John Leman's "Wonderful Ride"
A visit with John Leman is like stepping into a saner world, where the meaning of life becomes clearer.
Diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1979, he has fought the debilitating illness with courage and stamina, serving as director of the May Festival Chorus from 1979-89 and as professor of choral music at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music from 1969-99.
In 2000, he learned that he had chronic lymphocytic leukemia.
Yet nothing has conquered his indomitable spirit, even the prognosis earlier this year that the cancer is closing in and his days may be counted in months now, rather than years.
Leman, now 66, remains active in the community, attending concerts and keeping in touch with friends, former students and colleagues on the Internet.
I visited him on a sunny autumn day in his room at Bridgeway Pointe, an assisted living facility on the Drake Center campus in Hartwell.
A knock and a bright “come in” found him in his motorized scooter, which he handles with skill, even affection.
“I’m very mobile. I have a remote control for the back door of my van. It has a motorized ramp that comes out and down. I drive the scooter onto the ramp, push the button and go up and in. Then I bounce around the side of the car to the driver’s seat, hop in and go.”
Leman makes long drives solo. “I’ve driven to Florida, and just a couple of weeks ago, to Illinois and back. I always loved to drive and I never get tired. The trip to Florida, many times I’d make that in one shot, 17 hours straight.”
He is a familiar presence at Music Hall and CCM. On Sept. 26, he attended a concert by the visiting Gloria Dei Cantores choir at St. Peter in Chains Cathedral downtown, an experience he calls “energizing, better than a month’s worth of pills.”
Leman’s room at Drake is warm and inviting. Family photos line the walls (including one of himself as a toddler with long blond curls). A comfortable chair is drawn up for visitors. “I’ve been blessed with so many friends, former students, who either call or come by, especially since the prognosis got around. They want to make a final visit. For some, it’s difficult. You know, what do you say?”
A panoramic photo of the huge Song Festival amphitheatre in Tallinn, Estonia looks down from a choice spot atop one wall. Leman led a choir there in 1991, calling it “one of the top five musical experiences of my life.” A book on a stand, “Experts in Uncertainty: Opinion and Subjective Probability in Science,” reveals his interest in issues affecting the world.
His PC – his “lifeline” to the outside world sits in a place of honor next to his bed. People on Leman’s e-mail list enjoy his cheery messages and forwards, which range from the inspirational (a child clips off her hair for her cancer-stricken brother) to the side-splitting (Q: What’s a Placebo Domingo? A: a faux tenor) to the bawdy (don’t ask).
A native of Roanoke, Illinois, Leman had a typical small town Midwest upbringing.
“There was a large church that had a capella singing. All of our homes had pianos and the music was basically hymns. In those days, you didn’t have another couple over, you had 24 to 30 people, on Sunday afternoons. You’d have your meal and before you went home, you’d have an hour or two of singing the old standards. I never heard a symphony till I was in college. Of course, I never heard an opera.”
The 6-foot, 2 ½-inch Leman served double duty at high school basketball games. “I was on the team and at half-time, I’d grab a trumpet and play in the jazz band.”
His high school band director discovered that he had perfect pitch. “I didn’t know what that was. I just thought everybody had pretty good ears.”
Leman’s “first choice” would have been to play professional basketball, he said. “I was a great shot, but I hated to run and I hated to play defense, so I went to my next love, which was choral music.” He enrolled at the University of Illinois, where he earned a doctorate in choral conducting.
“I loved singing with a passion. I wasn’t blessed with a good solo voice, but it was an excellent choral voice (he is a bass). I knew I wasn’t going to be an opera star or a major soloist, so I wasn’t afraid to do anything with my voice. I was very good at blending with anyone I stood beside.”
Leman sang in four choirs at Illinois. “I’m sure I clocked more hours in choruses there than anyone in the history of the school.”
Soon after graduation, he met and married his wife Sharon.
