My first memory of Jim Primosch is a performance of Crumb’s Makrokosmos at Harrison Auditorium of the University of Pennsylvania, where they were both professors in the music department. I have a vivid memory of being captivated by the music, aware of the musician’s engagement with the score, and how they shared it with the audience. As I basked in the post-performance glow of my own enjoyment, Jim came off stage, thoroughly spent. I knew right away that what I received had been given to me by him.

In my professional career I’ve recorded many CDs with living composers. After the sessions, in the long hours spent sitting shoulder to shoulder editing, there's plenty of time for small talk, telling favorite shaggy dog stories and getting to know one another. I learned his wife Mary was an artist and taught in the area. I learned he was a choir boy in his youth, a formative experience that came out very clearly in his vocal writing. Rather than knowing what the voice is capable of, his vocal writing revolves around what the voice does well. So, too, his piano scores, some of them quite difficult, lay under the hands in a way that demonstrates a knowledge of the pianist’s hands.

One particularly colorfully story he shared was his first piano lesson with Lambert Orkis. Lambert watched him play through the piece then said to him, “You know, it’s astounding you can play at all!” Many years later I had the opportunity to record both of them playing 4-hand and 2-piano recitals together. Then there was his impersonation of George Crumb, made all the more convincing by Jim’s deep affection and respect for his mentor.

Our lives intersected in other ways. We both drove a Toyota Prius for years, my wife Martha was a teacher’s assistant to Thomas, his son, and both Thomas and his twin sister Mary Rose worked for me over summers and school breaks.

Jim and I also shared a long struggle with severe headaches. At a chance encounter in a drugstore he saw me stocking up on over the counter painkillers. He told me it was the caffeine in the extra strength varieties that was causing my rebound headaches. That one insight put me on the road to recovery and at our last editing session I had the opportunity to express my gratitude.

It’s common to say the world was a better place for this person having lived in it. I can tell the world my place in the world was made better by Jim Primosch.

Thank you Jim.