WEBVTT 00:00:02.000 --> 00:00:23.000 Maurice Levy: What are your memories about the Pittsburgh Musical Institute? I, um, interviewed one of the eldest daughter of Charles Boyd a couple of weeks ago. Marjorie, right. Right. Marjorie. And what what do you recall of your experience at the Pittsburgh Musical Institute? 00:00:23.000 --> 00:01:35.000 Carl McVicker: Well, the old building down there was next to the to the old WQED on Bellefield Avenue 00:01:35.000 --> 00:01:49.000 Levy: Oh, that's right, they made us. They made us get, uh, a permission from the school board to go out and earn a living to supplement the money that we couldn't, that we didn't make very much money with. And they asked us permission. Yeah, they made us ask permission. 00:01:49.000 --> 00:01:53.000 McVicker: I never turned me down, but I always had to have it right. And they could have, uh. 00:01:53.000 --> 00:02:05.000 Levy: Uh, I remember a lot of us used to resent the fact they paid us those coolie wages. Then we asked to supplement them. We had to get permission to supplement. That's right. Which was sort of ironic. Yeah. 00:02:05.000 --> 00:02:12.000 McVicker: Well, Doctor Boyd was a. Id say the head of it. President. 00:02:12.000 --> 00:02:17.000 Levy: He was one of the founders. He did, you know? Well, with Dallmeyer Russell. 00:02:17.000 --> 00:02:33.000 McVicker: Dallmeyer Russell was the director. And Mr. Oetting, I forget his first name. He had two daughters. One of them became a teacher. Both of them became. Members of the faculty out at Westinghouse. One of them was a librarian. One of them taught one of the subjects. At Westinghouse. 00:02:33.000 --> 00:02:34.000 Levy: It. 00:02:34.000 --> 00:02:36.000 McVicker: The Oetting girls. 00:02:36.000 --> 00:02:37.000 Levy: Oh, the Oetting Girls. 00:02:37.000 --> 00:03:13.000 McVicker: And he had a complete staff, of very good teachers. Gaylord Yost was head of the violin department. And. The reverse ones. Very fine teachers. But towards the end. We. We open build up all the fraternities at Pitt being built up, you know, nobody could find a place to park. I'd leave Westinghouse and I'd drive around all over Oakland trying to find a place to park. So finally they just gave up and sold out because they didn't have enough students to make it worthwhile. 00:03:13.000 --> 00:03:17.000 Levy: The school was slowly, gradually winding down. Was that it that. 00:03:17.000 --> 00:03:22.000 McVicker: They used to be connected with Pitt and they could get their music credits through Pitt. 00:03:22.000 --> 00:03:28.000 Levy: But did did Pitt begin to build their music department up and did that? No, no. 00:03:28.000 --> 00:03:43.000 McVicker: No, that was just an adjunct. I'd say Pitt music department was going downhill. Wasn't much. You couldn't get a degree in music at Pitt because that group went over to Carnegie Tech. You know what I told you about? 00:03:43.000 --> 00:03:44.000 Levy: That's right. Because they had. 00:03:44.000 --> 00:03:50.000 McVicker: They are trying to build it up now with Nathan Davis. But that's strictly a jazz outfit. 00:03:50.000 --> 00:03:57.000 Levy: But they have some they have some classical teaching there, I believe, because I have a friend who teaches the piano there. 00:03:57.000 --> 00:03:59.000 McVicker: Cant get a degree in it, can you? 00:03:59.000 --> 00:04:19.000 Levy: I really don't know, I dont know but they have they have a number of classical concert free and concerts in the year over at Frick Fine Arts. Natalie Phillips. I don't know if you know that name. You know the Phillips, uh, her, uh, uh, two boys are professional violinists. 