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Description
In this oral history, musician, husband, father, and long-time Mill Valley resident Phil Fath discusses his musical career, family, and community. Born in 1929 in Brooklyn, New York, Phil grew up in an Eastern European Jewish family. Phil recounts how he was introduced to music through a working class political organization his father belonged to and started playing the clarinet at the age of 10. Phil attended the renowned High School of Music & Art, followed by the Manhattan School of Music. Phil recalls first visiting California in 1950 while on tour with the American Ballet Theatre. He was drafted during the Korean War, but was given a position in the Army band and fortunately never sent overseas. In 1954 he got a position with the Cleveland Orchestra, and two years later moved west to join the San Francisco Symphony. Phil and his wife Iris moved to Mill Valley in 1961, where they raised their two daughters, Mara and Josepha. In addition to his career as a performer, Phil taught music at Stanford, U.C. Berkeley, and other schools around the Bay Area. As his oral history draws to a close, Phil expresses his continuing love for Mill Valley after having lived there for 58 years, for his wife to whom he was married for 62 years, and for his two daughters to whom he is devoted.
Identifier
AE94990C-FE38-485C-A72F-324728850794 2019.034.001
Subject
Army Clarinet Cleveland Orchestra Conservatories, Musical Family Fath, Iris Fath, Philip Immigrants Immigration Korean War Labor organizations Labor unions Music Music education Music ensembles Music schools Musicians MV history - Music and counterculture (1960s and 1970s) Oral history - Music Political activists San Francisco Symphony Stanford University Teachers Teaching World War II
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