Donald McGuire Lehmann

Don Lehmann passed away, November 8, 2016 at Clackamas, Oregon, he was 83 years old.

Funeral Service, 10:30 a.m., Monday, November 14, 2016 at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral, 3131 NE Glisan St. Portland, OR 97232

Don Lehmann's life was concentrated in a tiny expanse of real estate in SE Portland. After his birth in Woodland, Washington, he spent his childhood at 29th and Taylor, graduating from Washington High School, where he met his wife, Loanne. He went away for a few years to study the piano, but in 1960 he and Loanne returned to town, with young Nicholas, and settled at 55th and Hawthorne. To complete the circle, he will be laid to rest at Lone Fir Cemetery, halfway in between his old home and his high school.

This sounds like a tale of insularity, small horizons, narrow ideas. How could someone of remarkable musical gifts make an impact from this little backwater? For pianists after the war in the United States, there was only one place to be for a musical life: New York City. You couldn't be taken seriously anywhere else, not in Chicago, not in LA, not San Francisco, and certainly not little Portland.

Yet when Don Lehmann settled at 55th and Hawthorne, SE Portland became one of the brightest spots in the musical universe. Far from being narrow or parochial, the piano studio he ran was alive with musical thought from around the world and  across the centuries.

As a pianist, Don was unsurpassed. The lucky few who heard him were thrilled by his joy, exuberance, style and technical mastery. He could play anything and bring it vividly, instantly alive. His sound, with its wide range of tonal color, was instantly recognizable. Anyone who heard him would fall in love with the sound.

Don was transformed from a talented kid to a first-rate artist by his studies with Alexander Raab in Berkeley, CA. This put him only 4 generations from Beethoven, in a distinguished musical lineage. He had daily lessons with Raab and learned the Romantic style, with all its color and expressiveness, a style which is not much heard today.

For most of us, unsurpassed pianism would be enough. But he had a concomitant gift for teaching. And it is as a teacher that he had his deepest and most durable influence. He could (and did) teach anyone anything and they would play better than they had ever dreamed. Unlike many music teachers, especially gifted pianists, he didn't select his students on the basis of talent or skill or aptitude. He took anyone who was simply interested in making beautiful music, whether they were 6 or 60 year-old beginners, high school students, college students, experienced adult musicians or anyone else who wanted to work with him. A man of deep faith, he once said, " I had a family to raise, so I made a deal with God: if he'd send me students, I'd figure out how to teach them".

And teach them he did. He taught tone and technique, phrasing, how to shape a melody, balance, pedaling, how to count and read music, storytelling, historical style, all of Bach, all of Chopin, all of Beethoven, American Standards, Mozart, Schoenberg, Yankee Doodle, Buzzing Bee, Bartok, Berg, Debussy, Christmas music,  Rameau, Jamaican Rumba, Turina, Schubert, Poulenc, how to prepare for a concert, how to shop for a piano, the history of the instrument, biographies of composers and pianists-the list is unending and was constantly expanding until the day he died. There wasn't anything he couldn't or wouldn't teach if it would help a student flourish.

But if you talk to his students, they will all emphasize, sooner or later, how well he listened. He didn't think it was possible to teach piano playing separately from the rest of life, so he listened just as well to his students stories of their joys and sorrows as he did to their playing. For many students he was counselor, advisor, confidante, father, friend. Many people were able to find their best selves with him on their sides.  He was the person who heard them most clearly and taught them to hear themselves.

Don had continuous, productive relationships with students that lasted 40, 50 or 60 years, longer than most marriages. And many of them became teachers themselves, drawn to the field because of his example. But he was just as excited about the new person he'd started on book one as he was with the older students working on Chopin.

Don Lehmann was irreplaceable. But if you had told him that, he would have said, "Ah, that's sweet, but so are you". His students play supremely well, and if you mentioned it, he would say, "But that's my job, making them sound good". It wasn't modesty, he knew his gifts. But he did believe that each of us is irreplaceable, and that we can all learn to sound better and listen well.   And we are all lucky to have known him.

Don Lehmann is survived by his son Nicholas and daughter-in-law Lise, grandson Fletcher, sister June and brother Lynn, and numerous nieces and nephews.  His wife Loanne preceded him in death.