00:04:19.000 --> 00:04:21.000 McVicker: Yes, I'm familiar. Phillips name. 00:04:21.000 --> 00:04:51.000 Levy: Eugene, played for the symphony. Right. And Natalie taught at Pitt. And she was. She is a private teacher, very fine teacher. And, uh, their two sons are are very fine musicians. Uh, went up and plays at the 92nd Street Y in New York. In fact, they formed their own quartet, the Orion Quartet. The uh so the PMI had what was range of things that they taught there. Was it just a standard music subject of. 00:04:51.000 --> 00:05:11.000 McVicker: Harmony, Theory in general and uh. Mostlly uh proficiency on their instrument. They taught Organ. Doctor Boyd had a heart attack right at the organ. He had one of the finest musicological libraries in the in the Pittsburgh area. 00:05:11.000 --> 00:05:30.000 Levy: Yes. He donated it to to the Carnegie Library. It's part of our music division there. He had over 2000 volumes, over 2000 volumes, 3000, 2 or 3000. His youngest daughter comes in as a volunteer, and she's helping to go through the collection there. Yes, yes. Eileen. Eileen Hutchinson. 00:05:30.000 --> 00:05:31.000 McVicker: I love that family. 00:05:31.000 --> 00:05:32.000 Levy: Yes. 00:05:32.000 --> 00:05:34.000 McVicker: Eileen was a pretty girl. 00:05:34.000 --> 00:05:45.000 Levy: She still is an attractive woman. Is she? Yes, she's. They remember you. They remember you, Marjorie. Marjorie talked about you when I talked to her. 00:05:45.000 --> 00:05:54.000 McVicker: Charming girls. Yes. I loved their father. Don't. I Just met another. Can't remember too much what she looks like. 00:05:54.000 --> 00:05:59.000 Levy: You dealt with him? You did. You did some teaching there? 00:05:59.000 --> 00:06:00.000 McVicker: Yes, I taught there. 00:06:00.000 --> 00:06:54.000 Levy: You taught trumpet there? McVicker: Yes, I taught trumpet there. 3 or 4 days a week. Yes. When I taught at the Boys Club Pittsburgh Boys Club for several years. Night nights that I didn't teach at PMI. I taught at the Boys Club, had the band there. Band classes at Lawrenceville until the director died. Those were weird years too. I gave up the band down there at the Boys Club, and the war came on in 1940 and the. Right. The. Director of the Boys Club, Jimmy Lodge became the. Head of the Russian[?] board down there. I said I. I'll come back and teach a man if you can get me a gasoline. He said how much do you need. 00:06:54.000 --> 00:06:58.000 Levy: Oh, this must be during the war, when it was was rationed. 00:06:58.000 --> 00:06:59.000 McVicker: Give me b book. 00:06:59.000 --> 00:07:02.000 Levy: You got a B book? Really? 00:07:02.000 --> 00:07:03.000 McVicker: Avis, a standard book. 00:07:03.000 --> 00:07:06.000 Levy: That was four gallons a week, right? Wasn't that four gallons? 00:07:06.000 --> 00:07:32.000 McVicker: That's hardly what my average gas tank those days. But isn't that strange from my big job at Westinghouse? I mean, the full time job. Hey, eight tickets and. Have a [?] for a week and for this part time job down at the Boys Club. All I need really. I went to Nashville Music Camp as a counselor the summer of 1945. 00:07:32.000 --> 00:07:37.000 Levy: And which one was that? Is that the one in Interlochen? 00:07:37.000 --> 00:07:57.000 McVicker: Interlochen? Yes. That was a wonderful summer I had there. And. I was up there and I parked my car under the tree and somebody said, McVicker. Uh, I noticed you aren't using your car. I said, no, I just got barely enough gas to get home. They give me special gas to get up here because I had one of my pupils, Frank Ostrowski, along with me. 00:07:57.000 --> 00:07:59.000 Levy: He played trumpet. 00:07:59.000 --> 00:08:31.000 McVicker: He was first from the Pittsburgh Symphony for a while. Now he's a booker for, uh, Benedum. Tries out the positions for them. This contractor for it. Anyway. They said, well, go and see the superintendent of the camp. Get you all the gas you want. I went around to see if he gave me B book. He said, this is Republican territory up here. We don't. There's lots of gas, he said in the tanks around. 