A MAN OF MANY TALENTS

JENNIFER PAULL pays tribute
to IGOR KIPNIS, who died on 24 January 2002

Igor Kipnis was a great musician, and the kindest of men. We had been friends for several years. My computer is full of the pages of humour he sent to me several times each week. He loved to laugh, even if the last couple of years had given him less to laugh about.

For most people, this wonderful musician will be remembered for his performance, his recordings [listen] and his writing. His activities were many and varied, spanning the colours of his artistic rainbow. For me, his loss is one of a great friend, a wonderful listener, and an example of courage. He was always ready to listen to new ideas and to put forward his own.

In his last letter just recently, he told me how excited he was, how 'bolstered up' he felt by some 'nice happenings'. He had a new position of adjunct professor at the University of Boston, and was looking forward to giving the première of Philip Glass' new harpsichord concerto in September with the North West Chamber Orchestra in Seattle.

I knew of the 'not nice happenings' too. His treatment was exhausting, yet he looked forward to music and many more projects. One of these was a CD we were planning to make together. Our instruments -- oboe d'amore and harpsichord, were made for each other.

We shared a love of both baroque and contemporary music, of the performed note and the written word. Here was a musician who felt that music was a language, a communication between people, a sharing of thoughts and expressions.

He wrote often and was published in many journals and reviews. His energy in all that he undertook is surely restored in full once more in the land of the Igors -- Stravinsky, Markevitch and Kipnis.

Au revoir, mon ami, et merci.