When Earl Wild moved to Columbus to become artist-in-residence at Ohio State University, he bought a contemporary house in the northeast suburb of Linworth and named it Fernleaf Abbey. Fernleaf Abbey became Wild’s base of operations for the next two decades. Wild enjoyed living in central Ohio because it was relatively inexpensive and Port Columbus International Airport was only a few minutes away. This is why he remained here even after Ohio State did not renew his contract in 1993 for budgetary reasons.
Also falling victim to the budget axe was the Robert Shaw Institute. Shaw, famous for his work with the Robert Shaw Chorale, was lured to Ohio State by Donald Harris, Dean of the OSU College of the Arts, who arranged funding for an annual summer choral music festival at the university and, also, at Dordogne, France. Working 12-hour days over a period of several weeks, Shaw would “whip” (figuratively, although he was a stern task-master) his singers into shape and then record an album with them. There were at least four albums released.
Shaw said he would continue working for free, but then his wife became seriously ill and the institute was disbanded. (Wild told me he had offered to take a pay cut, himself, but was turned down.) When I interviewed Wild years later, he seemed more upset that Ohio State had closed the Robert Shaw Institute than that it had ended his own artist-in-residency. Although Shaw passed away in 1999, Wild continued to teach and give concerts up until 2008. He had some local students in Columbus and also commuted to Pittsburgh weekly to teach at Carnegie Mellon University.
In September, 1994, Wild was riding in a jeep driven by his business manager when they were struck by a car which ran a stop side. For 30 minutes, Wild hung upside down in the overturned vehicle while awaiting rescue. His left arm and shoulder were damaged to such an extent that he was forced to curtail his daily practice sessions from 5 hours to 90 minutes and his concert performances were being hampered by periodic “side jolts.” So in 1997, Wild sued for $1 million in damages. A forensic economist testified that he would lose more than $437,000 in income because of the accident, in addition to his customary $25,000 concert fees. At the time, he had no new bookings. In perhaps one of the most unusual trials in Franklin County history, Wild gave an impromptu five-minute concert on a 9-foot grand piano. He was subsequently awarded $619,830 by the jury – certainly a personal recorded for one performance.
The following year, Wild and Michael Rolland Davis, his long-time companion, put together the not-for-profit Ivory Classics Foundation (www.ivoryclassics.com) as a vehicle for re-releasing many of Wild’s own albums, as well as those of many other artists whose recordings might not otherwise be available. The quality of these re-issues is unparalleled.
Note: David C. from the United Kingdom asked me to go into more detail on my conversation with Earl Wild. I hope this satisfies him until Carnegie Mellon Press releases Wild’s memoirs later this year.
