Over the weekend my music coach and mentor, Andrew Lolya, died; I played the Funeral this morning. Andy was the Principal Flute of the New York City Ballet from 1961 to 1998 all through the George Balanchine years.
He was my coach from 1978 to 1990 or for 12 years where I studied with him on nearly a weekly basis. I went through all the major works for harmonica and orchestra with Andy and studied phrasing and expanding the range of musical possiblities of the harmonica under his guidance. Cham-ber Huang taught me how to play chromatic and Andrew Lolya taught me how to play music.
So if you ever hear a phrase in my playing that you find musical, you can thank Andrew Lolya for inspiration.
