Helping the 1130
Detroit-born conductor
Richard Hayman will
do pops arrangements
for the Israel
Philharmonic.
C
L
SUZANNE CHESSLER
Special to The Jewish News
Richard Hayman, who
conducted the Meadow
Brook Music Festival
pops concert last
Sunday, is plan-
ning a trip to Is-
rael. He will be
working with the
Israeli Philhar-
monic Orchestra,
arranging, con-
ducting, perform-
ing and recording.
"The orchestra
wants to start a pops cata-
logue of its own and develop
a record series," explained the
non-Jewish maestro, whose
conducting career began in
Detroit. "Because I've been
the principal arranger for the
Boston Pops since 1949, they
wanted me to do that type of
music and sought me out.
"I'm very anxious to go
there, and I hope it will be in
the fall or early spring. It
should take two to four
weeks."
Mr. Hayman, 72, divides
his time traveling from one
concert to another and being
principal pops conductor of
the St. Louis and Grand
Rapids symphony orchestras
and the Calgary Philharmon-
ic Orchestra.
His Meadow Brook pro-
gram included big band hits
of the '40s. They will be
among those Mr. Hayman has
planned for Israel, where
he also will concentrate on
Broadway show tunes, mo-
tion picture themes, light
Richard Hayman: Arranging in Israel.
classical pieces and folk
music.
Although the arranger/
composer/conductor has ap-
peared in many countries,
this will be his first trip to
Israel.
"Every program I do is
especially tailored to the
place I'm going or to
whatever the management or
audience requests," said the
New York-based entertainer,
who can find himself schedul-
ed for a different city every
week over long stretches of
time.
"Then, of course, the songs
have special meanings for dif-
ferent people because they
are reminiscent of events
earlier in their lives."
Whenever Mr. Hayman
returns to the Motor City, he
is reminded of his start in
show business. At age 18, he
began touring the country
with the Borrah Minevitch
Harmonica Rascals, and his
third professional appearance
was at the Fox Theatre in
1938.
For the past few years, he
has been appearing at the
Fox each Monday before
Thanksgiving to present a
holiday program in conjunc-
tion with the lighting of the
Christmas tree downtown,
which has personal signifi-
cance in terms of his Chris-
tian upbringing.
"When I was in school,
every kid carried a harmoni-
ca," Mr. Hayman recalled. "I
am self-taught and just kept
going after it."
Hired as a musician for the
Harmonica Rascals, he soon
was writing music for the
ensemble. After arranging for
performers in Las Vegas and
Hollywood, he was asked by
MGM to orchestrate for
movies, later lending his
talents to other studios and in
1960 getting his own star
along Hollywood's Walk of
Fame.
His most successful recor-
ding, "Ruby," which renewed
interest in the harmonica,
was from the movie Ruby
Gentry. Of the compositions
he has written, his favorite is
"Dansero," a collaboration
with Lee Daniels and Sol
Parker.
While pops conductor for
the Detroit Symphony from
the late '60s into the '80s, he
worked with Motown Re-
cords, an association that
followed his arranging and
performing for many other
labels.
"The orchestra is very flex-
ible," said Mr. Hayman, who
did whole arrangements and
conducted symphony musi-
cians for recordings made
locally. "It can play any style
of music from Beethoven to
boogie-woogie to rock and
rap.
"We did commercial tapes
and. regular records, some-
times as backup artists for
singers. I remember working
with Stevie Wonder and Lit-
tle Richard.
"On a lot of these records,
they used strings, and they
were always culled from the
Detroit Symphony."
His most recent recordings
are on 50 compact discs, pro-
duced, for economic reasons,
in Czechoslovakia and Poland
for a company based in Hong
Kong.
"They have the same types
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