That Clason!

I got a note in the mail from Clason Kyle. The only man I know for whom bon vivant was invented.

Like the Wizard of Oz, Clason knows all. He really does.

When the Columbus Symphony Orchestra celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1999, conductor and music director George Del Gobbo said he was the fourth conductor?

Huh?

I knew that it was Bob Barr, Harry Kruger and George.

No, no. George said there was a guy in between Barr and Kruger but no one can remember his name.

I started calling all sorts of people and finally, Harry said it was a guy named Theodore Gargiulo. He was in the Army and was at Fort Benning. But no one knew what happened to him.

So I wrote the story, which ran on a Sunday.

The next day, I had a voice mail from Clason, who said if I'd asked him, he could have told me the conductor's name and given me a phone number to call him.

Sheesh. Since then, you better believe I call Clason.

Anyway, this letter from Clason was a copy of the local page of the Monterey Herald in California.

Gargiulo died at age 90 in December.

After leaving Columbus, he was stationed at the now-closed Fort Ord, where he served as music director of Morale Support Services.

Apparently, he led a full life as a conductor and composer. In 2001, he received a lifetime achievement award at Lincoln Center for Performing Arts in New York City. His opera, "Tryllias," was considered for a Pulitzer Prize in 2004.

His obituary said that he was chief music critic, reviewer and features writer for the Ledger-Enquirer for seven years. I asked Jerry Gibson, who has worked here for almost 40 years if he remembered him and he said no. Perhaps he was what we call a stringer. A writer who is not on the payroll, but writes stories as they come along.

For what it's worth, he was the second conductor of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra and needed to be acknowledged.

Thank you, Maestro. And thank you, Clason.