B\u00e9la de Csill\u00e9ry in Kent.\u201d This moment, when the man who opened the door to me being a conductor talked about watching rehearsals at the Kent County Youth Orchestra, where I\u2019ve been conducting regularly for nearly a decade, really hit home how deeply connected we all are in life.<\/p>\n Marvin was, by all accounts, both a great musician and a great music educator, and he also understood how to create youth orchestras that had the right organizational framework and the right outlook to give young people a chance to experience great music first hand. Having conducted WYSO through its early years with great success, Marvin was that rare founder of an organization who was able to step aside gracefully. He was always available to the board, the organization and his successors as resource, sounding board or cheerleader, but never seemed to need to remind the world of his role in establishing the program.<\/p>\n I never had the privilege of watching one of Marvin\u2019s clinics or coachings, but I\u2019ve heard a number of music educators and conductors speak with awe of his ability to transform an orchestra of young players with a few suggestions, and to open the eyes of a colleague in profound way with a \u00a0few gently shared insights into a score.<\/p>\n