 If you get a confirmation from someone in the audience that they can hear my voice and see my screen, we have a really a great visual presentation tonight so I want to confirm that everyone can see. Welcome. Welcome welcome. And I'm going to stick a link to tonight's event in the chat box. This also has the YouTube link so you can watch this again or share it with anyone. Also as Lucy talks and if notes and things come up I'll add those to the document if resources come up. Shall we get started while the room continues to fill up. Again we want to thank you for being here and joining us on this beautiful San Francisco night. It's gorgeous out. I do want to fix my slide. There we go. San Francisco Public Library acknowledges that we occupy the unseated ancestral home of the Ramya to Sholoni people who are the original inhabitants of the San Francisco peninsula. We recognize that the Ramya to Sholoni understand the interconnectedness of all things and have maintained harmony with nature for millennia. We honor the Ramya to Sholoni peoples for their enduring commitment to war up mother earth and the indigenous protectors of this land. In accordance with their traditions, the Ramya to Sholoni have never ceded lost nor forgotten their responsibilities as caretakers of this place, as well as for all people who reside in the traditional territory. We recognize that we benefit from living and working on their traditional homeland as uninvited guests we affirm their sovereign rights as first peoples and wish to pay our respects to the ancestors, elders, relatives of and relatives of the Ramya to Sholoni community. We recognize to respectfully honor the Ramya to Sholoni peoples we must embrace and collaborate meaningfully to record indigenous knowledge and how we care for San Francisco and its people. And that link that I shared shared in the chat box has a link to a great reading and resource list about first person culture here in the Bay Area, and some great resources you can find out. Just some quick library news that we have coming up. Tomorrow night we have another author talk at Fuller and Gary Grossman talking about their latest book from their red series red hotel series, red deception. So on September 29 the amazing Zizba, which is letters and journals from San Francisco issue number 121 the family issue and we'll have the readers featured from that issue so please come check that out we're so excited to have this I am excited. I love have loved Zizba for a very long time. On the 30th at noon we partner with Museum of African diaspora for Wally Shoinka, and this is part of a series they have going on called crop conversations across the diaspora. So a noon time event always fun. Celebrating Viva Latinx Heritage Month, and on Thursday night, come to the library you can actually come in person, and we will have a nice spread out event. You can wear your mask, but we will have the organizers and activists from international floor you can't toe, who is working to preserve and highlight the literary arts on the 24th street care corridor here in our mission neighborhood so we'll hear about their work, but we'll also hear their readings, and there will be books available so please come check that out. And if you can't make it in person we will also be streaming this will be our first hybrid event so either way come down watch, watch online, cut us some slack when we screw up, and we'll have such a great time. And some more Viva we have Jaime Cortez on Sunday. We have Carolina de Roberto's and Julian del Gato on Thursday I want to say it's a Thursday it might be a Wednesday, a Tuesday the 28th. It's going to be so fun they're both amazing humans. So come check that out and just lots of authors coming up Lord Gomez on inventing Latinos. And then another in person event, and I have the wrong time on here it's actually at 6pm in Latinx community rooms on our lower level of the main library. Very fun book. So they're going to be talking about their Bay Area history, being punk rock, and having family and teaching and living in the Bay Area. So please come on down. And then in October we hit off Filipino American History Month and we'll have a ton more events for that as well. And last thing I want to bring up is our on the same page, which is a bi-monthly read at San Francisco Public Library we're encouraged you all to read the same book. For September and October we're celebrating the work of Carla Cornejo Villavan-Sincio, and she will be in convo with Jonathan Blitzer on the 26th. The day before that we have the book club. This book is now available widely at all library locations, or check it out from your favorite local bookstore. And then the very end November we have at the Coret auditorium so you can see we're going back into business in person. Total SF our friends from the Chronicle highlighting Bonnie Swee's book, Why We Swim. Swim specifically in the Bay. All right, so without further ado, I would like to introduce tonight's author and speaker. So we're very fortunate tonight to have Lucy Antek Johnson, Samuel Antek's daughter. She was born and raised in New York City. After studying music, fine art, and ballet. She was drawn to the world of television production and spent her entire career in the entertainment industry, working with such producers as Martin