Stefania Toczyska Interview with Bruce Duffie . . . . . . . . .

Mezzo - Soprano Stefania Toczyska

A Conversation with Bruce Duffie

Stefania Toczyska (née Krzywińska), born in Grudziądz, Poland, on 19 February 1943, is a Polish mezzo-soprano.

She lived in Toruń, where she attended the Music School ("little conservatory"). There, she married Romuald Toczyski, a music teacher. She moved in 1968 with her family to Gdańsk in order to pursue her higher education. There she studied voice in the Higher Music School (the subsequent Academy of Music) in the class of Barbara Iglikowska, receiving her final diploma (with distinction) in 1973. But even before that, during studies, she was building her career by winning awards in international vocal competitions in Toulouse (1971), Paris (1972) and 's-Hertogenbosch (1973).

Her debut occurred in 1973, on the stage of the Baltic State Opera House in Gdańsk, in the title role of Carmen. Initially, her activity was centered locally in Gdańsk, where she kept her position as the leading soloist in the Baltic State Opera, making also frequent guest visits to other opera houses. In 1975, the Baltic State Opera produced, especially for her, Samson et Dalila in 1975 (that same production seen also the next year in Warsaw), and La favorite by Donizetti in 1978 (also seen in Bremen the next year).

Her first appearance outside of Poland took place in Basel, when she sang the role of Amneris in Aïda, in 1977. Soon after, with her international career established, she gave a farewell performance in Gdańsk on 15 July 1979, as Dalila. She eventually moved out of Poland and established her permanent residency in Vienna, and her career centered at the Staatsoper. From there, she made frequent guest visits to sing on stages of various opera houses around the world, including her native country, particularly at the Teatr Wielki, Warsaw.

On 16 September 1979 she made her American stage debut in the San Francisco Opera, as Laura in La Gioconda (with Renata Scotto, Luciano Pavarotti, Norman Mittelmann, and Feruccio Furlanetto, conducted by Bruno Bartoletti), which was telecast "live" around the world. She made her first appearance at Royal Opera House in 1983 (as Amneris in Aïda), and also sang at the Teatro Colón, in Buenos Aires.

In 1988, Toczyska made her Metropolitan Opera debut, as Marfa in Mussourgsky's Khovanshchina. She went on to sing there in Aida, Il trovatore, La Gioconda, Boris Godunov (as Marina Mnichek), Un ballo in maschera (as Ulrica), Rusalka (as Jezibaba) and Adriana Lecouvreur (as the Principessa di Bouillon), with her last performance there, in 1997.

Her later roles include King Roger (Warsaw, 2004), Salome (Herodias, Warsaw 2005), Haunted Manor (Czesnikova, Warsaw 2007), Prokofiev's The Gambler (as Babulenka, in Berlin, 2008) and Mamma Lucia in Cavalleria rusticana (Paris 2012, Salzburg 2015).

== Names which are links in this box and below refer to my interviews elsewhere on my website. BD

Stefania Toczyska appeared in Chicago with Lyric Opera in two seasons. First, in 1985 as Giovanna [Jane Seymour] in Anna Bolena, with Joan Sutherland, Chris Merritt, Paul Plishka, Mark S. Doss, and Elena Zilio, conducted by Richard Bonynge, directed by Lotfi Mansouri in the John Pascoe production. She would return in 1992 as Ulrica in Un Ballo in Maschera with Sharon Sweet, Kristján Jóhannsson, Vladimir Chernov, and Elizabeth Norberg-Schulz, conducted by Richard Buckley, directed by Sonia Frisell in the John Conklin production.

During Toczyska’s first visit, she graciously took time between performances to have a conversation. She spoke in Italian, and my thanks go to Alfred Glasser of Lyric Opera for translating. Portions were aired on WNIB, and now [2024] I am pleased to present the entire chat.

Bruce Duffie:   First, let me ask about recordings in general. Do you feel that they are a good thing for the public?

Stefania Toczyska:   They must be, because I’m always being asked what recordings I have made, and why haven’t I made more! [Laughs] I have made a disc that is very beautiful of Olympie by Spontini [shown at right], but I really prefer not to talk about records, because I haven’t made many, and I haven’t got a lot to say about them.

BD:   Okay then, let’s talk about some characters. What kind of a woman is Carmen?