00:08:31.000 --> 00:08:38.000 Levy: So you were at PMI Pittsburgh Musical Institute. How long? How long were you there? 00:08:38.000 --> 00:09:02.000 McVicker: Just like I started in 1936. 35 or 6. I think of the. It might have been before that. We'll call it a middle 30s. I'll tell you why I remember 36, because that's, uh. When the Institute of the Social Security. I took it from there instead of the Westinghouse. 00:09:02.000 --> 00:09:06.000 Levy: That's right. Because the teachers, uh, didn't pay Social Security. 00:09:06.000 --> 00:09:47.000 McVicker: At that time. You had the option of taking Social Security on a reduced basis. Now, like your pension will be, will say, $300 a month, which that's what mine was, 296 and I retired 61. And at that time, if you had taken Social Security. I'd cut in at 65. Then you took your school pension. I was 57. I retired from Westinghouse. I had 36 years in teaching. 34 there. And so what they did then they paid you your full pension until you're 65. Then Social Security came in and they cut you down like you. 00:09:47.000 --> 00:09:49.000 Levy: Have had an offset. It's called an offset. 00:09:49.000 --> 00:09:59.000 McVicker: I'd get 200 from a pension. 100 from Social Security. And several years after that the teachers were given the option of paying in paying back. 00:09:59.000 --> 00:10:15.000 Levy: That's right. But actually, that came about right near the end before. Just before you retired. I remember when that happened. We had people who had a chance to pay back. Uh. Ten quarters and they would become fully member of the retirement thing. 00:10:15.000 --> 00:10:19.000 McVicker: Didnt amount to several thousand dollars, in some cases several hundred and others. Yeah. 00:10:19.000 --> 00:10:45.000 Levy: For some of the people it didn't amount to much, but I can recall I had nothing to do with music. It was interesting the way, uh, I remember I was at Westinghouse at the time and we were trying to we had to get it. We had to get a majority. Yeah. Remember we voted on that. That was in 1955 or 56. And some people, one one lady said to me, I don't take anything for nothing. I've been self-sufficient all my life and I just couldn't convince her. 00:10:45.000 --> 00:10:54.000 McVicker: That sounds like my father in law, my son, my brother in law talked to him. He said, well, this is ridiculous. This is not charity. This is an insurance. 00:10:54.000 --> 00:11:02.000 Levy: That's money that you contributed yourself. Yeah. So, so the and you were at PMI from the middle 30s until, until the. 00:11:02.000 --> 00:11:03.000 McVicker: Until they closed up. 00:11:03.000 --> 00:11:08.000 Levy: Which was about. Uh, middle 40s. 00:11:08.000 --> 00:11:12.000 McVicker: Oh, no. Closed up around 19, about the time I retired. 00:11:12.000 --> 00:11:15.000 Levy: Oh, really? It went through the late 50s and early 60s. 00:11:15.000 --> 00:11:20.000 McVicker: Yeah, I retired in 61. I think they're still going in I'd say about the middle 60s. 00:11:20.000 --> 00:11:30.000 Levy: Okay, so you were there at least 25 years? Yes, about 25 years. What do you remember of Dallmeyer Russell? Oh, very well. What kind of what do you remember of him? 00:11:30.000 --> 00:11:31.000 McVicker: His daughter. 00:11:31.000 --> 00:11:43.000 Levy: Uh, his daughter is, uh. I'm. I'm supposed to. I'm going to interview her, I hope. Lucretia. Lucretia. Yeah, right. But do you remember? Was he a piano? 00:11:43.000 --> 00:11:49.000 McVicker: A piano duo, very talented group. He was always very friendly with me. 00:11:49.000 --> 00:11:52.000 Levy: He taught piano at the at the Institute. 00:11:52.000 --> 00:12:03.000 McVicker: After PMI closed up, she kept the name going a little while from her home in the in the Highland area. 00:12:03.000 --> 00:12:05.000 Levy: The her name now I think is Maraschino. 