Charin, Harry Belafonte, David Suskind, and Rune Arledge. When she moved to Los Angeles in 1978 she produced movies for television, then joined NBC as a network executive. She soon worked her way up to Senior Vice President of Daytime and Children's Programming for CBS, a position she held for 14 years. She paints, writes, and every so often gets up the nerve to sit at the piano and play a favorite Bach or Chopin prelude. And we are excited, like I said, to have Lucy with us and Lucy I'm going to let you take it away. Well, thank you so much for a nice introduction and what a pleasure to sort of be visiting San Francisco tonight I'm in Connecticut. So welcome everybody thank you for coming. Tonight I'm going to share some highlights from my new book, which is seeing the cover here as well as show a few photos along the way, but I'll start with a little story. So we can click to the next photo please number two. So for as far back as I can remember our Turo Tuscany's photograph picture set atop our Steinway piano in my family's New York City apartment. And to this day, many decades later it's still occupies a place of honor on the same piano. Now right over there in my Connecticut living room. And although I wasn't even born when the NBC Symphony was formed, and I only have a dim memory of seeing the maestro across a crowded rehearsal hall. I'm sitting quiet as a mouth, mouth clutching my mother's hand. Our Turo Tuscany was a central figure in our home. Next picture please. My father Samuel Antec. This is not my father this is Tuscany. My father taught the Samuel Antec was only 29 when he already a violin virtuoso was handpicked to be a first violinist with the new NBC Symphony and orchestra specially created by Tuscany who was often referred to as the greatest musician of the 20th century. Tuscany had by that point attained the pinnacle of honor and success match by few musicians of any era. In fact, I would say by today's standards he would literally be called a rock star. Now we can change to the book picture which is I think number four yeah. My pleasure to share my labor of love with you this is it. This was Tuscany the maestro, my father and me, and the main title. This was Tuscany is my father's acclaimed memoir, which was originally published years ago, in which he shares his musical insights and observations about his 17 years playing under Tuscany's legendary baton. It's not a biography. It's an intimate behind the scenes and highly illuminating portrait of the maestro, his music and his creative process told from the unique perspective of a musician lucky enough to play under his baton and over hundreds of rehearsals and concerts and innumerable recording sessions. My father brings alive the work that made those memorable concerts possible. And he takes us right inside the almost two decades of performances and we feel as if we're sitting among the players of the orchestra experiencing firsthand as they experienced what inspired the maestro's dynamic approach to a score is conducting style and what triggered his explosive emotions. So I, I like to say it's though we're invited into a master class with an artistic genius, but also in this new and expanded edition as the subtitle suggests the maestro my father and me I'm the me. I've added newly, new intros newly written intros to my father's original narrative. And in them I share my own recollections about my mom, my dad, his illustrious career as a violinist and conductor, and the impact that the maestro had on our family during such a memorable time and classical music and history. It's a memoir wrapped in a memoir or a musical love story if you like. Next picture please. Number five, yeah. So you might be curious what inspired me to reissue his book at this time. Well actually a couple of years ago in 2017 it was the 150th anniversary of Tuscany's birth. And of course many articles and books were published about the maestro and his legacy. And the book that stood out for me was Harvey Sachs celebrated biography, Tuscany musician of conscience. And what particularly moved me was that Harvey quoted passages directly from my father's original memoir so I was absolutely thrilled and proud to see my dad's elegant writing in print, once again. What inspired me to reread the original, this was Tuscany, which I had not read in many years. And once I read it, I knew, I just knew that Tuscany's art was still relevant, absolute art, great art is timeless. And I knew my father's words deserved every new life. So now was the time to introduce this book to new generations of musicians students and classical music fans. I also knew in this new edition and what I was going to write that I wanted to include material about my family and bring my father more center stage, because his story deserved to be told as well. So off I went, spending hours in my dad's archives which I had donated to the New York Public Library at Lincoln Center. And also in our basement, there were many cartons Mark Sam or Tuscany, filled with letters photos recordings. And it's not that I haven't seen these items before but when you're looking with a new focus, all of a sudden things jump out at you that have so much meaning, and it quickly became a very deeply emotional journey. And tragically, my father had died very young, just