9/17/2024 – With great sadness 😔

Dear friends,

Many of you traveled with me to Carnegie Hall in 2018 for my conducting debut of the Requiem for the Living by Dan Forrest.  This was made possible by Peter Tiboris whom I had met years prior when I took my high school choirs to perform with Mid-America productions, Peter’s pride and joy.

 When I was there in 2018, Peter invited myself and the other two guest conductors for dinner. At that time I met his wife and family and James Redcay who is the CEO of the production company. It turned out that James’s parents lived next to Ray’s parents in Skidaway Island, Georgia. Small world, isn’t it? At that dinner, we discovered that we both were fighting cancer. This immediately bonded us and made the performance even more meaningful. In 2019 he invited me to conduct in Portugal, but unfortunately, Covid thwarted that plan. Every year since he has called and written me with an invitation to guest conduct anything at any time I so desired. In fact, I heard from him just six months ago.

Unfortunately, this morning, I received the news that he had passed away and it really knocked me for a loop. I was going to share the story at rehearsal tonight but figured it would be better to do it this way since I have been quite emotional. He was only 77.

Attached to this email is a tribute to him. Please take a moment to watch and for those who were with me in 2018, it will have added meaning.

Prayerfully,

Marty