Millikin University - Millidek Yearbook (Decatur, IL)

Page 15 text:

this book JOSE ECHANIZ because he is a great musical artist .... because he is a vigorous personality .... and because he has so enriched our lives with both his music and his per- sonality. To the man who becomes a great musical artist is given the task of living both above and within human- ity. This is almost a contradiction in itself, and few men are able to re- solve the two into a single purpose. Jose Echaniz is an artist who could, and so has become a sincere, intel- lectually honest musician. We re- spect him for that, and we are grate- ful that he didn ' t consider us so naive that he had to play down to us. Both the University and the com- munity have benefited from Mr. Echaniz ' s genius. He has brought many exciting hours of sheer enjoy- ment; he has brought fame and re- cognition to Millikin; and he has shown us a fine example of the im- portance of just living the simple life of the family man. We like to recall the sparkling, informative talks which his wife so willingly gave to the var- ious clubs on campus . . . and Carlos making the rounds of the sorority houses picking up the latest news and occasionally borrowing something as utilitarian as a lawnmower . . . and the day that Mr. Echaniz became a citizen of the United States. It is for his music that Millikin will long remember Jose Echaniz. We rejoice with him in his new po- sition at Eastman; we didn ' t want him to leave, but we are proud to have him associated with such an in- stitution. But the haunting strains of his music are still drifting some- where about Albert Taylor Hall. The poetic dreaminess of his Liebe- straum .... the pulsing emotion of his Cuban rhythms .... the saucy impudence of his Peter and the Wolf .... the brilliance and mag- nificent artistry of his Brahms ' Var- iations on a Theme of Paganini These, then, are the things which Jose Echaniz has left to the heritage that is the Millikin family — the mem- ory of great music as created by a great man. We are richer by far for his merely having passed this way. 11