Last week, I got an email via my college choir’s alumni mailing list sharing the news that Richard Tang Yuk had passed away. Richard had been the choir director of the university Glee Club when I was in college. He was a large part of my college years; I sang in Glee Club all four years I was in college, and I also had a work study job as his administrative assistant.
With Richard conducting, the Glee Club sang some of the major works of the choral repetory- we sang Bach’s B-minor Mass, Brahms’ Requiem, Stravinsky’s Mass. Carmina Burana. He always demanded precision and focus from us. When he gave notes or corrections, it was always specific and actionable and given in a way that was practical and kind. At the same time, Glee Club was a student run organization and he always gave us space and time to bond as students and people, not just as musicians. I think he recognized that human connection was important to making musical connections.
I remember being a freshman and even though I had taken voice lessons, I had never sung with a choir. I went into the Glee Club audition pretty nervous, conscious of my lack of experience yet wanting so much to have an opportunity to sing and make music. Richard was soft spoken but so encouraging and somehow I was accepted into Glee Club. Every fall we would have to re-audition and Richard would play all the auditions himself and he would always spend time chatting, putting me at ease.
One fall, I sang Handel’s Ombra Mai fu, a slow stately love song to a tree. And Richard said, “You know, when I was growing up on Trinidad and Tabago, on the radio they would always play Ombra mai fun while reading the funeral announcements.” And then he started playing the piece and making up funeral announcements. It such a quietly whimsical thing to pull out.
I didn’t go to a music school- the seventy odd students in Glee Club weren’t destined to be professional musicians. They were future doctors and journalists and CEOs and Stay at Home moms and civil servants. And at least one stage manager :). I think Richard understood the assignment- teach us all to make music, to love music, and to bring that love with us when we go out into the world.
I feel like he approached everything with that lens of the bigger picture. He had untold depths within him, all hidden behind a shy smile. One of my favorite stories that he told was about how he was a but of a prodigy and graduated from high school early and his parents asked him what he wanted to do.
“Well, I think I would like to fly planes.”
So they sent him to train to be a pilot, and after a few years he came back to his parents and said, “I think I would like to study music.”
So he did.
I am so glad that he did study music so that he could pass on his love of music to so many people, like me.
I’m writing this on the Metro to work, so I don’t have any pictures to add to this post, but I’m going to look for a picture to add to this post after I get hime tonight.