00:12:05.000 --> 00:12:19.000 McVicker: Yeah. She married a sax and clarinet man, I knew him. He was one of her pupils down there at PMI. Before she met him, and I had his brother as a trumpet pupil with the GI Bill. 00:12:19.000 --> 00:12:22.000 Levy: Who was that? The Maraschino brother. 00:12:22.000 --> 00:12:24.000 McVicker: Maraschinos brother. 00:12:24.000 --> 00:12:33.000 Levy: The Dallmeyer Russell was a piano teacher. And did he do anything else beside them? Was that primary. 00:12:33.000 --> 00:12:35.000 McVicker: That was the primary work that was. 00:12:35.000 --> 00:12:42.000 Levy: Primary because he was one of the founders of it. Right? How many people have taught there at its height? 00:12:42.000 --> 00:12:44.000 McVicker: How many people altogether. 00:12:44.000 --> 00:12:49.000 Levy: Yeah at PMI about. 00:12:49.000 --> 00:12:51.000 McVicker: We'll Ill see around two dozen. 00:12:51.000 --> 00:12:55.000 Levy: Really? It was a pretty good sized school there. We must have had several hundred students. Yes. 00:12:55.000 --> 00:13:14.000 McVicker: Oh, yes. Because they had a branch at Wilkinsburg and a branch up in Mount Lebanon. I had more pupils than I could handle. I had a hassle with Mr. Oetting one time about it and said, you're turning down pupils here. I said, I just don't have room for them. 00:13:14.000 --> 00:13:20.000 Levy: And you, you gave them when you taught, did you teach them on a on an individual basis or in a small group basis? 00:13:20.000 --> 00:13:21.000 McVicker: Everything. 00:13:21.000 --> 00:13:27.000 Levy: Individual everything. And throughout the Institute that generally was it. It was a one on one. 00:13:27.000 --> 00:13:29.000 McVicker: That's the way it was done. I don't know of any classwork. 00:13:29.000 --> 00:13:31.000 Levy: There were no no. 00:13:31.000 --> 00:13:40.000 McVicker: Class classes were in harmony and so on. There was a big GI Bill, a group of students here after. 00:13:40.000 --> 00:13:41.000 Levy: Well that must have kept them going. Then for a while. 00:13:41.000 --> 00:13:42.000 McVicker: They did. 00:13:42.000 --> 00:13:43.000 Levy: Yeah. 00:13:43.000 --> 00:13:51.000 McVicker: Some of those students were getting more money for taking lessons, and then the teacher for giving it because it got cost of living. 00:13:51.000 --> 00:14:03.000 Levy: That's right. Whether they were paid, the tuition was paid. At the beginning it was $65 a month. They gave them, and then it went to $75, which was a fair sum of money for a college student back in the back in the late. 00:14:03.000 --> 00:14:48.000 McVicker: Remember, those were the days I would come down there after getting through the Westinghouse, be down there about ready to start teaching about a quarter of four, 4:00, teach the dinner time. And I went in there one time and I smelled a funny smell, like burning ropes. And I asked one of my pupils, he was a black man. I said, what's that funny smell? He says, man, don't you know what that is? I forget the various names he had for it. Rope and, uh. And pot and candy. I think he said that's that's pot man. I said, what's that? He said, marijuana. 00:14:48.000 --> 00:14:55.000 Levy: Yeah. Some of them called it Mary Jane. I remember that was one of the names for it. Weed. Right, right. 00:14:55.000 --> 00:14:59.000 McVicker: That came out. I came out so wonder I wasn't arrested. 