With regret...

[ndrew]

Hello folks,

I found out my voice teacher passed away this year.  I was afraid of this.  I didn't get to tell him how much he influence me and how much he believed in me and what his support meant.  I don't regret much, but this is a big one...  He was really the first person to really support me artistically.  I still have a small Buddhist text he gave me.  He really was a wonderful human being, still singing and teaching into his 70s.  I hope to be like him someday.  Older, gently, loving, giving... 

Now I don't know how I can tell him how much he meant to me... I hope he knows this.  I hope he knows...

Drew

Here are notes from the University of Kentucky School of Music..

James King, a legendary American helden-tenor whose bright, ringing voice and fluent high notes captivated critics and audiences in leading European opera houses in the 1960s, died at age 80 on November 20 in Naples, Florida, where he had retired.  King was a professor at UK from 1952 to 1961 where he taught voice and pedagogy and directed the Men’s Glee Club. This was his first position following graduate study at the University of Kansas City.  He and his first wife Ardis, who was on the music faculty of Georgetown College, performed frequently in concerts, recitals, and musicales in Lexington. Mr. and Mrs.  King played the lead roles in the 1955 UK summer opera production of Kurt Weill’s Street Scene. King left UK in 1962, and quickly won a resident appointment at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin as a nearly unknown singer from the United States and at the Metropolitan Opera, where he took on some of the most challenging tenor roles.  He returned to UK in 1965 to perform the tenor part in Verdi’s Requiem, and in 1978 to receive a Doctor of Letters degree from the university.

Mr. King won acclaim for roles by Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss, composers in whom he specialized. At the Met, he made his debut in 1966 as Florestan in Beethoven’s Fidelio, the first of 113 appearances there. He set records for the most performances in two particularly demanding roles on the Met roster: Baccus in Strauss’Ariadne auf Naxos and the Emperor in Die Frau Ohne Schatten, a role he sang in the opera’s Met premier.  Met audiences also heard him in works
by Berg, Bizet, Britten, Puccini, and Wagner.

His final performance was in 2000 at Indiana University, where he had taught
from 1984 to 2002, in a production of Wagner’s Die Walkure, in which he took the role of Siegmund. He is survived by his third wife, Elizabeth, three sons, and two daughters.

[Christine]

I am so sorry for your loss. You can tell him now, just the way you told us. He will hear you. It would also be lovely for you to write to his wife, and children telling them how much he meant to you.
Christine

[wellington]

You could always contact the family to express your feelings. It's often a great comfort to them to hear how their loved one has touched the lives of others.

[Teresa]

So sorry for your loss.

Christine has great advice about writing to his family and telling them. I know that would mean so much to them.

Hugs
Teresa

[Jeffreyj]

Hi Drew,
Very sorry for your loss. He sounded like a very special person who touched your life and made it better. I'm sure he knew how much he meant to you! God bless you during this difficult time.
With love,
Jeff

[Life]

Drew,  His legacy continues, you have picked up from the last "measure"..

Love

[ndrew]

Thanks everyone, stupid how you don't appreciate someone until they are gone... and then gone is a part of you...  but my tears are for love and appreciation. 

I thought about contacting his wife, I am glad others agree.

drew

[IzPoz]

Speaking as a widow, your words to Mr. King's wife and family would come as a huge comfort.  They would be very proud of him for making such an impact on at least one person's life.

I'm very sorry for your loss, Drew.  Don't regret not telling him verbally, because I'm sure he already knew through your actions how you felt.

Be well.

[Eldon]

Hello Drew,

I am sorry to hear about your loss. Contact the family and let them know how much of an impact he has made on your life.



Have the BEST Day!

[joemutt]

I'm sorry for your loss, what a guy! what a repertory! To have had a teacher like that is so valuable, now you are part of his living legacy, and you do him honor, I'm sure. Thanks for sharing.

[david25luvit]

A tragic loss for sure, Drew....but as long as he lives in your memories, he will live on in your heart.
Something I had a hard time understanding after David passed away.  The lives he touched and the moments you shared with him are his legacy...Hold fast and hard to his memory and regret nothing...short of his passing.  There are angels among us and sometimes we don't realize their presence until they are taken away from our midst.  You have my deepest sympathy.