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Bio
Robert J. "Joe" Sullivan, Jr.
Born: Los Angeles, CA, October 1965.
Education: Stanford University, AB English (1988); Brown University, MFA Creative Writing (1990)
"Real Life" Occupation: Sales Operations Manager, Levi Strauss & Co.
Residing in Oakland, California with my wife, Jennifer, whom I met at Brown, and two young daughters, Sabina and Daisy.
I learned to play the piano in the 4th Grade, and advanced to the level of Bach Inventions and easy Mozart Sonatas in a few years. Thereafter, the technical obstacles mounted, and my innate limitations (clumsy fingers, poor sight-reading) revealed themselves; I stopped playing the piano in high school to concentrate on academics and athletics.
Freshman year at Stanford, my roommate Bryan Drucker introduced me to the violin repertoire. His two albums of Itzhak Perlman playing encores by Wieniawski, Vieuxtemps, etc. had me absolutely enthralled. How did Perlman produce those insane harmonics in the "Yankee Doodle Variations" of Vieuxtemps? Perlman's recording of the Paganini Caprices led me to the music library, where I "discovered" the playing of another Galamian pupil, Michael Rabin. Rabin's double album of the Caprices, recorded for Capitol in the late Fifties, remains for me the touchstone of virtuoso violin-playing: his combination of searing tone and brilliant facility are approached by few. On the piano side, I give credit to another roommate (and fine pianist), Rich Gampell, for walking me through Beethoven, Chopin, and Haydn – all staples of his favorite pianist, Sviatoslav Richter.
During my college years, I spent a lot of time in the music libraries, listening to LPs, then CDs, and reading publications such as Gramophone and Fanfare. Following graduation, I became a contributor writer for High Performance Review (1991-2000), a hi-fi and music review quarterly. I specialize mainly in piano and violin repertoire, with side jaunts into counter-tenor (love Deller and Scholl) and lieder singing.
I'm heading towards the 1,000 mark in my CD collection. My stereo is a modest one, based on Rotel electronics and the Magneplanar 2.7QR speakers.
Copyright © 1997-2000, Robert J. Sullivan, Jr.
