Cellist

Once he [Karl Fruh] had, once he wasn't able to play a string quartet engagement in the South Side [Chicago, Illinois], a very, very big hall for music lovers and all of that. And he got me to play in his place. And I, when I finished, they--there was an envelope, they gave each one of us, and I opened it when I got home. It was fifty dollars. In those days, that was a very big amount of money. And I was flabbergasted. I was, and I called Fruh--he died about two or three years ago. And the girl wrote her notes in that [HistoryMaker] Donald White was one time a pupil of Karl Fruh. And it was in his obituary, or things that they had done. And he was a very good friend. I studied also with the principal cellist for the Chicago Symphony [Orchestra], Dudley Powers, and he gave me a scholarship for a year in the orchestra. And then I, I had--I benefited from that. He gave me long lessons and everything, and it was--and I was in the orchestra, and we used to have sectional rehearsals for cellos alone where everybody would--and violins and cellos and so forth, and I--he took up a lot of time with me, and I was--there was a lot of cellists who were much better than me, but I was, I was--I didn't have a car. I couldn't drive in Chicago [Illinois], and I went from all over town with the cello in a cloth cover in cold weather and everything, you know. And then I, North Side and to the South Side, I was everywhere. I lived in such a bad neighborhood, but in those days, it wasn't, wasn't vicious. And everything--I used to get off the subway and go and walk home. It was about six blocks from, to my home, and I would say I was--on the North Side playing a session or something, you know, and guys wouldn't bother me. I, I never was harmed. And it was not a very good neighborhood.$Anyway, I went, I took the audition, and he [George Szell] asked me all the things that were most cellists had to go through in auditioning. And he was tough. And half way between the audition and when it was over, he was asking me questions and, oh what kind of cello did I have, where did I get my experience and all that. And so then it was--it went on for the audition. And then the audition was over with, and he said, "Thank you very much. We'll let you know." That was it. So I, I had so many auditions like that where the conductor (unclear) from the Midwest and New York [New York], everywhere. And so I said, well, that's the end of that. And so that was about--I went back to Hartford [Connecticut], but I didn't tell [Moshe] Paranov anything. I just said I was sick or something, and forgot about it. And so, and I--about three or four days later, I got a telegram from the Cleveland Orchestra [Musical Arts] Association, said that I'd been hired. I still, I get tears in my eyes when I think about it. I get tears in my eyes that I, I had been hired as the Cleveland Orchestra's cellist, but that time, the Cleveland Orchestra had gone on a tour of Europe before. This was the fall, but in spring, they went to Europe, and they were, they were world's famous orchestra. They were, you've read about it when they were, they were fantastic and everything. And so I, I went back and with the fellow that I worked for in Hartford, Connecticut, he always made me remember that he, he had done me a favor because a lot of guys in his position wouldn't hire, wouldn't think of hiring a Negro. And he, he threw that up to me, and I didn't like it, but I didn't say anything. And so, but, and so when I went back, I told him, I told him the day that I was out from the orchestra rehearsal and everything is that I went down to Cleveland [Ohio]--down to New York, and auditioned for Cleveland Orchestra. And I said, this morning I got it, yesterday, and I was sitting in his office in the morning. I said, and I got a wire from the Cleveland Orchestra (unclear) and said that I had been hired, and you should have seen his face. He was, he was--he smoked a pipe, no, a cigar, pipe. And he, he lit the cigar about five times--pipe about four or five times. And he said he couldn't, he couldn't believe it. He said, he was, he would talk about George Szell in the Cleveland Orchestra. It was, every year the Cleveland Orchestra would go to Hartford on southern--on the eastern tour, and he said, George Szell, the (unclear) the Cleveland Orchestra. And I was in, and he, he was dumbfounded. He was, he said, finally, he said, asked me questions and everything. And I said, "Well, yeah, I'm going to leave in a few days." And we lived in a low-rent apartment on the edge of town, and I, I didn't have a car. I told you that. I didn't--I couldn't drive. And so I got, I got that session with George, with Paranov was over, and I was going to work in the morning and I said, with my friend, and I said, I won't be riding with you much longer because I got a job in the Cleveland Orchestra. And he put on the brakes. And he says, "My God, you're going to be in the same orchestra with Marc Lifschey," and didn't say anything about Szell. But Mark Lifschey was a fantastic oboist.