as he was achieving his own recognition as a conductor. He was only 49 and I was only 12. And overnight our little family was upended. The world might have lost a rising star but I had lost my hero. So in my research, reading his handwritten notes hearing his voice on recordings watching him playing on all TV broadcasts or even holding a favorite photo again had a profound impact on me. It was I would call it a sweet sadness. It actually changed now to number six. Thanks. I'm going to quote my store Ricardo Muti who's now the conductor of the Chicago Symphony because he wrote something about Tuscany and I quote. Tuscany was a revolutionary of musical interpretation. He placed the performer totally at the service of the composer in sacred respect for and fidelity to the written text. Tuscany benefited throughout his life from his yet a very photographic memory. In fact, through the course of his career, he knew 120 operas and over 400 symphonic works by heart. Yet, he always referred to his score you can see in the picture he's looking at a score during rehearsals and always encouraged his players not to memorize the music. His credo was playward is written look to the score. And as many of you probably know conducting is infinitely more than just keeping a tempo and killing the entrance of a player. It's a fine art of genius and interpretation of a score and just as an actor interprets a role by a playwright or a dancer interprets a choreographer's work. So a conductor shapes the musical performance of a composer. How loud is forte, how soft is pianissimo, how many beats to build the crescendo. That's up to the conductor and but they can't create their art on their own. The conductor needs a composer score musicians and of course instruments. And for Tuscany the orchestra was his instrument. Next picture please. So for those who might need a refresher for those who may not know it all, who was Tuscany and what propelled him to this exalted place in music history. He was born into a working class family in Parma Italy in 1867. In 1867 he graduated from the Parma music conservatory as an accomplished cellist. And at 19 he became principal cellist and assistant chorus master for an Italian opera company touring Brazil. And it was on that tour that a historic twist of fate changed the course of his future and classical music history was right at the start the tour conductor abruptly resigned. And with his photographic memory of all the operas and their repertoire was thrust upon the stage to take over. And once he held the baton and took command. He never looked back. And in his twenties he revolutionized the production and performance of opera throughout Italy. At 30 he was principal conductor at La Scala in Milan, conducting the Italian premieres of operas that are still the foundation of repertoires today, including level when to end up only actually just to name a few. So not only did his music make headlines but his politics made headlines. His single minded and almost stubborn personality not only reflected his devotion to music but gave him the strength to stand up to Mussolini and Hitler. Tuscany refused to play in Germany once Hitler came into power and years earlier in Italy, with the rise of fascism, he refused to play the fascist party him, Giovannetta, which Mussolini required be played at all public events, but he wouldn't do it. And there were consequences in Bologna 1931 after one performance where once again, he did not play the anthem, he and his wife were brutally attacked and beaten by a fascist mob as they left the theater all because they claimed to use unpatriotic. And even Tuscany vowed not to play in Italy until the fascist regime fell. And even though he was regarded as a national treasure in his own country, his fame and status only protected him to a point. He was kept under strict surveillance by the fascist they tapped his phones they took his passports away every so often and even threatened imprisonment. He remained vocal in his democratic beliefs and kept performing throughout Europe, Israel and the United States. And just as life for him in Italy was becoming more challenging. In 1936, David Sarnoff RCA's chairman of the board and RCA owned the NBC radio network. Sarnoff made the dramatic commitment to create a new orchestra. When Tuscanini agreed to sign on as the conductor, Sarnoff knew would be the jewel in the crown of the NBC schedule as well as for their recording division. So the following year at age 70. When most people are considering retirement, Tuscanini made a life changing choice. He left his beloved Italy. He took his family to the United States to New York, and they inaugurated the NBC Symphony. The concerts were broadcast live from studio eight age in the NBC studios on Saturday nights I was too young to attend but I remember listening to them on the radio each week. Next picture please. This is the program of the opening night. The debut concert was Christmas night, 1937. And by the way, the programs such as this were never printed on paper. This one is silk. So they were all printed either on silk or on cardboard or on pork, because the mics, they didn't want the mics to pick up the rustling of papers during a live broadcast. And just to give you a little idea of how popular he was at that time. There were 