there you go that was the central park west so mark waltz by our guest gregory singer we'll get to you in just a few minutes but welcome once again to the radical imagination i'm  sociologists who's taught at john jay college and university here in new york as duke orsino put it in shakespeare's twelfth night if music be the food of love play on we usually remember and quote just this part but there's another part which says give me excess of it serfaty the appetite the appetite may sicken and so orsino was referring to his own broken heart in love and the meaning of the complete quote was clear if it's true that music makes people more in love keep playing give me too much of it so i get sick of it and stop loving we have the radical imagination respectfully disagree with shakespeare's fictional character on this one we could never have enough love or great music there are two of the ultimate joys of living that we can never experience enough of and which are absolutely basic to transforming and healing a highly dysfunctional and oftentimes heartless world we have a guest today on the show who put the mises that first part of shakespeare's line he's an old friend and comrade whose love of music and art is obvious and exudes in this whole be he shares that joy and why force with all who come in contact with him his musical pedigree is of the highest his mother was a classical pianist and his father shock singer was appalled for american virtue and so a violinist symphony orchestra conductor of the dallas and vancouver symphonies and a music educator who championed contemporary music by established and emerging composers gregory has followed in his footsteps and added a few of those although he's a virtual so violinist is all right is the founder and conductor of the manhattan symphony and as the owner of gregory singer fine violins a fixture on the upper west side of manhattan but it's actually true what you're saying not about me per se but about a quest striving for excellence and to communicate well with music to people that's what you do so well you can do it carnegie hall you do it on the mother a pianist father a violinist in the conductor so we had great artists coming to the house all the time but in a sense by making music not so unique perceval who wants to make music makes music in their own way some play guitars some play drums some have a limited that's a technical ability or knowledge of music but they'll communicate in some way others might have too much knowledge and technique and they have no way to express let's say something very human or something that you can relate to as a  recumbent too much like intellectual you know to intellectualize right so now when i was younger i was very restless i didn't like to practice the violin though my parents made me which i'm glad they did but i went to concerts and was bored by classical music concerts you were tending you know what happened there your father was i ran away from music for a while my father passed away and we became a little disjointed my family and i began to seek my own destiny my own fate and fortunately i came back to music and i love music more than ever and it means something very special to me and then when i go on stage and i see my audience i feel like i must share something i'm proud of that i love and the audience feels that energy and they they  love it and so in one sense the formula is very simple i perform only what i love to perform and i share i write my own music and the audience is not bored and that was my first piece that we heard was central park as well the central  melody i woke up one morning and there i was with this melody in my head so i began to to write it down and then over the next few weeks i began to develop it a little more so and load it just  flowed and i played that central park waltz all over the world and people love it it's quite simple it is not a lot a lot of people are writing waltzes these days and i've written a few waltzes sense but it's quite a charming communication tool but a little personal i mean you mentioned your father must have been a powerful powerful force in your life and and losing him how well were you when you close to twenty one wow but i was immature for my age as well as a sixteen year old really mentally ok and as with the show goes on w individuals as well as serious and you know your stuff and but going back to your father a powerful influence you lose him and how long you say you ran away from music how long d that he wore as he perform many years for many many years and years and you're so proud of me should be and so how many years is it take before you were well through the circumstances i began to form the orchestra in two thousand and five just prior to that i began to realize more and more my sanctuary in music i began to love music and love performing and communicating this way but it was a huge shock to lose my father he was a huge mentor in my life and i was in a sense so immature as most males are about ten years younger than their numerical age and i was twenty one but literally like a sixteen year old mathematically not exactly ten years but i think roughly i was immature so i couldn't quite relate to him as a really as a man but as as as his son i looked up to him a lot and i loved his music making and when i performed the music he performed that i got to hear when i was a young boy it also makes me very close to him and of course to a great tradition of music making  so it took me a while now when he was alive i also was a bit distant from music at times trying to find myself and i quit the violin a bit traveled around the world did different jobs went to julliard i went to fuel your also but you i didn't enjoy it very much per se us a little while well into the you know it's it's sort of like a factory isn't it is a very cold environment the some of the performers as the young students were very very virtual so players very wonderful people