I received a text from a friend the other day, alerting me that Phil Lesh had died. While I probably couldn’t name a single Grateful Dead song, Lesh has always had my greatest respect. How many Deadheads are aware, I wonder, of his many philanthropic efforts on behalf of neglected, struggling, or simply unloved classical music composers? He had a soft spot, especially, for contemporary English music.
What’s perhaps not commonly known is that he and future bandmate Tom Constanten studied at Mills College with Luciano Berio. One of his classmates happened to be my friend and frequent Mahler concert companion, Philadelphia composer Robert Moran. Another was Steve Reich.
I can’t speak for the dead, but we the living should be grateful for Lesh’s efforts on behalf of contemporary classical music.
Here are a few links to works and/or recordings he subsidized through the Dead’s Rex Foundation:
Havergal Brian, “Gothic Symphony,” recording paid for by Lesh, who also produced several others of the composer’s music. Its success brought a commitment from the Marco Polo label to document the rest of Brian’s unrecorded symphonies. He wrote 32 of them in all, twenty of them between the ages of 83 and 92!
Robert Simpson talks about his Symphony No. 9, commissioned by Lesh. The entire work spans some 50 minutes, and the sections are all posted (separately, alas) on YouTube.
Individual movements compiled into a playlist here:
For a time, a bootleg of Harrison Birtwistle’s “Earth Dances” was Lesh’s workout tape. He funded the music’s first commercial recording, employing these same forces.
Bernard Stevens was long gone by the time Lesh discovered his Symphony No. 2. Again, he paid for the recording.
You can learn more about his munificence in this article from 1991 in the Los Angeles Times:
If the article is paywalled, you’ll find much the same content here:
Rest easy, kindred spirit.