BACK OF THE BOOK
PASHions
PASHions will highlight what ASH Clinical News
readers do creatively outside of practice. If you have
a creative skill in the arts you’d like to share with
ACN, we invite you to submit your work. Whether
it’s photography, essays, poetry, or paintings, we
want to provide an outlet for creative pursuits.
Please send your submission to ashclinicalnews@
hematology.org.
In this edition, Lawrence Kass, MD, tells us about his
life in music – from playing and composing songs in
high school to hosting “The Mighty Wurlitzer Radio
Hour” to writing staged musicals. Dr. Kass is head
of Hematopathology at the MetroHealth System
and professor of Pathology and Medicine at Case
Western Reserve University School of Medicine in
Cleveland, Ohio.
Dr. Kass with the cast of
“Front Page Flo”
The Music Man
Lawrence Kass, MD
When did your interest in composing music start?
I come from a musical background. Both of my parents were musicians.
My father was a trained operatic baritone and a pediatrician. My mother
was a concert pianist; she spent her summers studying piano at Julliard
and taught piano lessons during college. Whatever I do musically is
probably coded in my genes, like so many other things that seem to be
inherited. I’m just carrying on the tradition.
I started playing piano when I was 4 or 5 years old; I began to pick
out tunes by ear and study piano with my mother, my first teacher.
When I was 6 years old, I gave my first recital by performing “The StarSpangled Banner,” and I’ve been playing ever since. I started playing
the organ when I was 9 years old, which was the first year I could reach
the pedals with my feet.
I was trained as a classical pianist but started playing popular music
when I was in junior high school. That’s also about the time I started writing
my own songs – mainly jingles for selling the high school newspaper. As an
undergraduate at the University of Michigan, my interest in musical theater
developed. I wrote two prize-winning musical revues for a carnival called
“Michigras,” with eight or 10 songs each. Then, in 1960, I entered medical
school at the University of Chicago and didn’t write another song until 2002.
Did you still play and practice music during that time?
In 1993, I became the organist, pianist, and script-writer on a unique
ASHClinicalNews.org
radio program, “The Mighty Wurlitzer
Radio Hour,” that was broadcast globally
from WCLV, Cleveland’s fine arts radio
station, for 21 years. When I was writing
the scripts for those, I thought, “Maybe
I’ll pull out a song that I wrote a long time
ago and see if it will work … .” That song
was called “You Can Be a Broadway Star.”
A few people asked me after the show
where the song came from, not knowing it
was an original.
So, for the fall 2002 broadcast of “The Mighty Wurlitzer Radio
Hour,” I decided to try to write another song. That song became
“Whispers of Autumn,” a romantically nostalgic song featuring an
eight-voice chorus. The program’s announcer and host, Robert Conrad,
looked at me and he said, “Did you write that song?” I told him yes,
and he cocked his head to the side and said, “You know, you should
do more like that.” That’s all it took. Then it was like Fibber McGee’s
closet from the old radio show; Bob opened up the door and everything
came tumbling out. All of these songs started emerging, one after the
other, and it’s been non-stop ever since. From the time that Bob gave
me that jumpstart in 2002, I’ve written about 4,800 songs and been
nominated twice for an Emmy. I really owe a lot to him.
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