in their own right but the whole idea is under so much pressure to churn out the musicians playing the same music over and over and over and i was a bit restless my attention span wasn't great and i began doing some popular music for broadway humperdinck and some other performers broadway shows and so it was difficult to stay in school at juilliard in with the kids who didn't have any experience in the real world but i found the was lucky in a sense music was a theme in my life playing broadway shows and becoming older touring around the world and becoming older i was able to see the world a little bit from from a distant view the music protected me always i was sort of insulated by the the orchestra or the the music i was doing then when i was about them the beauty of it what was and i was literally your head as an example i played peter pan eight shows a week something like that and hearing beautiful melodies that many times a week was wonderful for a year and a half or so with sandy duncan you know i played in the king and i would feel brenner and hearing those incredible melodies like seven eight times a week for a year or however long it ran till he became ill with cancer and passed away i mean this was sort of my also was training in a sense for a lympics that almost never came but by studying violin since the age of four i always felt a bit special that i was training for the future for something better to come and so now it's sort of coming to fruition i'm glad i met you i'm on your wonderful show and i was reading more audiences and so it's coming to fruition now these days i'd say absolutely and you developed this incredible manhattan simply which i've been to two or three of the cars in there just magnificent and they are funny and you've always well again it's it was a sort of calling to my my roots returning to my father's music and also being able to for once program the music that i love so i didn't have to like when you're young viol teacher tells you what to play so you study this study that play the scales at shoes but suddenly when you realize you're sort of no longer a student and you're studying properly well you're you're playing what you want to play you've already studied you have t you go on stage and in a sense like i say i love this music i'm proud of it so suddenly somebody asked me could i conduct something and i learned from one of the old musicians i traveled with he said always say you can and then learn how to do it somebody had asked him once he was a pianist can you play the accordion he said yes i can even though he couldn't but he learned to play the accordion very quickly and he did the job so i said play something as for us on the xylophone that i realise this quite a large bite off on but people and we were able to play great music and so it was a wonderful high in it's great to share my love for music with the younger musicians some are older than me but i think everyone has that potential when i see the audience i feel like you spectators can also join this orchestra some day or make your own music i believe people sort of limit themselves to relight you say i'm generous where i help young people we should all be helping each other all the time anyway that's what i see and and transform ourselves through the beauty of music  and the world around us and we're going to in a couple minutes show a clip from our dear friend who is very unfortunately passed on eugene photo or and this is a clip of him a spirit seem to descend on san francisco's herbst but this ghost was full bodied and all that was haunting was the lush music of paganini the greatest violinist the world has ever kn his music played this historic night on paganini's own violin and instrument so exquisitely the eighteenth century italian virtue also called its booming tones the canon it also called it the voice of the law meaning meaning that it once it's heard there's no argument it's the greatest good sound so rich so powerful photo or insist this instrument created in seven hundred forty two by master violin maker jo colors purples reds orange is remarkable to says not just because the violin and paganini were teamed up for forty years but also he says because paganini somehow managed to transform the instrument itself his constant practice on this instrument in performance to all those years imparted to the molecules in the wood a knowledge that stays with it for hundreds of years in short for forty million dollars it was flown to san francisco last week from genoa italy where it's kept under lock and key and from the moment it touched down on american soil it was surrounded by plain clothes san francisco police on route to police headquarters where the violin would be stored or could paganini's instrument but also the great violinist technique i'm using the fingerings in the way that he used them and which i've never heard any other violinist utilize in this century doing all that and with an instrument that has been played only once before in concert in this country that might intimidate some artist not eugene i feel an amazing pleasure of sharing something wonderful i think gene fancies himself the reincarnation of take any photos father said last night gene photo or came very close i just hope that if he's looking on somewhere he would approve and why wouldn't he on this charmed evening genius of the well greg we both knew gene very well he passed on it's been about eight nine years or so and he was a master virtual so he went through the system juilliard and he was considered one of the greatest vileness of our time and yet in the sense of system did destroy him partly and he was a troubled individual as well and  see absolutely certain love for the meanders what you're it again it's a sanctuary for him it's when you see him playing the violin he's in a different world nobody can talk to him no one's going to ask them to pay the rent or worry about some he's just suddenly playing them