Summary:
Raised in West Louisville, Richard Spalding discusses his life as a musician and musical educator. Spalding discusses childhood in family grocery stores in Louisville’s Russell and Portland neighborhoods; family’s interest in music; music education at St. Anthony School and St. Xavier High; industrial life and community among former residents of Marion county, KY; mother’s religious superstitions; excitement and discovery at UofL School of Music, 1941-1943; electronics technician in Army Air Corp during WWII led to assignments in Europe including France; meeting Cecile who became his wife. In the second interview, Spalding recounts meeting and courting his wife, Cecile, in Paris; his discharge from the Army Air Corp after assignment in Germany; return to UofL (piano) under GI Bill; UofL faculty in immediate post-WWII; difficult mail courtship with Cecile; return to France to study at American Conservatory of Music in Fontainebleu and personal piano instruction in Paris; knew Bill Mootz, famous CJ music critic there; marriage to Cecile in Paris; Cecile arrives in Louisville with little English; music teacher in Bardstown public schools (getting there by bus). In the third interview, Spalding talks about Cecile’s introduction to Louisville: Edmund Schlesinger takes her to UofL football game and she speaks to Alliance Francaise; success as choral director at Highland Junior High; part-time music grad student at UofL; job offer at UofL; learning to teach elementary music teachers; training abroad in Orff and similar methodologies; language coach for French operas; leader of Louisville Chorus; leader of summer teaching workshops in Canada; feelings about faculty role at UofL; French in-laws move to Louisville; leader in Sister Cities of Louisville; and his bi-lingual home.
