Thomas Durham
Three books–the Jack Kennedy biography by Chris Matthews, an Einstein biography, and the John Meachem Jefferson biography. Also, I just finished reading a PhD dissertation on the 13th director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Jerold Ottley. The meat of that dissertation was my 22 years with the choir. I joined the choir in 1980. I remember Jerry Ottley conducting me as a University of Utah Singer when we sang my dad’s arrangements of “Once in Royal David’s City.” He was my 7th grade teacher of general music and he lived in East Millcreek where I grew up so I always had known who he was. It was interesting to read so much about what I knew about first hand.
My wife and I gave each other $250 in cash, so that we could donate $500 to the Roger Miller Scholarship fund at the University of Utah. It goes towards scholarships for music students.
I liked the abstract by Doug Snow–which now hangs in my own home. I was always mesmerized looking at it. Sometimes I think he went to some place that had sand and water and different colors of dirt and he just drew out a rectangle and painted it. It provoked my imagination about what he was thinking when he painted it or was he painting something that he actually saw.
A portrait of Durham by Alvin Gittins
Henry Moore, but he’s dead–so too bad. I like all of his stuff. I have never seen a Henry Moore sculpture that I wasn’t impressed with. So I know if he were to sculpt me I would like it. But I’m happy with Alvin Gittins who did a charcoal of me when I was 19 years old.
This is our chance to check in with members of Utah’s art community to see what they’ve been reading, seeing, doing.
Categories: Music | On the Spot
