Former Lives

It's a strange thing when you find your thoughts focused on people, events, or things that were once a big part of your life, but haven't been for long enough that it is noteworthy when they come up again.  For me, it is an odd feeling to reflect and fully realize exactly how important being a cellist, and being involved in music, was to me in primary school and college.  An odd little factoid about me is that I actually auditioned for the Cedar Rapids Symphony Orchestra when I worked at Rockwell-Collins after graduating from college.  I got the call that I was accepted to be a part of that ensemble just days after suffering a broken collar bone in an auto accident.

And it was that moment that the cello - or at least me playing the cello - progressively took less and less of my time, energy, and thought.  Other things took its place as my definition of myself changed.

So, you can imagine exactly how jarring it might be if I suddenly felt myself being thrust back to a time when the cello was a bigger part of life and more of the people I interacted with had something to do with that.  This happened when I learned, just this past weekend, that Stan Sharp, a very talented musician who was one year ahead of me in the Newton schools, passed away several years ago (2018).

The first, obvious, reaction a person might have when faced with news such as this is to feel equal measures of shock, disbelief, grief, regret, and guilt.  It doesn't have to make sense, this is simply what people, myself included, feel when someone dies.  I could not have done anything to alter the path of the pancreatic cancer that ended Stan's life too early.  And, the regret that we had lost touch with each other was simply a reality of two lives busily going in different directions.  The most difficult part of a loss such is this is that all one wants to do is have a conversation with the person who has moved on - and you can't.

I had the most contact with Stan during my high school years, when we were both in the high school orchestra.  Stan's father, Larry, was the orchestra director and a music teacher for the school system - and was my beginning cello instructor.  Interestingly enough, he recognized that I had moved beyond what he could do for cello and he passed me on to Stan.  You might think this could be a problem, having someone who was practically a peer teaching.  But, no, Stan really was that good - and my own learning expanded rapidly with his help.

Once Stan went to college at Drake to study with John Ehrlich, opting NOT to go to Julliard, where he had been accepted.  We had a few conversations and I remember one of them quite well.  Stan was talking about his endeavors to enter and do well in concerto competitions (among other things).  At one point he stopped and said, "You know, I started too late.  If I had wanted to really be successful (as a solo artist) I needed to start earlier instead of fooling around like I did in the earlier grades."

I remember saying something to the effect that there are all sorts of ways to excel and even more ways to be successful.  I suspect he just chalked it up as a platitude at the time because he was a young, ambitious musician trying to see how far he could go.  And, I was young and probably didn't have near enough experience to speak with any authority on the subject! 

I wondered, on and off, over the years how well Stan had done.  I heard about some of his exploits while I was still in college and I remember hearing from him that he was going to study with Lynn Harrell, but I rapidly lost track after that.  Different worlds.  Different people.  Different focus, needs, and desires.

Upon hearing of his death, I took a moment to explore his career.  The simple fact that it wasn't hard to find some of the information is testament to the fact that he was a highly respected cellist.  But, even more than that, he was a trusted teacher and mentor for other musicians.  He was even a founding member, along with his spouse Yu-tong Sharp, of From Classical to Rock, a special concert event that raised money to make music education accessible to kids.

If you want the laundry list, you can take this link or you can look at this discography that shows 52 credits to his name.  Stan did win numerous cello competitions.  He played in the Khatchaturian String Quartet that traveled and performed.  He played in symphonies. He played in front of symphonies.  He played on movie soundtracks and he provided the sounds of the cello for artists in the US and China that included names like Elton John, Stevie Wonder and John Legend.  But, perhaps most importantly, he taught others how to play the cello and how to bring music to life.  His last eighteen years included time as a faculty member at the Colburn School of the Performing Arts.   

Perhaps he wasn't a cellist whose name was a household name like Yo-yo Ma.  Maybe he didn't get the acclaim of Lynn Harrell.  But Stan Sharp found good ways - important ways - to excel and be successful.  I am honored to have been able to call him a friend in a former life of mine.  

Well done, Stan.