00:14:59.000 --> 00:15:14.000 Levy: Well, you were, you were lived in a different musicians world than the than the the people who smoked it. Yeah. Because, uh, remember the scandal with the, uh. Uh, Gene Krupa, remember? And today, of course, it's. 00:15:14.000 --> 00:16:28.000 McVicker: Well, at Westinhouse uh, in the 40s. You don't remember because you weren't there. But but anyway, Westinghouse Stage Band called the Cadets were very popular at that time. From there on to about the middle of the 50s. After that, the blacks didn't want anything to do with it because they wanted rhythm and blues. But anyway, I found out my stage band, half of them were on heroin and marijuana. Really? Now one of my boys. I won't mention any names. I was directing fourth period orchestra, the senior orchestra, and he was a very good clarinet player. I was directing on there and all of a sudden he went down like that. I rapped on my stand and. What's the matter with so and so passed out? One of you? Well, one of you fellows back there said his friends. You know. Will you help me carry him over to the nurses room? They said oh Mr. McVicker. Don't pay any attention to him. Let's just go ahead and direct him. You'll be all right in five minutes. Well, I smelled a rat then. I had no idea what it was, and. Just clarinet across his lap like that and his head down. Pretty soon. 00:16:28.000 --> 00:16:32.000 Levy: Then he woke up and picked the clarinet, picked the clarinet up again, and what had. 00:16:32.000 --> 00:17:12.000 McVicker: Been going on the orchestra was at noon. And the their lunch period. My lunch period was 11:20 up until ten minutes to 12, actually 5 to 12. And the bell rang. And after they ate lunch, those guys would go to the boys room and smoke marijuana. And he was just out. So I said, don't let anybody ever tell me that marijuana is harmless. I said, If I'd been driving next to him on the parkway, he'd a kill me. Good. Clear out of control. He was clear out. 00:17:12.000 --> 00:17:18.000 Levy: What about the In-and- Around Pittsburgh Music Educators Club? What was that? 00:17:18.000 --> 00:17:31.000 McVicker: That was a group of, uh. Instrumental teachers and vocal. Got together as kind of a social group as well as a. 00:17:31.000 --> 00:17:52.000 Levy: Professional. McVicker: Professional might say yes. And we'd always have. A little. A social time, you know, desserts and sometimes regular times you have a dinner. Like when the when the. You mentioned the follow who, wrote The Music Man. 00:17:52.000 --> 00:17:53.000 Levy: Meredith Willson. 00:17:53.000 --> 00:18:44.000 McVicker: Meredith Willson followed like that and. Colonel Howard, the director of the Air Force Band, became a friend of mine, put me responsible for putting my son in his band in Washington, D.C. so we had special speakers like that. But we met once a month. And when I was president, about that time, we had, uh. Prize winning groups play down at Carnegie Hall. So people could hear who had the superior band ratings around orchestras. That's when I had my orchestra playing down at Carnegie Hall. Brought people in from all over area. Then after a shortly, after I retired, it died out. 00:18:44.000 --> 00:18:48.000 Levy: So it lasted. How long did you belong to? Did you recall? 00:18:48.000 --> 00:18:52.000 McVicker: I belonged to it practically all my professional years, I don't know. 00:18:52.000 --> 00:18:57.000 Levy: So it probably, it probably it was around in the 20s then maybe. 00:18:57.000 --> 00:19:04.000 McVicker: Yes it was. I'd say it was about the time I started. I started i was 27. We'll see the 30s and 40s and 50s. 00:19:04.000 --> 00:19:10.000 Levy: Mostly, mostly music educators in the Pittsburgh public schools. Or was it from the surrounding areas too. 00:19:10.000 --> 00:19:11.000 McVicker: Area all around? 00:19:11.000 --> 00:19:14.000 Levy: I know, in other words, people out in the county, yes, belong to it. 00:19:14.000 --> 00:19:44.000 McVicker: That's probably why it fell apart, because. Got so widespread. And that seemed to lack interest too. I remember somebody said when I became president, they had a feeling like I would try to stimulate it and get it going again, which I did. And after that it went. Well, 11[?] could tell you more about that because by that time. People quit coming. 