THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 18, 1996 TAG: 9602160046
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LEE TEPLY, SPECIAL TO THE SUNDAY BREAK
LENGTH: Medium: 84 lines
SOME 15 YEARS ago, pianist Robert Sherman left New York City and a promising career in music to work in the family furniture business in Virginia Beach. He expected his fiancee, a cellist, to join him there after she finished law school.
But she didn't. Instead, Barbara Gaden took a job at a law firm in Richmond in 1983. The wedding called off and the romance over, the two did not speak to each other for more than a decade.
Until now. On Feb. 7, they gave their first performance together, at the University of Richmond. The program will be repeated today at The Chrysler Museum of Art.
Surprisingly, given their long history together, the duo's Richmond concert was their first ever. Both studied at the Juilliard School of Music in Manhattan, and they lived and worked together in New York from the mid-'70s into the early '80s. Yet they never gave a concert.
Sherman, a Norfolk native, first took the piano seriously as a student of Harold Protsman, professor emeritus at Old Dominion University. Protsman prepared the young pianist for study at the North Carolina School of the Arts and for his first concerto performance.
As a high school junior, Sherman played one of the dazzling concertos by Franz Liszt with the Norfolk Symphony (now the Virginia Symphony) in 1971.
Protsman, who has worked with his former student to prepare for the current spate of concerts, says Sherman always had a ``wonderful facility'' at the keyboard. He added that Sherman ``has a great deal of sensitivity in his playing,'' which should be particularly evident in the works by Beethoven, Schumann and Rachmaninoff on today's program.
Sherman met Gaden in 1974, after she transferred to Juilliard to study with Lorne Monroe, principal cellist of the New York Philharmonic. Both graduated in 1976 and decided to stay in New York to develop concert management careers.
They ran separate businesses but shared information and contacts. Sherman worked as an agent booking performers in concert venues, while Gaden ventured into other aspects of concert promotion, including raising funds and writing grants.
With her interest in the financial side of the concert world, and with Sherman's encouragement, Gaden entered Fordham University to learn how legalities affect the concert world. She continued with a busy music career while studying law.
When Sherman moved to Virginia Beach in 1981, Gaden planned to finish her degree and then marry him and practice law here. After their relationship broke up in 1983, she took a job in a law firm in Richmond. In 1988, she made the move to the state attorney general's office, eventually becoming an assistant attorney general.
Gaden satisfied her musical interests by playing in the Richmond Community Orchestra and substituting occasionally in the Richmond Symphony. In 1993, she became a full member of the symphony, playing in all its subscription concerts and for other events.
Although she has been playing regularly, this is her first full-length recital in 25 years. She originally planned it to show her associates in the state capitol's legal and political worlds her other side. When Sherman heard about it, he offered to accompany her, even though he had done no serious playing since leaving New York.
While his fingers were still a bit rusty last week in Richmond, they seemed to gain command of the instrument as the program progressed. Richmond Times-Dispatch reviewer Kathleen M. Bennett praised his ``power and grace'' in the difficult Rachmaninoff sonata. His playing was beyond the ordinary, as it gained ``depth through dynamic sensitivity,'' she said.
Sherman and Gaden plan to continue performing together - and to start up a new concert management business, Dominion Concerts Unlimited. Sherman said they expect to announce a concert series, or at least a few musical events, for the fall season. For 1997-'98, they're planning on an ambitious, full-blown series at various venues that may mix classical, jazz and other musical genres. To all their old contacts in New York, the duo can add new ones made in Richmond and Hampton Roads as they program these dates.
She will still work for the state, and he will still work as an executive at Meyers & Tabakin Furniture. But more important, by renewing their friendship, they have revived the musician in Sherman. The muse that once left has returned to draw him back to one of his loves. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Cellist Barbara Gaden and pianist Robert Sherman, shown in 1980
photo, recently perform-ed together for the first time.
by CNB