Toczyska: [Laughs] Everybody asks that question, and nobody can answer it! Every woman who sings Carmen is going to sing it in a different way, because every woman has a different realization of what love is. I have done Carmen many times, and I still remember my first production, where the stage director was a woman with a very strong personality. Everything comes from within, so the love that arises between Carmen and Don José is very real and very true, but once it’s over, it is over. Later, the love between Carmen and Escamillo could be true because both of them are very strong personalities. Don José is simply too weak for her. When I play Carmen, Don José is simply a feeling, a sentiment.

BD:   A toy?

Toczyska: No. [The translator said that she started to say ‘an adventure’, and took that word back because it’s more serious than that.] If I was going to a costume ball as one of the ladies that I play, I might consider going with a friend as Samson and Delilah, or Aïda and Radamès, but it would never occur to me to go as Don José and Carmen. I would go with Escamillo! [All laugh]

BD:   Then her love for Escamillo would last much longer than for Don José?

Toczyska: Yes! Maybe all night but who knows? [More laughter]

BD:   You say that each woman plays Carmen differently. How much of this is the libretto, and how much of this is Stefania Toczyska?

Toczyska: Stefania Toczyska is very difficult because I am married! [More laughter] For me, love is very important. When it’s true, it’s true. When it’s not, it’s difficult. [Pauses a moment] It’s a very difficult question. [The translator tells her it’s the only kind Bruce asks!]

BD:   When you’re on stage, are you portraying a character or do you become the character?

Toczyska: I must always believe in what I do, and be true to that. Sometimes when I am working, it’s very hard to work with a stage director who has a different idea of who the character is.

BD:   Are your ideas so set that you cannot change them or expand them?

Toczyska: Some directors have done an opera many, many, many times, and they have arrived with their own particular concept of the character, and don’t particularly want to discuss it. Then I have trouble with that stage director. But whenever you can discuss it, and then I could be convinced, or my ideas could change. But whatever she does, I can’t do it unless I feel it’s real. One stage director told me that Carmen makes love for money. She’s a poor woman, and whenever she needs money, she makes love with men. I think that it is absolutely false. Carmen is a free woman, and she would never do that for money.

BD:   She makes love when she wants to?

Toczyska: Only when she wants to.

BD:   Is Carmen someone who would fit well into 1985?

Toczyska: I think so. I would say that for Carmen, but not for myself. Carmen is a free woman that makes love, and likes the men to be stronger than herself.

BD:   Is Carmen fascinated with more than just men? Is she also fascinated with life?

Toczyska: Certainly, she is interested in life in general, not just with love or men. Carmen never really thought Don José would kill her. She thought he was too weak ever to do that. She wants to live, and she goes to the bullfight with absolute certainty that she’s going to come out of it okay.

BD:   Does she know there will be some sort of a confrontation?

Toczyska: She miscalculated how strong he could be.

BD:   If she could have escaped with her life, would that make Don José more fascinating, knowing that he is that strong?

Toczyska: No, I don’t think so.

BD:   Have you sung Carmen only in French, or also in translation?

Toczyska: Also in translation.

BD:   Does opera work in translation?

See my interviews with Peter Dvorsky, and Armin Jordan

Toczyska: I think Carmen is beautiful only in French because French is such a beautiful language. When you talk about love, you have to talk about it in French! [Everyone laughs]

BD:   Should we take Italian operas and move them into French?

Toczyska: No! I prefer to sing opera in the original language.

BD:   [Gently protesting] But when you’re doing it in translation, you don’t find any closer communication with the audience because they know each line that you are singing?

Toczyska: I know a lot of singers who sing so poorly that no matter what language they are singing in, nobody understands what they are saying. If you haven’t read it before you go, it won’t matter what they are going to do on the stage!

BD:   Is there any way for you bring yourself closer to the audience, or to bring the audience closer to you?

Toczyska: I do everything as if everybody understands everything that I am doing. I don’t believe that the audience doesn’t understand.

BD:   Are you conscious of the audience when you’re singing?

Toczyska: For me, theater doesn’t exist without an audience. There is no theater without an audience. Theater is something that is done by artists and audience, so when one or the other is missing, there is nothing.

BD:   Is this the difficulty with recording, that there is no audience?

Toczyska:   Recordings are other things, something completely different.

* * * * *

BD: Let’s talk about Amneris. Before we sat down, you said you like her. What is about this character that captures your fancy?

