Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Peter Knapp passes at 75

Peterandchrista_2
Christa and Peter Knapp

Peter Knapp, the longtime music critic for The Patriot Ledger newspaper has died and I'm one of many who will miss him. Peter's list of accomplishments and interests is longer than I realized. Did any of us who talked to Peter at concerts know about his work on nuclear nonproliferation? None of it surprises me, but I wish I could ask Peter about it all now. When he was alive, he seemed to prefer talking about his children to talking about himself.

I will miss talking with Peter and his wife, Christa, at performances. I will miss reading Peter's reviews (he was a gentleman, but he didn't pull his punches in print, I can assure you). I will miss his annual letter listing the concerts he intended to review. I will miss our occasional phone conversations and his gentlemanly demeanor. He was a dear man who loved music and Boston's music scene is the poorer for his passing.

I recommend J.M. Lawrence's obituary on Peter Knapp for The Boston Globe as a tiny window into a life well lived.



1 comment:

  1. The respect that the Boston music community has given to my father is moving. Your posting fortifies my view of my father for what he stood for and represented. Please carry on the tradition in your individual manner – but always be true to yourself like my father was.
    I beg to remain, Sir, true to the beliefs which I was taught and in memory of my father Peter Merrill Knapp,
    Tristan Knapp
    Bad Honnef, Germany

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