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Carlo Curley - RIP

Started by MusingMuso, August 11, 2012, 09:00:01 PM

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MusingMuso

The shocking news has emerged of the death of Carlo Curley at around 5pm to-day; apparently a sudden and unexpected death at his home in Melton Mowbray.

I'm sure there will be many who will pay tribute and share special memories of him.

RIP Carlo

Best

MM

diapason

Shocking news - Carlo was one of the great players and showmen.  Like his teacher, Virgil Fox, Carlo really brought the organ to the people.  One of the very few players who could pack a concert hall to capacity and send the audience home tapping their feet.  RIP.

JBR

I was rather shocked to hear this.  His stated aim of making the organ interesting to everyone should be applauded.  I'm sure he will be sorely missed.
A missionary from Yorkshire to the primitive people of Lancashire

rh1306

I am devastated by the sudden death of Carlo, my best friend of 35 years, the most talented organist the world has ever known.
RIP my dearest Carlo :'(
Dick 

David Drinkell

This is indeed sad news.  Carlo was not only a vastly talented musician but a thoroughly nice guy and terrific company.  May he rest in peace and rise in glory.

David Pinnegar

It is to Carlo that many of us owe a lifelong enthusiasm for the organ. This forum exists because he above all else demonstrated the King of Instruments to be the king that it is to our generation.

Who is there to this?

However, it should be remembered that Carlo was able to be the flamboyance that he was on account of most generous sponsorship that give him that image of shock and awe, the great man with charming style in charge of the great machine that perversely is also a musical instrument.

Who is there in this generation to sponsor a young player to do that?

In Carlo's memory, is it possible to generate the enthusiasm necessary through all available means to find both a sponsor and a player to take up the flag that he carried so well?

Whilst Carlo was a showman, he was foremost a musician too of great sensitivity and one who could appeal to widespread audiences. He was extrovert, but not a freak, and had a manner of friendliness and charm to all.

Above all, Carlo enjoyed giving others great pleasure and it is that for which we all will remember him.

What are our memories of him? In latter years sitting at the entrance greeting the members of his audiences as old friends, signing programmes and CDs. I seem to remember a different style to his youth, perhaps in an old pullover, playing at being the doorman to those unwary of being before the master himself. He was the doorman to us all in our enthusiasm.

Best wishes

David P

MusingMuso

It isn't just Carlo the musician that I will miss, but Carlo the comedian.

I well remember, and still smile about the time when my former partner Mark, (who also knew Carlo quite well), and myself, were sitting in the audience at the old Leeds Grammar School, while Carlo put a new Allen organ through its paces. Of course, one of his party tricks was to get off the organ and leave it playing itself, which on this occasion was the Jeremiah Clarke 'Trumpet Tune."

Seeing us grinning as he walked among the audience, he looped around and approached silently from behind, whispering in our ears, "I could just see you two marching down the aisle to this!"

Then there was the priceless moment when I was taking him home to Hammersmith, (where he then lived in St Paul's Vicarage). Due to Carlo's considerable bulk, it was virtually impossible to see traffic approaching from the left as we entered a filter system. Everytime I inched forward, Carlo said, "Hold it!"

The brakes went on and off, and we inched and stopped repeatedly.

"Honey," said Carlo, "listen to my instructions. I'll tell you when to go, because I don't think you'd appreciate it if I was pushed on top of you."

The he immediately followed this with, "Besides precious, I'm an American, and we sue for every penny!"

Another gem was at a atheatre organ concert, when the perfomer got off the organ and kept mopping his brow and flicking his hair about.

"I think it must be warm on stage," I suggested.

"No, he's not warm,"  Carlo announced. "It's just that he's spent so much time down theatre-organ pits, he has to scrape the mold from his face!"

Wonderful memories!


MM


bjcarmody

Dear Friends of Carlo Curley - and mine by association,

I have some devastating news of Carlo for you, so must ask you to sit down to read this.



Carlo had been bed-ridden for the past week. He was unable to stand. The ambulance service came to his home this afternoon to get him to hospital. They got him upright, he took two steps and fell on the floor. He died instantaneously, without pain or any suffering.
...

To have to be the bearer of these devastating tidings is a great burden for me, knowing how shocked you will all be to read this. I'm so sorry to have to break this news to you via email, but it's all I can do at present. I'm quite stunned, Carlo having departed this life only two hours ago.

He was one of my dearest friends in the world - as I know he was for all of you. I shall miss him dreadfully: his warmth, his wonderful humour, his simple love of living. I thank God that he brought such joy to so many people over 40 years through his immense and wonderful talent. I deem it a singular honour to have been a close friend of his for 20 years.

Blessings to you all. May the God of peace bring you that peace as you adjust by degrees to this terrible loss.

Yours in friendship,

Kenneth

The Revd Kenneth Crawford
Vicar
Pershore Abbey
Worcestershire
ENGLAN

David Pinnegar

#8
Hi!

One really wonders about the BBC.

Whilst Carlo was briefly remembered and acknowledged with a good interview at the beginning of
yesterday's In Tune programme on Radio 3 at 5pm tonight Radio 2's Organist Entertains which should be the primary slot for hommage to Carlo has yet to even mention him.

The organ as an instrument deserves a much higher profile than it gets, and when one of its leading exponents of our generation devoting his whole life to the instrument doesn't get a mention, it's clear that we all need to make a good deal more noise about it . . .

Not a word about Carlo throughout the programme. Complaints can be sent to organist.entertains@bbc.co.uk

Best wishes

David P

MusingMuso

Please do NOT complain. The programme is pre-recorded, and already there has been a communication from one of the Organist Entertains team on the Carlo Curley memorial site just set up on Facebook, suggesting that there will be a full tribute programme to Carlo.

When people die unexpectedly, at a relatively young age, it can catch people out.  When someone like Sir Bernard Lovell dies, as he did last week, everyone has had time to prepare the obituries and biographies long before the event, because at 98 (almost 99), his end was predictably imminent.

Carlo died suddenly during the climax of the Olympics, and journalistic and editorial resources will have been stretched to the limit, with last minute headlines and a scramble to get the layout done on time. It couldn't have happened at a worse time, but I'm quite sure the relevant people will catch up with events.

Best,

MM


David Pinnegar


Barrie Davis

Hi
I have just seen that the memorial service for Carlo will be held at Pershore Abbey on the 26th of October at 2.30pm, followed by the burial of his ashes in the memorial garden at the Abbey. The Allen touring organ will be used for the service.
Best wishes

Barrie