Philip Lillestol in Paris, 1950-1952This blog site contains a chronology of Philip's life with photos and commentary from people in his life. It is divided into the following main sections:
1923-1942: Early years in North Dakota to high school graduation
1942-1950: College and war years to BA degree
1950-1952: Paris
1952-1957: Minneapolis to MA Degree
1957-1963: Teaching in Minneapolis
1964-1968: Teaching in Minneapolis
1969-1971: Teaching in Minneapolis
1972-1976: Teaching in Minneapolis
1977-2001: Teaching in Minneapolis and final years
History of the Lillestol Clan by Oline Lillestol (Philip’s aunt)
An on-line photo album where larger versions of the images may be found is available at http://picasaweb.google.com/ftrnka/PhilipLillestol. The album is especially helpful for the images of written text, as viewing the album in slideshow mode allows those images to fill the screen, making them big enough to be more easily legible.
Frank, thank you so much for this. I thought about "Mr. Lillestol" this Thanksgiving week, after participating in an exercise to write a letter or make a phone call to someone, living or dead, to whom I may never have expressed directly enough gratitude. Google brought me here. I studied with him for four or five years in my teens, driving or being driven more than two hours (from Sleepy Eye) to his apartment in Minneapolis. I'm not sure he even charged my (rather poor) parents for the lessons. I hope and believe that his passion and perfectionism influenced my own attitude toward teaching (even though it wasn't music) later in my life.
ReplyDeletePerhaps perfectionism is the wrong word, because he also taught us to be poised and polished even through errors. His high standards would be a better way to put it.
ReplyDeleteI see that we are about the same age, Frank. I wonder if we ever met. I played in two MMTA 10-piano concerts. I'm not sure what years, but they would have been between 1965 and 1968. Fauré one of those years, perhaps Poulenc the other?
Bill, Sorry to be so tardy in responding to you. I have only recently had a former student contact me directly and tonight added her memories and archival materials to the blog. If you happen to have your 10-piano programs in a box somewhere and could send me a scan, I'd be happy to include them.
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