TRIBUTES TO IVAN TCHEREPNIN

Ivan was without a doubt the most gentle man I have ever met. He was also the most tolerant and supportive teacher I ever had. He had a way of latching onto something you'd done that was good, and then he would make it really special.

I can barely comprehend how gentle and special he was. Where did he come from? It seems as if from another planet.

-- Yo Yo Ma

Remembering Ivan Tcherepnin, by William Eldridge

In 1982, around the time I was applying to the PhD program in composition at Harvard University, I bought Ivan Tcherepnin's CRI record containing "Flores Musicales" and "Five Songs." The magical, whimsical, psychedelic and sweetly beautiful music it contained was unlike any electroacoustic music I'd ever heard. By the time I arrived at Harvard in 1983, I had worn out the grooves of the record and the music had become a permanent part of my consciousness.

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In Memoriam: Ivan Tcherepnin, by Paul D. Lehrman
from "Insider Audio", Mix Magazine (September, 1998)

If you are familiar with the family name of Tcherepnin, it's either because you're a student of 20th-century classical music and know the work of Alexander (a composer who combined musical traditions of various cultures into charming and accessible music), or you're a student of early electronic music, and you know about the Serge Modular, one of the great toys of the analog synth age, developed by Alexander's son Serge. It's still being built and maintained by fanatical fans long after the age of Arp. But if you were lucky enough to be a student in the music department at Harvard University in the last three decades, or you hang around the contemporary music scene in Boston (which I am often guilty of), then you knew another Tcherepnin: Ivan.

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I taught at Harvard University for 28 years, and learned that talent is very rare. There were only 4 or 5 really outstanding gifts. Ivan Tcherepnin was one of those gifts.

-- Leon Kirchner