00:19:44.000 --> 00:19:49.000 Levy: Y'all have to ask him. I'll ask him what he remembers about the club. 00:19:49.000 --> 00:19:55.000 McVicker: Because he had a name for him. Uh, after I retired, he called him the Down and Outers. 00:19:55.000 --> 00:19:58.000 Levy: Instead of the Youth and the Rounders. 00:19:58.000 --> 00:20:03.000 McVicker: Down and Outers. Yeah, so it did lose. Papa. 00:20:03.000 --> 00:20:13.000 Levy: Well, I. Guess there's a lifespan to most of those things. And the young ones don't bring the same, I guess the same interest that the original. Eventually it dies out. 00:20:13.000 --> 00:20:23.000 McVicker: We used to have. Dinners down at Stover's, and really, I always looked forward to them. My wife and I would go to them. It would bring people in from Washington County, Greene County, Westmoreland all around. 00:20:23.000 --> 00:20:40.000 Levy: And there was less. There was less competition for your time. No TV and, uh, the, uh. That's right. Right. That, uh, uh, that was something to do was an evening's entertainment. I mean, the other option was to stay home and listen to Jack Benny on the radio. That was or or go to, uh. 00:20:40.000 --> 00:20:51.000 McVicker: Seems like, uh, we became more highly segregated. After a while. All band directors, all orchestra directors, all choral directors. 00:20:51.000 --> 00:20:54.000 Levy: Oh, I see, you mean in the in the group itself? 00:20:54.000 --> 00:21:05.000 McVicker: In the in the county area? Yeah. It seemed like the. Are you? You would have your PMEA affairs. 00:21:05.000 --> 00:21:08.000 Levy: That's the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association. Is that what that is? 00:21:08.000 --> 00:21:34.000 McVicker: That would draw the band directors together. Then they had the orchestra concerts would draw them and the choirs, but they were all hard to any cases where they same directors, most of them the band director, was a band director. Some orchestra directors were band directors, but choir directors were mostly all choir. But you know about you know about all people together. 00:21:34.000 --> 00:21:41.000 Levy: Nobody had a life expectancy of a life span of maybe 35, 40 years or maybe longer, but a. 00:21:41.000 --> 00:21:54.000 McVicker: Lot of it. Because Carnegie Tech seemed to lose its influence over. But that particular time Carnegie Tech seemed to have the tentacles out all the schools around. 00:21:54.000 --> 00:21:59.000 Levy: And was that is that the most influential of the music schools in the area, would you say. 00:21:59.000 --> 00:22:00.000 McVicker: At that time yeah. 00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:04.000 Levy: And then Duquesne came along later. 00:22:04.000 --> 00:22:29.000 McVicker: I was a critic teacher for Duquesne and Carnegie Tech. Finally, I guess I had to, I don't know, as I made the choice, but. Since I was a Tech graduate, they sent me to Carnegie Tech. Because I had them for most departments for a while. So nothing from Pitt, ever. 00:22:29.000 --> 00:22:32.000 Levy: But I don't recall Pitt ever sending any. 00:22:32.000 --> 00:22:34.000 McVicker: I didn't have a music department. Per se. 00:22:34.000 --> 00:22:51.000 Levy: And I don't know what they. I don't even know what the. Specifics are now. Well, we'll get around to asking somebody down there exactly what they're doing at the university because, uh, Carnegie Tech. Carnegie Mellon went through the period of where they dropped music education for a while. 00:22:51.000 --> 00:22:57.000 McVicker: Yes, it did. Levy: And they tried to become a conservatory. Isn't that correct? But now 00:22:57.000 --> 00:22:59.000 McVicker: Institute. Is a music department. 00:22:59.000 --> 00:23:03.000 Levy: Now they've revived it under this Marilyn Taft Thomas. 00:23:03.000 --> 00:23:10.000 McVicker: I don't know what kind of luck she's going to have when you pay 1500 $15,000 a year for tuition. 