“My first year of teaching was in Decatur, Illinois. She was a student at Milliken University and was dating a good friend of mine. I saw this beautiful gal on the dance floor and invited them to join me at the table. I found out she was going to be student teaching where I taught. In six months, we were married.”
The couple has a daughter, Elizabeth, an M.D./Ph.D. now serving her residency in dermatology in Dayton.
Leman came to CCM at the invitation of choral department chair Elmer Thomas, also an Illinois graduate.
In 1979, Leman succeeded Thomas Peck as May Festival chorus director (Thomas had served from 1970-75).
“I loved large choral works, so for me, it was great because we did six or seven of them a year. Over a 10-year period, I prepared most of the important choral works. I absolutely loved it.”
Preparing the chorus for the May Festival music director is the choral director’s lot. “I always enjoyed trying to second guess the orchestral conductor. I would purchase recordings of that conductor to see how he handled the subtleties and nuances. In rehearsals, I would tell the chorus, ‘you have to be so flexible that you can do anything any guest conductor wants to do and do it quickly.’ We would rehearse three or four different ways, because there were many times when I didn’t the opportunity to go over the score with the conductor.
“You get to the point where you kind of know what they’re going to do. Ultimately, you just do it your way and say, ‘this is the chorus, tell them what you want and they’ll do it.’ That worked pretty well.”
Leman, much loved by his Mayfest choristers, returns to Music Hall every spring to hear the latest edition. “I look at the program to see how many members of the chorus are still there. It’s down to between 15 and 20, I believe.”
When he learned he had MS (a chronic degenerative disease of the central nervous system) Leman was told he could expect seven years without further progression. He got 15. Most of the damage has occurred on the right side of his body.
“I had to switch to becoming a left-handed conductor, but I was comfortable with that because, luckily, I had a good left hand from athletics and piano-playing.”
Leman knows the day, even the moment, when he decided to retire from CCM. It was during a concert at Corbett Auditorium in 1999.
“It was one of those really fine performances where the orchestra clicked and the choir was superb. It was the Verdi Four Sacred Pieces. My daughter had walked me out to the podium. Right in the middle of the last piece – I recall almost the measure – I decided that nothing is going to get any better than this. All the signs said, ‘closure, hang it up, go out on top.’ I’d put in my 30 years at CCM and I thought, let’s turn it over to the younger generation.”
He moved to Drake in 2001 after his first bout with leukemia. “I was so weak that when I’d fall, my wife had great difficulty picking me up. We decided this would be the safest way. She only lives a mile away, so we see each other all the time.”
Rounds of chemotherapy kept the cancer at bay for a while. Then earlier this year the gap began closing. “The doctor said, ‘you have to make a choice. If you want, we can not bother your system with any more chemo. Burn the candle all you want and go out with a flash.’ We had a family meeting and decided that’s the way to go.”
However, when Leman informed the doctor, he was persuaded to try “one more last ditch effort.”
“The interesting thing is I feel as well now as I have anytime in the last six years.”
Leman is a man of faith who has done much questioning in recent years.
“My tablemate back in 2001 was a rabbi. I would ask a question and he would take it from there. We used to do run outs. We’d go to a mosque, a synagogue, and each place the minister or someone would speak to us for an hour on that religion. I started attending lectures in town.
“I figured, OK, let’s strip off all the man-made stuff, all the rules that we’ve come up with, and get down to the basics. I just developed a straight shot. I have my communication nightly and for me, it works out fine.”
If there is one thing he would like to do over, it would be “to become smarter quicker,” he said. “You know, educating myself (he recently made a huge donation of books and recordings to the U.C. Library). I just let too many things go.”
He doesn’t plan on “giving in.”
“The doctors say, ‘with that attitude, who knows? You may get another three years.’ Besides, I’ve got a few more May Festivals to attend.
“I am comfortable with whatever deck of cards is handed out. It’s been a wonderful ride. I’ve been so fortunate with all the conducting and 32 trips to Europe and CCM. Where are you going to find anything better than that? It’s been great.”
(first published in The Cincinnati Post Oct. 20, 2006)