Larry Gordon

I have known Larry Gordon for close to forty years. I first met him when the Blanche Moyse Chorale participated in The Vermont Choral Festival at St. Monica's Church on March 13, 1982 in Barre, Vermont - an event which Larry had organized. Some years later = about 1989-90 - Larry created "Village Harmony," an organization which sponsored summer music camps for teen-agers in Vermont. These camps had a unique repertoire of American shape-note hymns and gospel songs and folk music from e.g., England, the Balkans, Africa and the Republic of Georgia, for starters. That grew quickly to include camps not only in Vermont but in other states and in England and other countries of the world. Larry was usually a leader in these camps but he also invited others to lead, including Mary Cay Brass, who brought her expertise in Balkan music. By 1999, it had expanded to include singing camps for adults. and I participated in the first of those adult camps at the Burke Mountain Academy near St. Johnsbury, VT. I went on to attend two VH Camps in 2000, and then in 2001, Larry invited me to tour with Northern Harmony, an elite choral group made up primarily of young people who were alumni of Village Harmony camps but made room for this, then, 68-year-old bass. We toured Germany and England, culminating in the Lufthansa Early Music Festival with a concert at St. James Church, Picadilly, in London, which was broadcast by the BBC. In 2003 I went to a VH adult camp in Colrain, MA, and there I met Ellen. If Larry Gordon had not created Village Harmony, Ellen and I would not be a couple. Needless to say, Larry Gordon has had a large influence in my life, and I have admired him and his musicianship all these many years. There is so much in my life for which I feel gratitude toward him. ***************************************************** It therefore came as a shock to learn a few days ago that Larry had had a serious bike accident and had sustained profound head trauma and was in a coma at the UVM hosptal in Burlington. No one knows exactly what happened, but it was eventually learned that Larry had had a stroke that irreversibly damaged his brain and that even if he came out of the coma, he would be unable to speak or to understand the speech of others. It was known that he did not want to live under those conditions, so yesterday morning he was detached from life support and he died last evening at 8:53p.m. Hundreds - perhaps thousands - are mourning his death. He touched so many lives with music. Many of the teen-agers who came to VH music camps were sort of troubled, lonely. non-conformist kids who found acceptance, love, joy and more at those camps and many were "saved" by their experience with Village Harmony. Yesterday, Ellen and I went to a shape-note sing for Larry on the lawn of Tony and Margaret Dale Barrand in Brattleboro. We took Calvin with us and Harry came along too. About 40 people came, and we sang lustily in honor of Larry, led by Peter and Stefan Amidon and a few others.

Matt Wojcik leading a hymn. ************ ******************* Almost every shape-note hymn is about death and going on to the next world, the next life, so it was deeply satisfying and apppropriate to sing those hymns. Then, in the evening, we went to River Singers, and it was in essence a memorial to Larry. We sang special songs in his honor and many shared their memories of him. River Singers itself would probably not exist if there had been no Larry Gordon because Mary Cay herself owes a great deal to his influence. It is so important to know how one person's life can affect so many other lives. If you want to see Larry in action, just go to Facebook and search his name, or go to YouTube and enter "Northern Harmony" as a search term. There are scores of videos there, most of them with Larry prominently singing or speaking. Great singing too! Here are some pictures of Larry:

I think this last picture is in Larry's home in Marshfield, VT.