1400 available seats for that first concert and there were 23,000 requests for tickets, telling him he was a rockstar. So, what was the first rehearsal with the maestro really like. So, on that memorable day the musicians they were very nervous and they sat rigidly waiting for him to appear. They were about to begin their first rehearsal for their premiere performance under the baton of one of the most famous men in the world. They were about to make history. No pressure. They walked in and crossed to the podium. The musicians spontaneously all stood in unison. They had been warned in advance not to make any verbal acknowledgement. So, you nodded to the assembled players for them to sit and without any formal greeting called out Brahms, and they dove into the music. Next picture please. Thank you. I'm going to quote just a little quote of my father's writing about that first rehearsal. One smashing stroke the baton came down a vibrant sound gushed forth was this the same music we have been practicing so as to do sleeper days, with what fierce new joy we played. So so so the maestro Bella cantata sustain a sing sustain Tuscany's battle cry. This was the first time these words were flung at us, and for 17 years, we live by them unquote. In the book my father shares detailed accounts of how grueling. So many of the rehearsals could be. They might spend a half hour on a particular string entrance, or in one instance they play the opening bars of Beethoven six over and over and over until the music on the page, the sound from the players and what Tuscany heard in his head, all meshed perfectly. Next picture please. Tuscany had a plaintive cry play with your hearts, not your instruments, but the process could be dramatic and as congenial and social as he was offstage in rehearsals he was sometimes tyrannical and well known for his artistic temperament. And he was famous or you might say infamous for his use of Italian curses. This particular sequence wasn't meeting his exacting standards, and standards that he was setting for himself. Next picture. There he is in rage mode. Vergonia shame was one of his favorites also the most tame, and one pasty show it's a mess was another favorite. And my father would bring home some more earthy curses at the end of a tough rehearsal day and as my father said they were to Tuscany. They were rehearsals on the aristocrat concerts. So what would set off these as per sometimes the simplest little era and no too loud or crescendo too soon anything was enough to set off the fears. And so often it was about his own feeling about his own work. And my father writes about quite a few of these memorable flare ups. But again I will quote one of them. If you would switch the picture please. One of his most violent displays of temper concern nothing more than two grace notes that had not been articulated in Wagner's 10 house overture a momentous crime in Tuscany's eyes. He was known to break his baton terrorist score rip up his jacket or stomp off and discuss dramatic staging. Yes. But every movement of his baton every motion of his hands every burst of rage served music and the musicians loved him for it. My father believed that as tough as the Maestro was on them they became better musicians because of it. And as the Maestro was known to say and I'll throw in a little Italian, quoting the Maestro, any Asino can conduct, but to make music a is officially. Just a picture please. We're changing to my dad now. Who was same Atlantic, what were his dreams and his challenges. He actually reveals very little about himself in the memoir. So in my new essays I take the opportunity to show a more complete picture of him and his musical career he grew up in Chicago and at eight six he was recognized as a prodigy so his parents who didn't know him and he scraped together the most they could to get him the best teachers in Chicago. But by the time he was in his late teens he knew he had to move to New York, and he studied with a very famous violin teacher, the appalled hour, and received a book to Juilliard, and he was soon concertizing. His big debut was a town hall and a few months later he was invited into the elite group of musicians hired to be in the original NBC Symphony. This picture happens to be the official photograph from the first year of the orchestra. He had always had a dream to conduct, and he had conducted some small ensembles, but interestingly similar to the maestro's twist of fate story or like a story out of a Hollywood movie. He got his first real chance on a radio show, when during rehearsal for his violin solo. Yep, the conductor got sick, and my father was asked to take over. He ended up conducting all the whole season and maybe the next couple of seasons I believe. So from that point on, he knew he wanted to pursue his goal of conducting more seriously he wanted to lead a major orchestra. Next picture please. His dream came true. And at the age of 39 with the support and encouragement of Tuscany and without having to give up his seat at NBC he was named conductor and musical director of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, and he held both positions for many many years. And in the book I illustrate more fully the lasting impact that he had on the New Jersey Symphony, but to my young eyes at the time his crowning