In Memoriam
John Lad

It is with great sadness that we share with you the passing of our dear friend and fearless musical ambassador John Lad.  John died suddenly on Jan 23rd during a Tai Chi class in New York.  He was a great friend, a kind soul, a truly passionate musician.

He will be sorely missed.

Violinist and violist John Lad has been a friend of the Saint Lawrence String Quartet since 1997 when he began working with them on R. Murray Schafer's String Quartet #6, entitled "Parting the Wild Horse's Mane," which requires the precise coordination of the music with the 108 postures of the classic Yang style form of taijiquan. Since then the piece has been performed 15 times at venues in North America and Europe, including Stanford in 2000. Lad "rehearsed for that gig" by practicing taijiquan since 1975. His teachers have included Tam Gibbs, Benjamin Lo and Maggie Newman, all senior students of Professor Cheng Man-ch'ing, who was a seminal figure in the transmission of taijiquan to the West. Lad himself has taught taiji in New York for several years and is on the physical education faculty at Columbia University. Besides practicing taijquan, he has been active as a chamber music player and orchestral musician in New York since the 1970s. Especially interested in contemporary music, he has performed in more than 100 world premieres as a member of the American Composers' Orchestra since 1980, and as a long-time member of the band MGP performed often in Europe as well as on New York's Lower Eastside, and participated in the legendary Bang-on-a-Can marathon concerts beginning in the mid-80s. Lad began playing the violin at age 5, and was a student of Fred Rosenberg at the Cleveland Institute of Music. Later he earned a Master's in Music from SUNY at Stonybrook, where he studied viola with John Graham. To take part in the SLSQ Summer Chamber Institute Lad returned to Stanford where he arrived for graduate study in philosophy in 1966 and received a Ph.D. in 1973. While a Stanford student he was an active participant in orchestra, opera and chamber music, and in 1969 was one of the original members of Stanford's contemporary music group, ALEA II. After graduating from Stanford he taught philosophy at Barnard College for more than 25 years. Written by John Lad in 2004.

Photo of John from July 2006.