he's he's in a different world in fact he's connecting with pogany in the eighteenth century and yet being an artist or a composer violinist is still difficult especially in the twenty first century imagine these people have to travel around the world playing music  and it's a lot of stress of course entertainment industry takes its toll on a lot of performers young and eugene was quite unique he was very passionate player and he had some some difficulties because of it so much was i mean he won the competition he was on johnny carson fourteen times he became extremely good looking fellow and he became a darling in there isn't right and yet his issues took the form of  drug use that are not normal and then she did him in in our society is a very addictive society our culture yes lots of addictions whether it's money or fame or celeb or big and so recently we've had people shooting people young people  are off balance and seeking some kind of a balance or identity so obviously it's a very fast paced society and with it and you can be balanced in function or if you get pushed aside or thrown by the wayside you're in  trouble and nowadays of course people are acting out and doing terrible things so if they had music or a fine professor or a or a mother or father they could look up to something like that they would they could excel for many decades doing great things but if not that passion that intensity can go against them and people around them of course that's a great point but also that you knew gene as a kid right if you're into the went to met him out school of music together upstate new york ok teenagers as teenagers i was before teenagers probably eleven twelve thirteen he was i tension and pressures and coldness lot of coldness but eugene you know he had such a great gift a great talent he was able somehow to channel it properly into his talent and come out with some results he he went on stage and played beautifully very virtuous a playing style but still there were things bothering him that i think followed his entire life and absolute and there was i believe some substance abuse problems here and there on dylan things and that's natural for many people but i think ultimately he has help failed because he did abuse themself to some degree in that regard absolutely and now you become a composer in your own rightness sense and we'd love for for our audience to hear some of your work whatever you'd like to at this point we know you're also  absolutely terrific are the scientists and this is a we're going to play a clip toward the end of the show that will show they are exhibit some of the artwork too but what now what happens here are you these are these are incredible expression of the moment many times find taney its way with the art i don't need a full symphony orchestra i can just get a blank piece of paper with the pencil or some colors and stuff to create something which is finished i don't i don't have to rely on something else  then a friend of mine so kind kindly put together the artwork is a collection in a calendar format or a little book format of course i wouldn't mind finding a publisher out there somewhere but the artwork is spontaneous the expression and the music the same way  woke up one day with the central park waltz in my head and i began writing it out and every once in a while i have another melody and i start to work on it and it's all melody basis and a melody basis not modern abstract music it's not very intellectual but  never really had a great technique of musical knowledge in theory but with simple melodies i can construct something and then i add an extra melody i change i add a little something in the beginning and before i know what i have a composition and i'm pretty modest about my sort of why building two little melodies together and put it together suddenly i want composer you are but the other piece which is a premier on this show i've never played for anybody in public as i'm just working it out now and arranging it a bit and that is a piece which for now i have no title for and i have lyrics even but i'm not mentioning the lyrics but it goes like this likely how does it begin with oh gosh i forgot how it goes and i think i have you it's a little bit of a patriotic song so i leave the lyrics out of it for now because i don't want to maybe go down the line too much so the subject of politics perceval is an old fashioned patriotic song i'm going to off of broadway on i think it's still in the r k i n mark in hall right and we're doing a concert in the evening there and obviously being a july fourth week we're going to be doing some patriotic songs and it would be   that kind of thing i figure that again in bolstering the feeling that we're all americans and we have a certain freedom to discuss these differences and argue and and disagree that if we could also not forget that fact that still the system of even in this case republicans and democrats and conservatives and liberals and all of this has a long tradition and if we can work within that tradition unless you want to change the government into a socialist or of cap or communist or anarchist type existence  believe in the system we've achieved for only a mere few hundred years then we have to work within that construct so can say so to answer your question perhaps more succinctly is that patriotic means it least giving an overall general  salute to america a love for the concept and what america can be that transcends our political and cultural divisions in a sense our  you said is true talking about transcending etc and being giving paying a little bit of respect or tribute at least to the fore fathers whose stat was a country which is supposed to be based on freedom and there were problems and yet we're rectifying those problems one by one hopefully as they try to express their love through their music about america i think people feel it again music being a very universal language and that's why