achievements were the interactive children's concerts, which he innovated in 1950, a few years before and each weekend it was a sell out event attracting kids from all over New Jersey. And sometimes I'd sit in the audience but sometimes I'd stand in the wings but wherever I was I was beaming with that's my daddy pride I call it his reputation grew rapidly. And soon he was guest conducting major orchestras around the country. His honor was when Arturo Tuscany invited my father to guest conduct the NBC Symphony and he knew his, his own future was sealed. I used to love, as I grew older I became more curious, and I used to love sitting next to him at the piano when he prepared a score for an upcoming concert that he was conducting I'd watch him unfold the mysterious and magical sheets of musical note paper depicting all the instrumental and choral parts, and he'd play a chord, make a notation he play another chord make another notation I was absolutely fascinated it was my first introduction to how complex that process was. Next slide please. So this was Tuscany this new book includes much more about what it was like to grow up in a house with my dynamic father, but it also covers many other dimensions of the maestro's personality and professional story, not just what he was like in the rehearsal hall. In the touring with Tuscany section my father tells of their triumphant cross country tour in 1950, and I after discovering my mother's journal and photos detailing the orchestra six week 1940 wartime South American tour. She describes the fears on the high seas as they sailed into Nazi territory. Tuscany would walk around the deck fingering or crucifix praying for the allies, he wouldn't see Italy again for many years is a fascinating chapter on the painstaking process of the NBC Symphony recording sessions. Because don't forget it was a whole different technology in the early days. And one of my favorite chapters is the visit where my father shares his rare and memorable afternoon visiting with the maestro in his home. And they indulged in lengthy conversations about composers, especially Verdi, who Tuscany had known when he was a cellist and an opera conductor Verdi was a contemporary as was Puccini by the way. So for my father I was his own private master class that afternoon. And the last chapter Tuscany's conduct over on is a feast for musicians. It's a bar by bar journey of maestro's unique interpretation of Weber's over on overture. It's a good read whether you're a musician or pro or an enthusiast. Sadly, Dave passed away before he could write the final chapter. We don't know what it would have been a quick wrap up or a more lengthy essay. We'll just never know. However, in my research as I dug through these boxes. I discovered some of his never before published handwritten notes that to me indicate what he might have chosen to write about, and he had titled it NBC final concert. Next picture please. Yeah, the story goes that during what was planned to be the symphonies last concert of the season in April 1954, Tuscany faltered in the middle of the program and just stop conducting. The orchestra absolutely didn't know what to do. The studio audience was stunned. The engineers and the recording thing they panicked and they put on a whole other recording to cover up so therefore the audience at home was completely baffled. And it was a harrowing few minutes until Tuscany knee rallied, and was actually able to complete the program but he wasn't his usual powerful self. And I'm going to read to you just a few lines from what my father wrote, but had never been published. As our beloved 87 year old maestro left the stage days and tottering, he pushed past me, and the baton dropped from his hand. It was to be the last of his conducting in public, unquote. Tuscany knee died a few years later in January 1957 shortly before his 90th birthday, and coincidentally, almost, it was almost exactly here to the day before my father died just before his 50th birthday. So how did how did it get published finally my mother was determined to publish his existing manuscript he didn't want she didn't want to write anything extra. And she joined forces with photographer Robert hooker who has taken these beautiful portraits that you've seen tonight. He took actually thousands of candid photographs throughout the years at rehearsals and recording sessions, and without the maestro's knowledge. So those portraits have since become the most iconic photos of the maestro used throughout the world, which you've probably seen on on record albums. And when the first edition of my father's memoir was published posthumously in 1963, New York Times critic Edward Downs stated quote, This book will probably remain the most enduring and endearing monument to the art of Tuscany. And I've got to say that this day remains the only full length narrative from a musician's perspective about Tuscany's creative process and what it felt like to work with and be mentored by this unique and gifted artist. Next picture. Well, during this emotional journey of writing and compiling this book, I not only was able to renew a long overdue relationship with my father after many years, but I enjoyed getting to know him through the eyes of an adult, rather than just the adoring young in order. Next picture. This