Teaching Simon

Charles Kellis

eBook - 2020

A memoir of the author, despite an incurable recurring virus, describing his life and preparation, for the teaching of the great Simon Estes. The grandson of a slave – an underprivileged African American student at the University of Iowa in 1961 and a new, young professor who first discovered him and then became his teacher/mentor, nurturing him through to international fame. Two interwoven themes connect Simon Estes and Charles Kellis. Described as a "Union made in heaven," their student-teacher relationship became legendary. Like a diamond in the rough, it took a determined commitment with many hours every day for two years at the University. Then Simon Estes, onto Juilliard for one year; a winner of the Tchaikovsky Competitio...n in Moscow; his operatic debut as Ramphis in "Aida" at the Berlin Opera in Germany; "The Flying Dutchman" at the Bayreuth Festival; and subsequently, all major opera houses and most important symphony orchestras throughout the world.... more