Biography

RICHARD DUFALLO (January 30, 1933-July 16, 2000)

RICHARD (John) DUFALLO was born of sub-Carpathian Ruthenian decent on January 30, 1933 in Whiting, Indiana, to John and Olga Dufallo.  At the age of twelve he moved to nearby Chicago which offered many more opportunities than his native, provincial refinery town.  The same year, Dufallo joined the American Federation of Musicians, and became a member of the professional music society having to falsify his age to obtain membership.  He engaged himself in intense study of his primary instrument, the clarinet, and performed at numerous Chicago venues.  Dufallo taught himself all of the instruments in the saxophone family and established a reputation on the baritone playing in many of the famous Chicago big bands in the post  World War II era.

At the age of seventeen, Dufallo enrolled in the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago which he attended from 1950 to 1953.  There he received what he himself characterized as a "primarily German education."  Dufallo quickly reached remarkable heights with appointments as the principal clarinetist of the Chicago Civic Orchestra (a training orchestra of the Chicago Symphony), and assistant conductor of the Conservatory Orchestra.  By the age of 19 he received his first baccalaureate degree. Dufallo's conservatory orchestral training culminated in a performance of Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto and with the  conducting of the Conservatory Orchestra at graduation ceremonies in Orchestra Hall.

After serving almost two years in the U.S. Navy as a Commissioned Officer (1953-1955), Dufallo decided to continue his musical education.  He enrolled at the University of California at Los Angeles where he earned an additional Bachelor's and a Master of Arts degree.  It was here, on the sunny coast, that he was exposed to the music of  Lukas Foss, Igor Stravinsky, and other important composers in the world of new music.  Dufallo served as Assistant Conductor of the UCLA Symphony under Foss.  In 1957, Foss accepted the Schoenberg Chair of Composition at UCLA and invited Dufallo to play in an ensemble that was to become the Improvisation Chamber Ensemble (ICE, 1957-1963). The group was comprised of  Lukas Foss, piano; Richard Dufallo, clarinet; Charles DeLancey, percussion; and Howard Colf, cello.  It was during this period that Dufallo vowed to become a real crusader for the new music cause.

From 1963 to 1967, Dufallo was invited by Foss to be the Assistant Conductor of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra.  During this time the Center of the Creative and Performing Arts was established in the State University of New York (SUNY).  There a group was established called the Creative Associates, an international body of unique performers and composers consisting of George Crumb, Richard Wernick, Sylvano Bussotti, Cornelius Cardew, Vinko Globokar, Carlos Alsina, Niccolo Castiglioni, Fredric Myrow, Don Ellis, Stanley Silverman; Frederic Rzewski, and David Tudor.  Dufallo had the privilege of premiering many of the works of these composers at this time.  Three years previous, Foss had invited Dufallo to serve as coordinator of the Ojai Festival, a post he held from 1961 to 1963.  The previous season (1958-1959) had been directed by Igor Stravinsky and Aaron Copland.  The Ojai appointment began Dufallo's involvement in a long history of festival management.  In 1967, after having been promoted to Associate Conductor of the Buffalo Philharmonic, Dufallo traveled to Europe where he met  Bruno Maderna who was teaching at the Mozarteum in Salzburg at that time.  Dufallo was called upon to return to Buffalo on many occasions including an invitation to serve as Music Director/Conductor for a pair of chamber concerts which were part of the 25th Anniversary of the Koussevitzky Music Foundation in Lincoln Center.  Aaron Copland had served the Vice-President of the foundation's Board of Directors since 1951.  Other members of the board included Leonard Bernstein, Richard Burgin, Lukas Foss, Howard Hanson, Peter Mennin, Gregor Piatigorsky, Gunther Schuller, and William Schuman.  Dufallo's life would be filled with endless traveling, accepting invitations to conduct, direct festivals, meet new composers, and ultimately, support the cause of new music.  Dufallo's professional and personal lives would be balanced, as summarized in a quote from his son, Cornelius: “My father was a busy man.  He was often traveling, but he and I managed to have a very close relationship anyway.”

An important appointment for Dufallo came in 1970 when he assumed leadership of the Aspen Music Festival’s Conference on Contemporary Music from Darius Milhaud. For the next fifteen years, Dufallo would invite noteworthy figures to serve as Composers in Residence including Earle Brown, George Crumb, Charles Wuorinen, Iannis Xenakis, Jacob Druckman, Roger Sessions, Elliott Carter, Aaron Copland, David Del Tredici, Peter Maxwell Davies,  Krzysztof Penderecki, Sir Michael Tippett,  William Schuman, Philip Glass, Ned Rorem, Witold Lutoslawski, Morton Subotnick, Luciano Berio, Bernard Rands, and many others.  It was at Aspen that the first interview of Trackings took place with Aaron Copland on July 22, 1975.  From 1972 to 1979 Dufallo served as Director of the 20th Century Music Series at the Julliard School.  In between these appointments Dufallo accepted invitations to conduct world wide.

After his final year at Aspen, 1986, Dufallo began collecting his interviews beginning in Amsterdam with his friend and general manager of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Hein van Royen.  The interview took place on February 14, 1986. The following day Dufallo would interview  Peter Schat.  The following month Dufallo found himself in New York conducting interviews with Ned Rorem (March 22, 1986) followed by Earle Brown on March 30.  Dufallo then recorded discussions with John Cage (April 8, 1986), George Rochberg and Richard Wernick on three consecutive April days.  For months at a time, until May 9, 1988, Dufallo interviewed composers from America and Europe whom he had known throughout his career and most of whom had been invited to Aspen.  In many cases, the interviews occurred shortly after Dufallo had conducted their music.  For a complete list of the interviews and dates see the inventories.  In 1989, Dufallo's book Trackings was published by Oxford University Press.  The project would not have been undertaken or completed without the suggestion, strength, and encouragement of his wife, Dr. Pamela Mia Paul who commented: "...it never occurred to Richard that he could write a book.  But after he played me the Copland tape, the idea flew into my mind that he needed to do something with the composers whom he knew and all the fascinating things that could be collected into the covers of a book written not by an academic, but by someone who was a performer and a colleague of these amazing men."

Dufallo's talent and integrity made him a highly sought-after authority and benefactor of repertory standards and, especially, of new music.  The last project that Dufallo completed was a segment for Of Beauty and Consolation in 2000 for which he had composed a poem and conducted three pieces.  The child from Whiting, Indiana had found the beauty and consolation which he sought in music and, more importantly, was able to share these ideals with the world through his teaching, conducting, performing.

Richard Dufallo is survived by his wife, Dr. Pamela Mia Paul, a piano faculty member of the University of North Texas; his two sons, Basil Dufallo, (a Professor at the University of Michigan), Cornelius Dufallo, an internationally acclaimed violinist and composer; his daughter, Rene Kirby; and a sister who still lives Indiana.  Please view the Richard Dufallo Collection for more information about this great man and the various components of this collection which are housed in the Music Library.

Note: All quotes (except for Cornelius Dufallo and Dr. Paul) are taken from Trackings: Composers Speak with Richard Dufallo (New York: Oxford, 1989).