is my favorite favorite. He's coming off stage after a concert and he's glowing, and he's full of joy. And actually this is how I remember him that smile. Next picture. Yeah, this is the two of them conversation. In this process I also developed a soft spot for the maestro he was no longer just that imposing figure staring down from our piano top this irascible musically brilliant politically courageous and shy force of nature with someone I would have loved to have known truly love to have known I, I really got to feel very close to him. In closing, I hope I've given you a taste of this new addition. And the next picture. Here's the book cover again. This was Tuscany, the maestro my father and me it's my loving tribute to two musicians whose paths for touristly crossed, and whose individual gifts inspired each of them in their lifelong quest to make beautiful music. Thank you. Thank you Lucy. That was so great. And audience I know I always forget to announce there is time for q amp a, and you can either put that in the q amp a box or you can feel free to raise your hand if you'd like we can unmute you. But we do have two questions there now that gives our other audience members some time to think of some questions. Our first question is, I'm curious about your day to day life what your day to day life was like living with a musician, and was your mom a creative. I, yes, she was very creative she was a trained artist and a professional artist, but she also played the piano. So I was surrounded. I was an only child, it was a musical household, but it was, it was fun. We'd have to tip toe around and be quiet and we'd have to whisper when I come home from school because he was practicing behind closed doors. And we respected that, but there were a lot of impromptu music house. My mom would be invited to play the piano and some of the string players from the NBC Symphony would gather on a Sunday at the house and they, they would have their own. They would have their own music house for themselves. So, and w q XR which is the local npr station here. You know that was on all the time so music was in the home, but there was no pressure on me I play I studied the piano, and it was very young. But once I like discovered art, because I had a talent for it and once I really discovered ballet, which I loved. And the only thing I kind of put to the side until the next interest. And, although I majored in art and college. I knew I wanted television production. So there was no pressure to be in the arts but I, I am very proud and I remember very well the musical feeling in the home. Thank you. I have a question about how did you decide that you wanted to do this book. And how did you pursue a publisher. Well I described in my, my chat how how I was inspired by seeing my father's words and print in 2017 when a lot of his passages from his book had been reprinted in other books and in articles because it. The book is still considered the pinnacle the bell weather of of anything you want to know about what it was really like to work with the maestro. So, therefore it's still quoted and actually in some music schools it's still used in courses parts of it are referred to in courses. And that was secure that that his words were worthy of coming back and being renewed. And that also, as I've said, art is timeless and Toscanini was an artistic genius, and boy oh boy it was time that his work and his contribution, which was recognized by his own colleagues. And Paul, who was the conductor of the Cleveland Symphony used to say, or had said, that was before Toscanini, and after Toscanini. So even his peers, whether at the time or in retrospect, honored that he was, he was no more oh no there, he was the one to admire. I didn't know how I was going to publish it I just knew I was determined. I figured it was going to be self publishing because I didn't really know, and I could have spent years pursuing a mainstream publisher. But I wanted to live to see this done. And I can understand why the major publishers would find this maybe a little too niche for them for the audience. My attorney I met a wonderful agent, very lucky because that does not always happen. And she fell in love with the project to, and she said would I consider a hybrid publisher, which I didn't know what that meant. One books who published the book is is a hybrid publisher and what that means. It's a beautiful book. What that means is they provide all the services design sales editing so forth, that a mainstream publisher would provide, but the author contributes to the cost. So it's a step above normal self publishing and lucky me. They want the minute they read the manuscript which by the way they didn't change a word of what I had written, which thrilled me and surprised me actually they put commas in where they needed to be but they didn't really asked for changes. So commas out because I haven't a terrible abundant use of too many comments. But, and we made the deal almost exactly a year ago to the date and then it took all this time to put the design together, which I was part of I was part of all the process. All through coven. So I had the time and I was pleased to have a creative project to work on during the whole lockdown, you know those lockdown months, and by then everybody was doing everything