Toczyska:   Amneris makes a real struggle for the man that she loves. Many people think that Amneris is wicked, but I don’t. Amneris is a straightforward person. She engages in this struggle to gain Radamès, whom she really wants. She’s not wicked.

BD:   Is this the first time Amneris has had to work for anything?

Toczyska: Yes, this is the first time, because Amneris has everything. She is rich, she’s powerful, she could probably sleep with every man. But with Radamès, she as to fight.

BD:   Is it a panic struggle, or is it an interesting new experience? [Vis-à-vis the DVD shown at right, see my interviews with Margaret Price, Simon Estes, and Sam Wanamaker.]

Toczyska: She says it is possible for someone to know that she wants someone, but that she can’t have him. That is possible because everybody will know that he is married to her, and it just can’t be.

BD:   Is Amneris a strong woman in and of herself, or is it just her position that makes her strong?

Toczyska: She’s strong.

BD:   Is she going to inherit the power because she’s the daughter of the king?

Toczyska: Yes, she will. The power will pass to Amneris and her consort. This is another reason why Amneris is so interested in Radamès, because she is certain that he would be a very fine leader to sit beside her on her throne.

BD:   Amneris is being brought up and groomed to be the future ruler?

Toczyska: She’s very strong, but she’s looking for the right man to occupy the throne with her. It is not that she wants it herself, but she wants to find the right man who can do it with her.

BD:   So she has a sense of history, and of the future?

Toczyska: Yes. [Laughs]

BD:   However, she is thwarted in this effort. What happens to her after the opera is over, in the ‘fifth act’?

Toczyska: She thinks that she can’t live anymore. She says it’s too bad that she doesn’t die right then, especially with him.

BD:   [With mock horror] Three in the tomb???

Toczyska: Yes! There’s still room for one more! [Much laughter]

BD:   Would it be wrong for a stage director to have her commit suicide on the stage at the end?

Toczyska: She feels that she’s already dead. Maybe that could be done, but I’m not in a position to comment. I’m not sure that Amneris can ever love another man.

BD:   But she is a ruler. She’s got to get over it, doesn’t she? Isn’t she forced by circumstance to carry on despite her personal loss?

Toczyska: But what does it mean to live without loving? Even if she lives, she would be dead.

BD:   Did Verdi write Amneris particularly well for the voice?

Toczyska: Yes, fantastically well! It’s a beautiful role, even though a lot of those who sing Amneris would wish for a more extended aria.

BD:   So Amneris doesn’t need an aria?

Toczyska: There are people who think that she does, but she doesn’t. I like the role as it is.

BD:   What is it about Verdi’s vocal writing that makes it better for your voice, or for the mezzo voice, than other roles which are not so successful?

Toczyska: There are a lot of composers who do it well. I have a special fondness for Verdi, but I would not like to leave out Samson and Delilah, and Anna Bolena. They are beautiful, too.

BD:   Anna Bolena is the opera you are singing now in Chicago, so let’s talk a little bit about your character, Giovanna [Jane Seymour]. Does she have a sense of history, and how do you reconcile the fact that the storyline is not quite historically correct in the opera?

Toczyska: It is very difficult to realize that I am the third wife. I always want to be the first! [Laughter]

BD:   Does she think she’ll be the last?

Toczyska: When you really love truly, you always think it’s the last one because you are very sophisticated. You always speak of the most sincere, the most true, the most real.

BD:   Is there a connection between Jane Seymour and any of the other ladies that you portray?

Toczyska: No, Jane Seymour is very specific, very much a unique person.

BD:   Are all of your roles unique people, or any of them connected?

Toczyska: Others have some similarities, but Jane Seymour is particularly specific.

See my interview with Piero Cappuccilli

BD: Are there any other roles that are so unique?

Toczyska: Yes, because there are always women who love in a way like Amneris, and Eboli in Don Carlos. Azucena is different, as is Léonora in La Favorite. They are always showing a crystal-like love, and that makes them similar, but I still think it’s different. This is the mystery of love.
toczyska

BD: Yes, but it seems that the mezzo always loses that love.

Toczyska: That is where they have this struggle in order to gain the love, to fulfill the love. If there were no love, then there would not have been any struggle.

BD: Is life a struggle?

Toczyska: [Thinks a moment, then sighs] In general, yes! [Much laughter] It is boring to live without a struggle! [More laughter]

* * * * *

BD:   Another Verdi character is Azucena. Do you like her?

