Personal Music Background
![]() Betty Freeman in Los Angeles, November 1997 Photo by Mayra V. Lars, courtesy Betty Freeman |
![]() Betty Freeman in the Kitchen with John Cage and Merce Cunningham, April 1, 1977 Photo courtesy Betty Freeman |
FRANK J. OTERI: How did you get interested in music initially?
BETTY FREEMAN: Well, it’s very easy. There’s no escaping it. It’s there. And it is always there.
FRANK J. OTERI: You studied music.
BETTY FREEMAN: Well, I just think you’re born that way. You’re born like – I have friends who like the water, for example. I don’t like the water. I think you’re born liking music. I’ve decided that.
FRANK J. OTERI: But you’ve also studied music when you were in college.
BETTY FREEMAN: Oh, very seriously.
FRANK J. OTERI: What did you study?
BETTY FREEMAN: Hmm. Theory, harmony, counterpoint, music history
FRANK J. OTERI: Did you write any music?
BETTY FREEMAN: No, I didn’t have to write any music, except just examples. I minored in music, but I studied piano with David Barnett for 4 years. Then when I left school, I studied with Beveridge Webster.
FRANK J. OTERI: I have his recordings of Stravinsky‘s piano music. They’re wonderful.
BETTY FREEMAN: Then I studied with Johana Harris at Juilliard.
FRANK J. OTERI: Wow.
BETTY FREEMAN: I rented a piano or a spinet whenever I moved, and I moved a lot because it was war time. I studied in New England Conservatory when I lived in Boston.
FRANK J. OTERI: Did you give recitals?
BETTY FREEMAN: To friends, yes. Not in public.
FRANK J. OTERI: Now was it all new music, or was it old and new?
BETTY FREEMAN: Oh no, it was all old music. It was all classical music then. New music wasn’t taught in those days. I mean this goes back to, well let’s see, I’m 79 now, when I started I was 15. That goes way back to the ’30s.
FRANK J. OTERI: So you never actively played contemporary music?
BETTY FREEMAN: No, but I loved contemporary music, and I went by myself, I remember, to Tanglewood when Koussevitzky was there, and of course when I went to Wellesley, I went to the Friday Afternoon Rush Concerts every Friday and heard Koussevitzky. That’s when I really heard contemporary music.
FRANK J. OTERI: Now what grabbed you about contemporary music?
BETTY FREEMAN: Oh, Frank. It’s the music of my time.
FRANK J. OTERI: Now you say that, and I say that, but lots of classical music fans would say that we’re crazy.
BETTY FREEMAN: I like contemporary clothes; I like Armani, Prada, Gucci Oh no, my goodness this is music of my times. My music.
FRANK J. OTERI: I wish more people felt that way.
BETTY FREEMAN: The other is like living in a 14th Century house.
FRANK J. OTERI: Yet so many other people think that the music of the past is their music and that the music of now is not for them.
BETTY FREEMAN: I don’t even think about those people. And one of them is one of my best friends. He only likes old music. We’re friends. I mean, I can still be friends with people who don’t like it.
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