online. When normally I might have flown to Texas where the publisher is to meet with them. Well that wasn't going to happen so we did it all online and voila. And that is, I think it's gorgeous. It got published a month ago officially released, and it's gotten wonderful response. I couldn't be more pleased with the response from civilians and professionals. I don't hear you. Sorry, I said it was it's a very beautiful book it's a little mildly oversized, but not like oversized oversized, and we do have it on order for SFPL so you can place your hold and get it it's very gorgeous like Lucy said it just came out so hot off the press. I'm curious about the photographs of Tuscanini and the photographer you mentioned so who owns those photos. They are under copyright by Robert hookers estate. And even though they were all part of the original book. I had to get the permission of the estate which I did to use a fraction of what's used in the original book. And then I also had all my own photographs from my own archives family photographs or my father's photographs or other. And I also had a lot of photos behind the scenes photographs that is everyone else having you know, you got a little frozen there for a second. There we go. Yeah. Right next to my Wi Fi so out of. Oh, it's the name of the game. It really is. And I think it's a great opportunity for me perks to being online and being in zoom and being able to have you from Connecticut which is a very big work. When you donated your the photos to the, had you already donated your photos to in my public, and then went back and photos I donated 10 by what turned out to be 10 boxes of memorabilia. All the drafts of this book handwritten drafts, letters from my dad's career both with New Jersey and NBC, a lot of information about the NBC Symphony photographs that I hadn't seen before again letters reviews, just a whole piece of wonderful, wonderful material that yes, although I had donated I hadn't looked at for 10 years until I went back to the library. That's really amazing. So you had to check out your own material. Yes. Well I couldn't check it out I had to. Yeah, have they already processed it and like. Yeah, I had donated it. Now it's about 15 years ago so by now my gosh I hope they would have processed it and yes they had, they had organized it beautifully. By the way in the same library at Lincoln Center is Tuscan in these archives. So now the live, you know we're working out a way together to do something in the spring to celebrate both, just as this book does but you know how can we. How can we do that so we're talking about how to do that. Do you think that you know the NBC influence and the TV aspect influence your career choice. You mean the NBC Symphony. It didn't influence it. In fact, because I was lucky enough to get a job my first job actually was in the record library of NBC radio. It wasn't because that I had was the daughter of but it enhanced my position and my status for people who hadn't had worked there during the concert years. And when I would go up in the elevators and 30 rock to my office. This is the early days, and I would walk through those beautiful marble halls if any of you have been in radio city the RCA building. I would say gee, this was where my father in Tuscany he took the same elevator how exciting. So it was more personal than. Then maybe the hook of why I got hired now, and I worked my way up in television, which really was quite a diversion. I must feel must have felt amazing to walk the same. That's amazing. All right, friends, do we have any more questions for Lucy. And the questions we can take from YouTube as well. And as I mentioned, you can check out Lucy's book from us or buy from your favorite local bookstore, or Amazon, or there to. It's a great gift I got to say it sound like I'm doing a pitch for myself, but it's, it's a small version of a coffee table book. Even though the narrative is fascinating and and compelling and captivating. It's, it's also a beautiful visual and it's a lovely gift for anyone who likes music. So did you hire a graphic designer to help you with the layout because that was all part of the brown books hybrid. And we worked very closely because I knew that I wanted the photographs to illustrate what I was talking about in the text, I don't lump them all together. Yeah, so each time you see a photograph it's, it's referring to something that I've just written about or that my dad had written about. And so we work together on the design. Yeah, that's my father conducting the New Jersey. Yeah, so we work very closely but they they have all those services and I mean my hats off to the work they did I think it was beautiful. And the, it's on very good stock paper stock so that these reproductions come off I believe very well and it's, it's, I don't know, it's classy. I don't know whether what other word to use right now. It's definitely classy. And with the holidays coming, you better get your books quickly as from what I hear. My question from the chat was any wild stories from TV land. I mean my own wild story. Probably. It's, it's hard to come up with, you know, one of my career experiences I was in charge of all the soap operas of CBS. And I don't know if any of you are watching I used to love soap operas. And these were the days when everybody watched soap operas. So you had all the backstage gossip of the stories and the characters and we'd sit with the writers and figure out who's going to be married who's not going to be married. Who's coming back from the dead, because of course, they had to bring people but they were really stuck in a jungle, they hadn't died at all they were going to come back. And those were fascinating years, working on, you know, for soap operas. 