00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:13.000 Levy: It's close to 20,000. 00:23:13.000 --> 00:23:47.000 McVicker: In board and room. Are you going to pay 20,000? That's right. And it's a five year course. Well, now you're talking big money. And they come out. One of my friends told me about their daughter trying to get a job. So there are 2200 after one job. 2200. And you've invested, say, $75,000 to get an education. You'd have to be a supreme optimist to think that you're going to have a payback on that. 00:23:47.000 --> 00:24:14.000 Levy: Yeah. Well, that's that, of course, is because of the nature of the population dip. And the high schools will be rebuilding, I understand. Uh, the so-called population pimple is up in the upper elementary grades, and which means the high schools will be rebuilt. Uh, as you know, Westinghouse, the population is very low. Peabody's below a thousand. We had. Right. We had we had 30, 3100 when I began. 00:24:14.000 --> 00:24:21.000 McVicker: When I went to Westinghouse. We had 3200 six year school. That's right. Now that's below a thousand. 00:24:21.000 --> 00:24:45.000 Levy: But we had 3200 at Peabody, 3100 for four year school. And now it's below a thousand. But that will come back up because the elementary schools are getting crowded again. There was a population dip for a number of years, and the there was they're starting to replenish. And I guess jobs will be available again. But it's going to be a while because there aren't very many, uh, secondary jobs. 00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:47.000 McVicker: Fell in the hole through the cracks. 00:24:47.000 --> 00:24:54.000 Levy: Well, they so-called the talking about trying to lay off some people in the Pittsburgh public schools. 00:24:54.000 --> 00:25:22.000 McVicker: My sons. Have been working with Volkweins, you know, as well as playing Jack Purcell at night. He's given up at Volkweins here. He's going to do Volkweins work down in Florida. Selling the music, lining up the teachers any way. He's been reported for several years. His friends in the school business around here very disillusioned. They can hardly wait. They just take the minimum requirement to retire. 00:25:22.000 --> 00:25:26.000 Levy: Really? And that mean outside the city? 00:25:26.000 --> 00:25:54.000 McVicker: Yeah, outside the city. He doesn't know anything about in the city because his friend Randy Purcell, you know Jacks son, where he played for men in Ferguson for several years. I can't stand Maynard Ferguson trumpet playing, screeching around and everything, but, uh, uh, Randy went into this school down there, you know? Fifth, fifth and. Penn Avenue. What's the name of that? Middle school. 00:25:54.000 --> 00:25:55.000 Levy: Uh Reizenstein. 00:25:55.000 --> 00:26:12.000 McVicker: Reizenstein. Do you know how they greeted him? He got up to direct the band. When they greet him this way. Motherfuker. Motherfuker. He told them. He said, don't ever ask me to be a substitute. 00:26:12.000 --> 00:26:41.000 Levy: Well, I've received him. A friend of mine who's a jazz, we go over to Carnegie Mellon and listen to his, uh, jazz band that he has there. Yeah, they had they had a, uh, two years ago. They had something called, uh, jazz chamber music, and he had duos, trios, quartets, quintets and septets all over, uh, and they each played several pieces. And he had the kids. He does a very good job. I oh. 00:26:41.000 --> 00:26:42.000 McVicker: Yes, he's good at that. 00:26:42.000 --> 00:26:50.000 Levy: He apparently he's a very good teacher. Improvisation. I, I think, uh, a good bit of it was improvisation, I don't recall. 00:26:50.000 --> 00:26:54.000 McVicker: I heard his Stage band. They sounded good in the old days of the professional band. Yes. 00:26:54.000 --> 00:26:57.000 Levy: We heard the stage band. Although I'm like you down there. 