European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 12, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse He York Tomti director Tom o Horgan with his instrument collection if s Good for your soul by Dee Wedemeyer new York times of o Horgan describes his Manhattan apartment As a junk shop in the sky and a full of everything you could put in less than three years ago it was an empty loft space formerly occupied by a clothing manufacturer requiring plumbing electricity lighting and it is filled seemingly to capacity with a collection of several Hundred musical instruments assembled by o Horgan who has directed hair Jesus Christ superstar Lenny inner City and numerous lesser known works. O Horgan directed experimental theater productions for years at la mama where he indulged his theatrical sense of the bizarre and his Strong penchant for grotesque fantasy. He brought these interests As Well As his love of spectacle to larger audiences on Broadway in he used puppets on stage and to season he directed a production of the Leon Kirchner opera Lilly for the new York City opera. Loft living suits o Horgan temperamentally and because of the thickness of the Industrial Walls. He May have 20 musicians in for a recording session. Small rehearsals have been held in the loft and 350 invited for a movie. Once on new year s eve he decided that every instrument in the apartment should be played at Midnight. O Horgan s loft houses two harps two organs and a grand piano. The woodwind instruments an estimated 150, Are on one bedroom Wall and the strings another 40 to 45, on a second bedroom Wall. The percussion instruments of lord that s impossible be said asked for a count Many Are in the living room and include an entire Gong Pavilion. It s Good for your soul he said uttering a Gong of the instruments in his collection have been acquired in the last decade from numerous sources. He has acquired them in Brazil Ball and new Guinea sometimes dealing with natives sometimes with dealers. He has brought european reproductions. He has purchased rare Renaissance instruments from such dealers As Anthony Bingham in London and Charles Ponte in new York. He had a Hecke phone made by the Heckel company in Germany. They just turn up he said. It s like any collecting mania. It opens up endless avenues of possibilities. People come out of the Woodwork with Little after the production of Lily there was Gong beating dancing Rock music on the stereo blowing of conch shells and playing of so Many other instruments that one sensitive composer fled because there were too Many o Horgan teasingly Calls his collection pure pathology but there is a lot of his music and theater philosophy in it. He likes to play music on the instrument for which it was composed. Mozart or example composed for a clarinet with five keys and Bach wrote for an oboe with one. As a kid i could Only dream what a drum Hom sounded like he it became a passion to own those instruments to touch the also likes the greek and elizabethan concepts of an actor who plays instrument on the stage. One of the advantages of the old instruments is they Are simpler and he can easily teach an actor to play one. In Tom Paine the entire cast played something. In futz one actor played an ocarina standing on one hand some holes were taped and music composed to facilitate this furniture in the apartment is almost incidental you come upon it with Surprise As if you found a bed in the lobby of a museum or theater. The dining area Hung in wind Chimes has Oak chairs and table. The living area defined by a Corner painted Blue is furnished with two chairs a Couch done in what o Horgan Calls fake naugahyde and standing ashtrays i can t get terribly serious about furniture o Horgan said. O Horgan grew up in a Chicago suburb. He composed an opera when he was 12. He earned a Bachelor s degree and a master s degree Ramu Paul University. As a student he Sang in choirs for bar Mitzvah and weddings. I was sort of a mercenary he joked. He worked with second City the improvisatory group developed a Harp act and spent a lot of time on the Road. He is so years old and looks much younger.0 Morgan s apartment has a sense of things about to happen As if an actor might wander through carrying a Kin size set of false Teeth As one did in Jesus Christ one recent sunday morning in the course of a quiet conversation o Horgan inquired did you see a Man with a Sandwich Seth Sternburg. A new Jersey theater director soon appeared with a six foot Long hero Sandwich for a cast party that evening. A phone Call came in from Denmark. No one popped out of the secret door but there is one. It is part of the Bookcase and is currently unhinged a problem with secret doors. The passion for secret doors and instruments stems from childhood dreams. You have certain dreams and things you want to he said. A lot of them Are silly and a lot Are meaningful. Almost everything i have done came from some sort of fun Ncnary another of o Horgan s childhood dreams was to become a Pale oncologist. His loft houses lots of Dinosaur Bones. New York Timm the Sun god from Jesus Christ superstar hangs above o Horgan s Gong collection. Sunday june 12, 1977 the stars and stripes Page 11
