MORRO BAY, Calif. — On the day of his father's execution in Joseph Stalin's Soviet Union, 14-year-old Botso Korisheli was granted 20 minutes to say goodbye.
"I was able to see Dad in prison; he was in a small cell, and he was holding my mom's hand," recalls Korisheli, 78, of that day in 1936 when his outspoken father, celebrated Georgian actor Platon Korisheli, was put to death as an enemy of the people.
"That's where he told me everything he wanted to tell me for the rest of my life," continues Korisheli. "He said to me, 'When you go to bed each night, ask yourself: 'Have I done enough?' "
Has Botso Korisheli done enough? To find the answer to that question, all you have to do is ask the musicians of Morro Bay.
They are now middle-aged, or rapidly approaching that distinction. They were members of Korisheli's orchestra at Morro Elementary school. Ask Kent Nagano, 48, who will take charge of Berlin's Deutsche Symphonie in September, and who takes on the role of first principal conductor of Los Angeles Opera in July 2001. Or ask Gerald Folsom, 49, principal French horn player with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Ask trumpeter Bob Bennett, 37, veteran of the Woody Herman Orchestra, the Brian Setzer Orchestra and the Disneyland Band. Ask Northridge-based composer Michael Brebes, 47, or his brother, San Luis Obispo glass sculptor Larry Brebes, 51, a French horn player for Korisheli and now a guitarist in a small blues band.
Or ask Rodger Anderson, 50, mayor of Morro Bay, who also played the French horn. Anderson credits Korisheli for instilling a work ethic that has remained with him.
Let Nagano--who played clarinet at age 7 in Korisheli's grade-school orchestra--speak for them all:
"That's why I think I was lucky enough to become a musician; if I hadn't had [Korisheli's influence] at a very young age, I'm not really sure if it would have been possible, growing up in such a rural area," Nagano said. "He established an intensive music school within the California public school system. It's extraordinary that so many professionals have come from that little orchestra."
Morro Bay has a population of just under 10,000. In Korisheli's early teaching days, the population was less than 4,000. That fact makes the long list of distinguished Korisheli alumni even more exceptional. Carol Rice, principal cellist with the Berkeley Symphony (founded by Nagano) started here. So did Nagano's sister Joan, a pianist in San Francisco.
