SETH MICHAEL MEYER
Assistant News Editor
On Oct. 15, Fredonia lost a great mentor, a loving husband and brilliant musician. Gerald Thomas Gray, associate professor at Fredonia’s College of Music, died after a valiant fight against pancreatic cancer at the age of 51.
An email from Melvin Unger, the director of the College of Music, went out to the students and faculty of the college last Monday, informing them of the news of his passing.
Born in Chattanooga, Tenn., Gray adopted music into his life at an early age, and he studied choral singing at Austin Peay State University, Eastman School of Music and the University of Iowa.
Gray influenced the lives of many students by “seeing a lot of potential in everybody,” says Nick Farrauto, a junior music education major.
Farrauto has spent many years learning from Gray in College Choir, Chamber Choir and conducting class. He testifies to Gray’s expectations of the choirs he conducted: “most choral directors are like, ‘we’ll just sing this, and it will all work out in the end.’ Dr. Gray was not like that at all. He was like, ‘this is going to be perfect . . . and I will not settle for anything less.’”
Gray expected professionalism from all of his students, and his straightforward critiquing methods exemplified that. Many students remember being compared to an old-timey McDonald’s drive-thru with a cliche high-pitched nasally sound.
He knew how to build singers up, according to Farrauto. “He tore apart what he knew was wrong and he knew what needed to be fixed and tore that all apart, and [then] he said ‘we’re going to build from scratch.’”
“He had the kind of power to want you to be better,” said Brendan Gardner, a senior music education major. Gardner spent many years studying under Gray, and he recalls his unique approach to teaching choral pieces to the students he treated as professionals.
“His expectation was for the music. It’s not for you, it’s not for the people singing it, it’s for the music . . . he was so focused on serving the music the way it was written,” said Gardner.
Gray developed a profound appreciation of music in his quarter century of experience, especially while touring Europe under the direction of Robert Shaw, where he sang tenor for the Robert Shaw Festival Chorus.
“He was a force of nature and quite frankly a genius,” Dave Waterland attests. “He wouldn’t want me to use that term lightly and I don’t.” Waterland has spent four years studying under Gray, completing his degree in music performance this year.
Waterland hopes that Gray is remembered for his great legacy at Fredonia. During his tenure at Fredonia as the director of Choral Activities, starting in 2002, he made many accomplishments such as arranging an annual holiday concert that features Handel’s “Messiah” and Bach’s “Christmas Oratorio.” Most notably, he helped arrange the Fredonia Chamber Choir, which consists of some of Fredonia’s best vocalists.
“He gave his heart and soul to music,” says Waterland. He explains that Gray set high standards for his students and always said to them that whatever they do, “refuse to do it with any shade of mediocrity.”
Gerald Gray is loved by pupils, fellow faculty and his wife, Shinobu Takagi, whom he shared his passion for music with.
And he, himself, lived a life full of many loves — the music of Bach, his espresso machine, his hand bags and matching boots, his career, his students and his wife.
In a message from the president’s office, Takagi tenderly assures that, “Gerald’s legacy is alive and among us when we are good and kind to one another and when we make music with love in our hearts.”