i do enjoy traveling playing so music  different kinds of music to people when people hear copeland that we were going to do for instance the lincoln portrait you know and i wanted a very famous actor to do the narration but it turns out we disagree politically and he point quote lincoln as i would not be a slave i would not own slaves i would not be an owner ok and wonderful statement very dramatic right but this particular famous actor felt that i was going to be using the  podium july fourth weekend to be too patriotic i might may may say something of the sort of supportive of the presidency of our current president and he was didn't feel that i would see what he felt like i'm not sure gray you're a little bit short politics does enter yes to very good point and very interesting yes as we've noticed in hollywood we have a lot of the a lot of actors and actresses are against the president and yet they continue make they continue to make movies of violence and terrible terrible conflict in the ceiling so they make movies with guns and everything and yet they want to take guns away from the american citizens because they blame guns as the crime but behind the gun is the insane person but instead of dealing with  country we need to deal with mental illness in this country the most bellido people are not violent so they go to the movies and they see violence but actors who are in those movies protest violence in america and take the guns away and we don't like donald trump because he's protecting th socialist more of a communist why can't you ok so i'm not going to do the lincoln portrait i told him i like and i respect him no because i respected him so much and i felt that he's not going to do it i'm going to do something else i'm also going to be doing so that i wrote which i think the audience would enjoy right but going back so you're not doing that building you're not having another actor no i'm not but it's such a beautiful in terms of patriot now it is the right of the word you have in president from contacted me so c ok and in dallas anywhere anywhere he wants and he would be asked to do some of the narration or if he were on the narration that he would play lead and it starts out abraham lincoln sixteenth president me outside that they're no no you're going to be safe but there is a certain there is i get your point and look we're talking about a transformative world of love and nurturing as you know talk about that we were going to have reverend barber on that at some point hopefully dover the summer we are we are i am involved i'm involved in to be involved in direct action by their very dedicated i am to get because i'm really and there's going to be actually i'm going to get a plug in here on this there's going to be a benefit may third thursday supporting the poor people's campaign this is going to be a pot poco seven to nine thirty or thirty three ave be at third street and and so one of the things i'm bringing this up because barbour and others that we've had on the show speak to the point where we've got to stop the hate and violence and even among those who i disagree disagree absolutely we've got to learn to transcend that and reach people and i would argue very strongly to that  donald trump as well as many other politicians and many other people in your field this well in the musical have been severely hurt and abuse is true themselves and they turn on other people and use  first no but you have to want to do it first right what happens is people are set in a certain way the brakes there's little that barrier reaction right knee jerk reaction where i'm not going to listen to each other in fact it's very interesting my own daughters in my own household if they will not allow me to watch fox news on channel forty four here in new york because i enjoy watching the show very much and i find they're very intelligent people very happy people and creative people but when i haven't had any as  intellectually articulate man who has a real mission he thinks he does he seem to rub it in there's a swamp being drained it's not it's not an easy job and he really believes this man who was a democrat himself mr trump was not supported by republicans or democrats which is a very good sign we wanted somebody from the outside the outside man came in and we began to label him oh he's this he's that he's not making friends but guess what today happened when a leader of france in the york and  give them and they and they were doing very very well and maybe they still are doing very very well but the idea whether it still lasts forever or didn't last with this idealistic dream that of course people now when my father you were doing that my father did you race i'm a little bit of a mixed background and i think we were all trying to be similar being human is what were we have a quest for but now i believe play music is a very universal language people love me really people love each other the politicians have an and they like to make dissent and make people join forces against each other but people like daniel barenboim they make peace they make music they want people to be together but there are other sort of like gang leaders that want to make their gang fight the other gang and this should be eventually outdated kind of mode people are getting smarter with the internet communication they don't really want to be pitted against each other and i think we have to realize we have certain tendencies to judge before we listen in fact that's why i believe even that actor who decided not to do the lincoln porter with me should have given us a chance to show the beauty and to give the message in fact i think i was going agree i like the idea that we didn't you know the perform together on the same stage it would have been smiled and they've gotten into it you know and there you go you think fundis an exam it is functional it is fun but i'm very impressed with you jim i'm going to tell you i feel you have a