In Wednesday’s (1/23) New York Times, Margalit Fox writes, “Joseph Eger, a French horn player, conductor and advocate for progressive causes whose work sought to promote harmony in both senses of the word, died on Jan. 13 at his home in Durham, N.C. He was 92. His wife, Dorita Beh-Eger, confirmed the death. A distinguished horn soloist in the mid-20th century, Mr. Eger later turned to conducting; in the 1960s he served under Leopold Stokowski as an associate conductor of the American Symphony Orchestra. In the 1960s and ‘70s Mr. Eger founded several groups designed to conscript music and the other arts in the service of social change. The best known of these, Symphony for United Nations, a nongovernmental organization associated with the United Nations, was established in New York in 1974. Comprising a fluid, ever-changing roster of professional musicians and other performers, the group has put on concerts throughout the world, including benefit performances for victims of the Chernobyl disaster and Bosnian refugees. … Mr. Eger’s musical philosophy was perhaps best expressed by a concert he conducted at Alice Tully Hall in 1972. The program included ‘Wind Piece,’ a composition by John Lennon and Yoko Ono that called for huge electric fans to be stationed in the orchestra, blowing the pages of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony at random on players’ music stands.”
Posted January 23, 2013
