Herbert Zipper

Reading the account of Herbert Zipper’s amazing life (April 9), I couldn’t help but reminisce about my experiences performing with him in L.A.-area grade schools. While a student in the opera department at USC, I was engaged to sing in a series of performances of excerpts from Smetana’s “Bartered Bride” with Dr. Zipper and the professional orchestra he assembled for these tours. Over a two-week period we traveled from Watts to Chinatown to East L.A. to Bel-Air. I’ve sung hundreds of performances over the years for schoolchildren, but those two weeks are ones I remember with the greatest clarity.

Though he claims to “let the music speak for itself,” Zipper has a wonderfully engaging manner with children. They listened attentively to him and were caught up in the excitement of hearing an orchestra live in their school. From my standpoint, visiting these schools clarified for me the profound diversity of Los Angeles. As pronounced as the differences were between these communities--and these differences had tangible manifestations in the schools--the music was a bridge, a medium of expression that touched all of these young Angelenos.

In a time when the arts are under a constant assault, people like Zipper are irreplaceable. His life has been a blessing to our community and our world. Thank you for the reminder.

DAVID LARSON

Los Angeles

* There are few more eloquent spokespersons--both in rhetoric and life example--for the importance of music than Zipper, and I appreciate Matea Gold’s conveying this. Zipper’s name and legacy in education will soon become a tangible part of the downtown skyline and the Grand Avenue “cultural corridor”--across from the Disney Hall site--when the Colburn School completes construction of its new facility, including Zipper Hall.

Designed primarily as a first-class venue for solo, chamber music and small chamber orchestra performances, this 420-seat concert hall will set a new standard in Los Angeles and, I believe, will be a most fitting and lasting tribute to the extraordinary life of an extraordinary man.

TOBY E. MAYMAN

Executive Director

Colburn School of Performing Arts