00:26:57.000 --> 00:26:58.000 McVicker: By the way. 00:26:58.000 --> 00:27:05.000 Levy: He's quit. Quit is he. Is that is that permanent? Because he left in the middle of the tour last spring. 00:27:05.000 --> 00:27:26.000 McVicker: Did you hear anything about that? Levy: No, I just I know that a friend of mine, we were supposed to go to a concert. We marked our calendars and, and, uh, I happened to be walking through the campus, and it said that the jazz band concert for the following Thursday night at the alumni concert Hall is cancelled. And. That was the end of it. And then there was a little hum. 00:27:26.000 --> 00:27:27.000 McVicker: There was a big hassle with him. 00:27:27.000 --> 00:27:28.000 Levy: Is that what there was? 00:27:28.000 --> 00:27:29.000 McVicker: Yeah. 00:27:29.000 --> 00:28:03.000 Levy: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Uh, we went to hear I had a former student of mine who was a very fine master, and he played, uh, he played the trumpet. Played the trumpet there for for, uh, Randy. Uh, but we could only handle about half of it because he started to play that fusion music, which is part rock and part, uh, big band. And I try to be as, uh, as tolerant as I can of modern forms of music, but the merit of that just escapes me, just escapes me. 00:28:03.000 --> 00:28:05.000 McVicker: Couldn't sit through that stuff. 00:28:05.000 --> 00:28:11.000 Levy: Aside from the fact that they they amplify it beyond. 00:28:11.000 --> 00:28:36.000 McVicker: Oh, isn't that horrible? Well, they're going to have a bunch of deaf people in this country. I had a former pupil got a very fine trumpet player, and he went to West Virginia University, and he got out, and he was one of the finest transposers I ever had. And all he could get was a rock and roll band. And he said the drummer said back up and he had to sit there and he. 00:28:36.000 --> 00:28:37.000 Levy: Put his put a. 00:28:37.000 --> 00:28:38.000 McVicker: Earmuffs on. 00:28:38.000 --> 00:28:40.000 Levy: That's right. Really? 00:28:40.000 --> 00:28:48.000 McVicker: And I said, imagine playing trumpet with the plugs in your ears, but you'd be deaf. And he's half my age. 00:28:48.000 --> 00:28:49.000 Levy: All right. McVicker: Hes not doing it now. 00:28:49.000 --> 00:29:07.000 Levy: But I know you're not in the band. Well, I'd like to thank you for really a marvelous interview. You've taken us through 60 years, almost 60 years of music in the in the Pittsburgh area and the wide variety of your experiences. And I'd like to thank you again. 00:29:07.000 --> 00:29:21.000 McVicker: You're certainly welcome. It's been a wonderful, nostalgic trip for me, and I can't tell you how much it's meant to me, bringing back memories that I had put in the back of my mind or thought I'd never resurrect. 00:29:21.000 --> 00:29:45.000 Levy: Well, you're one of the as we say, this. This project is for prominent musicians, and you have really educated and prepared hundreds, if not thousands, maybe thousands of people to if all they did was like music, you were successful. Do you agree with that, that if they came out of, uh, your teaching with a love for music? 00:29:45.000 --> 00:29:52.000 McVicker: I've had a very happy career in music. I never made, never made the big money. As I've told. 00:29:52.000 --> 00:29:53.000 Levy: Well, it's our. 00:29:53.000 --> 00:29:54.000 McVicker: Mind, but. 00:29:54.000 --> 00:30:06.000 Levy: It's our pleasure to to be able to record your reminiscences and to have future people listen to somebody who really was one of the great, great music teachers in Pittsburgh. Thank you. 00:30:06.000 --> 00:30:11.000 McVicker: Thanks for very much for permitting me to share my memories with you. 00:30:11.000 --> 00:31:11.000 Levy: Thank you again.