Toczyska: She is very different because there is no love between a woman and a man. There is only vengeance for Azucena. It’s an idée fixe for her, and you see solely the vendetta.

BD:   Are there people in real life who have this kind of fixed idea?

Toczyska: I can’t imagine a person like that, who could live twenty years with this child and still be consumed only by the desire for vengeance.

BD:   At some point her heart would have melted? [Vis-à-vis the recording shown at right, see my interviews with Robert Lloyd, and Robin Leggate.]

Toczyska: It’s possible, because it’s merely that she’s such a strong character.

BD:   Is it possible that Azucena is too strong, and so it becomes a mental deficiency leading to that fixation on vengeance?

Toczyska: It is almost a mental illness. It’s not a normal life. How can one live only for vengeance? And if that is the case, then how can they continue living if they don’t achieve that vengeance? What would happen if we always had to achieve this vengeance? For example, what if we went to avenge every one of those persons who was lost in a war? It would be destructive. What could happen then if everyone wanted to pursue this individual vengeance?

BD:   What is it exactly that makes Azucena the way she is? Is it just losing the child, or is it something else in her life that causes her to seek only vengeance?

Toczyska: After the horrendous experience of Azucena, when she was a young woman, watching her mother being burned to death at the stake, and then this horror of mixing up the babies, how could anyone really live a normal life?

BD:   Her mind snapped at that point?

Toczyska: Her mind snapped, I think.

BD:   Did she have any love at all before that? Was she just a regular person then?

Toczyska: She must have, because she had a baby! The story doesn’t go into that. We’re not told those details.

BD:   When you’re preparing an opera, how much do you go into these sidelights, and dig into the character even more than just what is in the libretto?

Toczyska: I do make various researches in different directions. I talk to lots of people who have sung the part before, and then from these experiences, and from my reading of the score, I come up with my own ideas. I have to believe it, and it has to be sincere for me in order to do it, and if people reproach me saying that’s no way to do it, then I am really baffled, because it’s the only way that I know how to do it. It is the way that I have arrived at, which is sincere, and true, and it comes from within.

BD:   Do many stage directors today go in the wrong direction?

Toczyska: No, not often. [Laughs] They’re looking for a new way to do something, because it’s boring to keep always doing it the same way. But when they do something which is taking off from a wrong idea, or wrong concept, then that does make everything very difficult.

BD:   Is opera ever boring for you?

Toczyska: Oh, no! [All laugh]

BD: How can we get the public more involved with opera? Even if opera is a nineteenth century art, how can we make it speak more to the twentieth and twenty-first century audience?

Toczyska: A thing of beauty remains always a thing of beauty. There is something crystalline about it, and I believe we don’t have to worry about it, because opera itself, by its very nature, is crystal, and a thing of beauty, and it will persist.

BD: I think so, too, but I’m worried that we’re not getting enough younger people to come. How do we get more young people, who listen to Rock music, into the opera house... or should we?

Toczyska: They don’t like it simply because they don’t know it. I used to sing popular music. I never thought that I would like the opera, but now that I have found out what it is, I love it. For the young people, it’s merely a question of exposing them to it.

* * * * *

BD:   Do you do some comic roles?

Toczyska: I do The Italian Girl in Algiers, and also Rosina [Barber of Seville].

BD:   Are these two strong women like Carmen, or are they strong women in a different way?

Toczyska: Both of them are girls who are experiencing their very first loves. Rosina does everything she knows how to do to get the man she loves. Isabella makes a trip on a ship to look for her lost lover. It would be impossible for her to say, “Well, I’ve lost that one, so I’ll just pick up with another one!” [All laugh]

BD:   Would that character today pick up with another one, or do the same thing?

Toczyska: I can’t really speak for women in general because I only know about myself. The only difference is that she would take a plane instead of a boat! [Much laughter]

BD:   When you’re doing a comic role, how do you prevent the comedy from becoming slapstick?

Toczyska: [She does not seem to understand the word ‘slapstick’, so the translator renders it as ‘vulgar’.] It’s not difficult for me because vulgarity doesn’t exist.

BD: Is there ever a danger of a comic opera becoming too silly?

Toczyska: In order to do a comic part well, you have to be very serious about it.

BD:   Then where does the comedy enter into it?

Toczyska: It comes from talent.

BD:   In a comic opera, can you feed more off of the audience than in a serious role?

