In Saturday’s (9/29) Seattle Times, Susan Kelleher writes, “For two decades, Meyer Slivka slipped past rows of musicians and took up a spot at the rear of the orchestra reserved for the timpanist. But even tucked behind large kettle drums, Mr. Slivka was far from invisible. … The dapper timpanist, who played with the Seattle Symphony through the 1960s and 1970s, died of pneumonia Wednesday at a nursing home in Seattle. He was 89. … Mr. Slivka played music on both coasts in the 1950s, joining symphonies and jazz bands in New York City and San Francisco. He joined the Seattle Symphony as its principal timpanist in 1958, when Milton Katims was conductor. … Mr. Slivka continually sought to improve the sound of his drums, using calfskin heads that he stretched himself in the family kitchen, and he took up woodworking, in part, so he could make his own drumsticks, Enid Slivka said. He also made wood heads for his golf clubs, and built mahogany cabinets and speakers for the hi-fi set he assembled. He constructed guitars, an electronic synthesizer, an oscilloscope and a color TV. He even built a theremin, an early electronic instrument.”
Posted October 4, 2012
