[Fwd: Matthew Sperry RIP]

[Eric Leonardson <eleon@ripco.com>]

I didn't know Matthew, but apparently he was a friend of a lot of mine
in the Bay Area, perhaps he was a member of this community, too?

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Matthew Sperry RIP
Date: Fri, 6 Jun 2003 10:29:14 -0700
From: modisti mail-list:      Philip Gelb <phil@philipgelb.com>
To: phil@philipgelb.com

I usually send out announcements of my concerts and of the meridian 
music series concerts to this list. I am very saddened to have to 
send this announcement.

Those who know me personally, know that Matthew Sperry was a very 
close friend for many years as well as a bass player i often worked 
with.
In 1990, i attended graduate school at the Florida State University 
School of Music. Shortly after arriving i was looking for a place to 
live and someone introduced me to Matt who was a junior at the music 
school, studying bass. I ended up moving into his apartment and for 2 
years we were roommates. A close friendship began that we knew would 
last a lifetime but i had no idea that would be cut short by 
yesterdays tragedy when he was hit by a truck while riding his 
bicycle to work in Oakland.
I introduced Matt to new and avant garde music and he joined the New 
World Ensemble, a new music group that i was directing at the music 
school. While in this ensemble, Matt had a chance to play with the 
great composer, Leo Smith before moving to Seattle. This performance 
obviously influenced his direction that he took his music in. I 
remember asking him why he was moving to Seattle as neither he nor i 
had ever been there before. His reply, with his usual smile and great 
attitude was "Seattle is very far from Florida (a place he grew up 
and wanted to get far away from". So shortly after graduating, he 
packed his car and went far across the country.  We remained in close 
contact and when i first went out west, we played some trio concerts 
with violist Christian Asplund and other trios with percussionist 
Gino Robair. Eventually i moved to California I would make semi 
regular trips to Seattle and always crashed in his living room, 
sharing many wonderful meals together as we both loved to eat and 
cook. And always playing music together. Matt helped me to become an 
invited soloist with the Seattle Creative Orchestra, a group he 
helped to start. And he would come and visit the Bay area and perform 
with me, Dana Reason, Pauline Oliveros and numerous others. I was 
elated when Matt and his fiance, Stacia decided to move to California 
as well. We were back in the same town together and playing music 
regularly and spending a lot of time together. Both our music careers 
were moving along well and we were often either on stage together or 
one of us was on stage while the other one was in the audience 
enjoying themselves immensely. Stacia and Matt finally were married 
and i was asked to be in the wedding band to help them celebrate. 
The birth of their beautiful daughter, Leila, a little over 2 years 
ago brought tears to my eyes and i remember coming to their home the 
following day and seeing the most blissed out expression on Matt's 
face. From then on, he was a very dedicated father who loved his 
daughter immensely. I always thought Leila was very fortunate to have 
a dad who was so kind and so much fun and so open.
Leila also seems to have a severe fascination with the sound of the 
shakuhachi and would be transfixed as soon as i let out one note. I 
will never forget, 2 years ago, at a concert i had with Pauline 
Oliveros and Dana Reason, i began the concert with a solo piece, 
playing an old Jewish melody, "Baym Rebbe Sude". As soon as i played 
the first note, i heard the sound of Leila in the audience, let out a 
happy yelp. Right after the concert, Matt came up to me and said, 
"since when are you playing Jewish music on shakuhachi"?. That 
question began a new duet project of us playing old Jewish tunes.
Unfortunately we never did get to record this project. We did release 
one CD together a few years back which is now sadly out of print, a 
4tet with Carla Kihlstedt and John Shiurba.

Last year, Matt played a key role in the big Pauline Oliveros 70th 
birthday party that i was part of the organizing committee by playing 
in the orchestra as well as putting together a performance of her 
piece, "Double Basses at 20 paces"

The last several months we have not seen much of each other. We 
traded many phone calls and emails talking about what each were 
doing.  He became very busy playing in the Hedwig stage show as well 
as being a very devoted dad and husband and I was on tour alot. In 
January, we gave what is our last performance and recording together. 
Christian Asplund, now a professor of music at BYU was out here and 
wrote some new trio pieces for viola, shakuhachi and bass and we 
recorded them and performed them in Berkeley.

Matt and i planned to meet next week and maybe have dinner together 
at Chaya, one of our favorite places to eat.

Yesterday afternoon i received the devastating phone call about his 
accident.

Some of Matthew's friends have organized a web page where we can 
share our thoughts and feelings on this tragedy. Check it out at: 
<http://birdhouse.org/blog/archives/000884.php>http://birdhouse.org/blog/archives/000884.php

-- 
Philip Gelb
Bay Area Shakuhachi School
phil@philipgelb.com
http://www.philipgelb.com


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