Richard claims that he was “tricked” into playing the horn at the age of 12. Though he told the instrumental teacher at his Detroit elementary school that he wanted to play the trumpet, the teacher (improbably named “Mr. Vroom”) explained that his pronounced overbite would force him to hold the trumpet at a downward angle, directing all his tone at the floor. Fortunately, Mr. Vroom alleged, this angle was ideal for the French horn, so Richard began lessons on the horn. In reality there was no problem with Richard’s orthodontia; Mr. Vroom had resorted to subterfuge, because he needed horn players more than trumpet players.
But the die was cast. Richard stuck with the horn, and has never regretted it. He played in nothing but bands throughout high school, but when he entered the University of Michigan (majoring in English, not music) he auditioned for the orchestra. Revelation struck as the ensemble started to prepare Mahler’s 4th Symphony for their first concert: he was no longer only one of a dozen players on a part but carried a part all by himself. “Playing in an orchestra was much more interesting than playing in a band,” he remembers.
In the Berkeley Symphony, as in the U of M orchestra, he plays second horn, which is the lower of the two main horn parts, and says he enjoys playing in the low register of the instrument and supporting the harmony from below.
After graduating from Michigan, Richard entered graduate school at Wayne State University in Detroit to pursue a Ph.D. in English, but he left Wayne State without completing the degree and moved to San Francisco in 1972. Having set his horn aside during grad school, he started to play again, and in the mid-seventies joined the Berkeley Promenade Orchestra (precursor of the Berkeley Symphony) under Tom Rarick. Around the same time (1976) Richard also began playing with the Lamplighters, San Francisco’s popular Gilbert and Sullivan repertory company, where he still plays. He says he has played every G & S operetta dozens, if not hundreds, of times. He also plays with the Fremont Symphony.
In addition to his playing role, Richard has served as a players’ representative on the Symphony’s board for the last decade, and he is also responsible for editing the program book for each concert. That task entails gathering together and editing program notes, performer and composer biographies, and other important and informative bits of prose pertaining to each concert.
This function is closely related to Richard’s day job (as the bumper stickers tell us, having one is the mark of a real musician), which is communications director of Mother Jones magazine in San Francisco. His job there is to promote the editorial content of the magazine beyond the circle of its readership, bringing articles to the attention of columnists, booking authors on radio and TV, and arranging for articles to be posted on Web sites. Richard’s wife, Fran Haselsteiner, is also employed in the word trade; she is a senior editor for the Judicial Council of California/Administrative Office of the Courts.
Of course, if you want to find out what Richard is really passionate about, just get him started on the subject of espresso. He not only loves to drink the dark, frothy liquid, but he has become quite an expert on the subject. He has written on coffee for the San FranciscoChronicle, Fresh Cup (a coffee industry trade journal), Gastronimica, and Salon.com. You’ll also find Richard’s writing on musical subjects in the San Francisco Symphony program book and elsewhere.
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