52 weeks a year of live programming, not live but I mean a fresh programming every day, 30 characters each program so that's a lot of stories. I also did the children's programming and in one incarnation, I was one of the people who put the Smurfs on television. So I can, I can remember that. I wasn't, you know, I was certainly part of the decision I was in the room where it happened as Lynn Manuel would say. It was definitely moments but I, Bob Barker I worked with him for years and years he was the host of the prices right. He became very good friend, and you just meet the most wonderful people. You know I mentioned Harry Bellifani and they, you did actually. He did a lot of work with Harry on his television specials early on. And we became very, very close friends. And I was just very lucky, the people I met, and it was a diverse production experience. It really sounds like a very exciting life Lucy, both growing up and growing out and doing your own. And so we want to thank you for being here tonight, friends and last call for questions absolutely will stay here for questions if you have them. Otherwise we encourage you to check out or buy Lucy's book. This was Toscanini, and I give them the name of the address from my website. Sure. I've put it into the chat box already but let me throw it up again. Here it is. Here it comes along the chat. There we go. Oops, that's the, I'm just really pushing that you check it out at the library. No, I agree with you. Libraries rule. There's Lucy's website, beautiful website as well. Congratulations. And you can, you can ask questions through the website as well. Excellent. Oh, there is a hand quays, quays raised. I'm going to go ahead and unmute you. Marina. Here we go. I'm going to try my cursors not moving. Lily may can you help me unmute. Thank you. You are unmuted. Or you could be. I have my chat box. I can't move my cursor to that window for something. There we go. There we go. Marina, would you like to ask your question. I think she's muted. I'm trying to unmute here. Here we go. Hello Lucy. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. And I just want to ask you, what was your impression? I know you were a child. When Tosca Nene was alive, but how did you, what was your impression of him? As well. He was bigger than life to me. I was a very little person and it was more about him being talked about. And the reputation and the awe in which. And also the conversations around the dinner table when my father would come home from one of the. Recording sessions or rehearsals, I would just stop all that up. I mean, my goodness. So. I, as I said, that autographed picture really is still sits on my piano and I. He inspires me. And as I said, at the end of my talk. I'm just getting to know him better through this writing process and actually reading some of Tosca Nene's letters where you hear his. His voice, his opinions, not just people about him. I just got a big crush on this guy and. I just. I really, really, really would have liked to have known him or to been in the room with him. I'm glad I wasn't in his line of fire. If he got angry. But he was not a mean guy. He was frustrated. It was a rage to master. He was just so frustrated. This is a little scary to look at. Yeah. And a perfectionist, I'm sure. Yeah, but mostly the pressure was the pressure he put on himself. Yeah. You know, once he. Developed a sound for a particular piece or whatever it is. It's not that he stayed rigid with that piece and said, this is the way it's going to be forever. Each time he played it, he would rethink it and reinterpret it. And maybe I'll make this a little, you know, dark or a lighter. It's like a painter or a sculptor, you know. So he was constantly being creative. And that was appreciated. That's very much evidence in the last chapter about Oberon, because my father sort of compiles the years of them. And I think it's a little bit different. I think it's a little bit different. Playing that piece and the different ways that Toscanini would approach it at different times. Along with a lot more anecdotes. So. I love this picture of your father. Just, I love it. It's my favorite thing. Yeah. He looks definitely like he exerted it. He was it. He was happy there. Yeah. He looked very happy. He was like, Hey, I'm going to throw those YouTube videos that you recommended yesterday, Lucy. Oh yeah. And you know, you can all just pick this up and find all these links, but I'm going to throw those in there right now. Verde's him on the, of the nations. Him of nations. Yeah. This one calls it him of the nations. Him of the nations. All right. Yeah. All right, Lucy. Thank you for joining us tonight. Well, thank you. It was a pleasure. Absolutely. Visiting you. And I think I'll go to bed. Yes. Thank you. Good night. Thank you. Have a good one. Thank you. And thank you, Lucy. Have a good night.