Toczyska: When I go to see a comic movie or a funny movie, I go to have a good time, and I believe that audiences who come to see a comic opera also come to have a good time.

BD:   Do audiences come to a serious opera to have a good time?

Toczyska: No, when they come to listen to serious music, that is their intent. Otherwise they wouldn’t come. It’s not the same kind of amusement. They come because they want to hear that.

BD:   Which is more important, the music or the drama?

Toczyska: They come together, and the music and the drama must be considered together.

BD:   How do you achieve that proper balance?

Toczyska: This is a very difficult question, but I can always keep both of these things in line. The drama is always very important when I’m on the stage. I want to pay attention to that. In a sense, it is what we would call the ‘German Theater’, when you just go to put forth a drama. There is no music involved, but there is a great freedom for the actor that the singer does not have in opera, because to make a great big dramatic scene while the music is playing, I have to keep time and keep up with the music. I can’t be as free as I might like to be.
toczyska

BD:   Are there any operas where the music is completely at odds with the drama?

Toczyska: Sometimes yes.

BD:   How do you overcome that?

Toczyska: It would be easier if I could talk about an example, as I really can’t think of one where the music and the opera are in conflict.

BD:   I was talking with Joan Sutherland yesterday, and she mentioned Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia. She was a terrible person, and yet it was beautiful music.

Toczyska: I don’t do Lucrezia Borgia! [Much laughter]

* * * * *

BD:   With your international career, are you now living in the West?

Toczyska: I still live in Poland. For seven years, I have been singing in and outside of Poland.

BD:   Do you sing any Polish operas? If so, what kind of style are they?

Toczyska: I prefer bel canto opera.

BD:   Are there any Polish bel canto operas?

Toczyska: No, no, the music is another thing.

BD: There is a Polish Opera Society in Chicago that occasionally puts on Halka.

Toczyska: The Polish operas are popular in Poland, but they are not very popular elsewhere.

BD:   Could Polish operas work in Chicago, or anywhere else in America?

Toczyska: [Sternly] If so, why don’t they do them then? [Laughs]

BD:   If they would ask you to sing in Halka, or one of your other Polish roles...

Toczyska: No, Halka is for a dramatic soprano. The only one I sing in is Straszny dwór [The Haunted Manor] of Moniuszko, but this is not a big role. It’s only a nice young girl. [Pauses a moment] Chopin songs are so beautiful! I have made a disc of Chopin songs. They are so difficult because it’s a very difficult language, but the songs are so beautiful.

BD:   Why are they not known more?

Toczyska: I don’t know. I made the recording just on a whim! [This LP is shown at left. She would subsequently record more Polish songs, some of which are shown below.]

BD:   [Naively] Why are there no great Polish operas?

Toczyska: [With a smile] How can you ask me that? [All laugh] When Halka is sung in Poland, it’s not the language but the situation of Halka which is immediately understood by all of the Poles in the audience. Here that would be much more difficult. The relationship with Halka, the servant girl, and the aristocratic family causes social conflict. Those kinds of things are very clear to Polish people, but they are harder for Americans to understand because of the different culture.

BD:   It’s not at all like a serious Cenerentola?

Toczyska: No, it’s not. There, the girl is very poor and the man is very rich, and it’s not possible for them to marry. It’s impossible for them to marry in Poland for social reasons, and the Poles all understand that. Americans really don’t seem to understand that idea. It’s not just a question of wealth. It’s also social status.

BD:   [Gently protesting] But that thread permeates bel canto operas. Do Italian operas play well in Poland?

Toczyska: Yes. We play them in the Polish language. [Pauses a moment] Halka is full of mazurkas and polonaises.

BD:   What about King Roger of Szymanowski?

Toczyska: There’s nothing for mezzo-soprano! That’s why I don’t do Puccini, because there’s nothing for mezzo-sopranos.

BD:   How do you decide which roles you will sing and which roles you will decline?

Toczyska: I decide by instinct.

BD:   Do you ever accept a role you don’t know anything about?

Toczyska: That’s how I got into Anna Bolena! [Much laughter] I knew something about the character, but nothing about the music.

BD:   Isn’t one Donizetti opera going to be stylistically at least a little bit like another Donizetti opera?

Toczyska: There’s a predictability to it. However this one is a bit difficult.

BD:   What makes it difficult?

Toczyska: The tessitura.