very big heart and you're very disciplined you have a certain conviction and ideology and you're striving to speak with people to reach out in that we are too high and voice we try and it's very understanding and it's not hypocritical and very nice because you're willing to invite me on even though product politically we're on different sides of the aisle so to speak but you really are wonderful new yorker and as and i'm so glad you have this show and having great success and i think you are you know there are many people who do different things for others that are not valid valid this and that you earn a very good position here in respect of many many people because you have a good heart and you're trying every day to bring people together and it's fair and thank you i really appreciate it and that that is what we're trying to do with this show it's not easy all of these radical measures well it's easy with people like you coming on and i really mean that and and but it's not easy in other words like i say like eugene fodor and like other artists who are doing their art the musicians there are you know there are foundations and grants and i'm not sure what mr trump has done for the arts perhaps not too much you seem to be rather conservative in that regard but we all as americans in a way have to fend for ourselves in some socialist countries they take care of people in different ways this and that but in america really you have to pull your own way you know and so i have to i'm out there alone trying to be an artistic person and it's not easy you are you're well you're a musical entrepreneur and i can't help it cause the survival also but it's part of my nature but i'm just saying it's not easy to continue that that sort of good fight and be good to hook up more and more people who like to share and who are not hypocritical and i believe you're doing that and so this is a call out again thank you for it and this is a and i appreciate your efforts and because i think you're doing very similar sorts of things and music room i can't resist helping people people come to my door my violin shop or  didn't get a lot of yes i got a lot of no's and now that i'm a little bit older certainly more mature a little bit more mature quite a bit older and a little a little wiser i'd like to say yes to people when they have projects or they need a little help i like to say yes let's see how that can be done many times i help other people before i help myself but that's in a human nature but i don't flatter myself it's a great altruistic thing i think a little bit maybe it's a mental illness or something why i want to save the world or help others but that is part of my makeup and i have to be careful with that careful enough i think you've got a great balance on it but but sitting there is a so i'm the one hand you don't feel the government should be helping as much with the arts the national public sixty seventy dollars you know at least at least so basically the problem the conflict here is that i felt if my music is good enough for my art they'll be a following if not i'm not going to throw money at it per se on the other hand i do need money to pay my musicians to written in concert halls to print calendars and books if i can develop more of a connection to the publishing etc but i do believe there has to be a market for me if i'm if i'm dre he cares about the violin they want to hear guitars and ok that's the way it goes i'm not going to push myself you know there's an expression more than the farmer needs deeds to give the milk more than the cows needs to give the milk what expression the farmer or the so no more than the farmer needs the milk the cows needs to give it well i'm the musician of that more than people need to hear me play i need to perform but i figured if i play well enough it's like bush fool me once  then but in if the audience really likes what i do in they like my orchestra and they like my artwork i will be discovered someday hopefully before i die you trust but it's not i don't think the government should give me a huge grant but a little grant would be nice ok they don't exist then in the private sector someone who's supposed to cultural arts sponsor or patron should look me up gregory things are great when i'm there and i'm certainly interested in expanding my audience and my you know and you've taken the orchestra to china china five trips i conducted in russia and i'm going to russia and it's trying to five tours in china it's a fantastic place a wonderful place very strong hardworking people they have an air pollution problem around the big cities in particular but i find  place sort of like the old wild west of america it's not that wild in such a people there's not a lot of sections and unions and people have to be pretty sharp to survive i saw window washers on little ropes coming down from the fortieth floor yeah you can you know if one falls he's done the family's out of business and is lucky to be any any due process to compensate him i mean they work hard and they have to be very sharp people and not fall off those all of the  and many times i opened shows with the american national anthem and i would learn it well at the moment is probably a north korean national anthem and is a south korean national anthem so i'm not sure what i would open the show with and playing devil's advocate for the critics would again next week on the radical imagination we have a short clip of gregory and his artwork and music and then we're going to close it out with reverend william barber how we need a moral  i want to talk about why we must have i believe a moral movement across this country we are in a time where corporations are treated like people and people are treated like thing they promote legislation that attacks voting rights the poor citizens the immigrant community and civil rights that are mean spirited and fundamentally contrary to what i democracy is supposed to be about what i