BD:   Do you like being a mezzo?

Toczyska: Yes. For my heart I love to be a mezzo.

BD:   You don’t have any desires to be a soprano?

Toczyska: No, no, no!

BD:   Do you sing any contemporary operas?

Toczyska: No. I prefer the bel canto and romantic operas.

BD:   Are there any great operas being written today that you know of?

Toczyska: I can’t say because I don’t know this music.

BD:   Let’s go the other direction. Do you sing any Handel, or Bach, or perhaps Monteverdi?

Toczyska: No. Some time ago I just sang a few arias while I was a student. I have appeared in many oratorio concerts, but not in their operas. I prefer to sing opera, but I have been a concert singer in oratorios. I like them both very much.

BD:   How do you balance your career with operas and concerts?
toczyska

Toczyska: It’s simply different, and I have no problem with balancing. I like them both equally, and there’s no preconceived idea of, “I will sing fifty of these, and twenty of those.” They are just different. After this Anna Bolena, I’m going to do the Beethoven Missa Solemnis in Rome immediately after the engagement here.

BD: Do you adjust your voice for different size houses?

Toczyska: For example, here in Chicago, I don’t feel that I have to push.

BD:   Is that because of the acoustic?

Toczyska: You don’t think about that. You just sing!

BD:   I just wondered if you have sung in some small halls?

Toczyska: It’s very difficult. The Civic Theater, which is very small, is very hard to sing in because you send your voice out and it comes back. Maybe when the audience is in there, it will be better. But for rehearsals there was no audience present. Maybe an audience will absorb some of the sound, and that phenomenon will disappear. [The Civic Theater was a miniature auditorium (900 seats) in the same building as Lyric Opera. Though often used as such, it was turned into purely a rehearsal space during the renovation in the mid-1990s.]

BD:   But in the big house, the voice doesn’t come back?

Toczyska: No, it doesn’t. It is a great joy to sing here.

BD:   I’m very pleased with the sound that you’re making. Are you pleased with the sound that you make?

Toczyska: [Laughs] Actually, I am never happy! I am always trying to improve. That is one reason I don’t listen to my records. They drive me crazy. I wonder why I did it that way.

BD:   But all singers say that!

Toczyska: Oh, no! Are you sure?

BD:   All the ones that I’ve talked to say that is their feeling.

Toczyska: Really???

BD:   Yes. They listen to their records and feel it could be better today, or better tomorrow.

Toczyska: When I do something, I always think tomorrow maybe I can do better!

BD:   Are you too much of a perfectionist?

Toczyska: I always want to be perfect, and I never seem to make it.

BD:   Yet I hope you are happy with your career.

Toczyska: Yes, I am content, but I want to get better.

BD:   Are you a good audience?

Toczyska: Yes!

BD:   When you go to the opera, do you breathe and suffer with the singers who are on stage?

Toczyska: Yes!

BD:   I would think that would be awfully tiring.

Toczyska: Oh, yes. The other day I went to the dress rehearsal of Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi [with Cecilia Gasdia, and Tatiana Troyanos, conducted by Donato Renzetti]. I suffered with their situation. [Smiles and laughter all around]

BD:   Thank you for coming to Chicago, and for chatting with me today.

Toczyska: Thank you very much.

toczyska

See my interview with Wiesław Ochman

toczyska

See my interview with Mstislav Rostropovich

This conversation was recorded in a dressing room of the Opera House in Chicago on November 13, 1995. Portions were broadcast on WNIB in 1998. This transcription was made in 2024, and posted on this website at that time. My thanks to Alfred Glasser of Lyric Opera of Chicago for translating, and to British soprano Una Barry for her help in preparing this website presentation.

To see a full list (with links) of interviews which have been transcribed and posted on this website, click here. To read my thoughts on editing these interviews for print, as well as a few other interesting observations, click here.

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Award - winning broadcaster Bruce Duffie was with WNIB, Classical 97 in Chicago from 1975 until its final moment as a classical station in February of 2001. His interviews have also appeared in various magazines and journals since 1980, and he now continues his broadcast series on WNUR-FM, as well as on Contemporary Classical Internet Radio.

You are invited to visit his website for more information about his work, including selected transcripts of other interviews, plus a full list of his guests. He would also like to call your attention to the photos and information about his grandfather, who was a pioneer in the automotive field more than a century ago. You may also send him E-Mail with comments, questions and suggestions.