This morning I finally received the autopsy report. The attached letter read “It is unfortunate that it took so long, but there have been articles in the local press about the backlog in the courts and Medical Examiner’s office, so apparently this has been an issue for many people.” I am grateful to the embassy staff for their perseverance of effort in securing this document.
While my Spanish skills are poor, I can read it enough to know that the cause of death was the “toxic effect of carbon monoxide.”
Today was a very special day here in Cincinnati, Ohio. We met this afternoon at the cenotaph for Patrick and Stephanie, in the Shepard family plot. In addition to Stephanie’s immediate family (brother Tate, niece Alison and her husband Evan, nephew Carl and his wife Brittany, Stephanie’s son Tim and his family Kelly, Zoe, Nicolas, and Jillian) were Kathy, a long-time friend of Tate and of Stephanie, Lee, Patrick’s high-school and college friend, and myself.
In just a couple of hours I will finally get to meet Stephanie’s family. I look forward to it.
At this time tomorrow the final memorial will be over and we’ll all be telling stories at one of Patrick’s favorite restaurants in their area. I’m looking forward to that too.
A couple of days after that and I’ll be home again, wrestling with parking shuttles, LA traffic, and the return to routine work days and occasional friends. I think I’m looking forward to that too, but I say it with some reticence, uncertain as to why. Perhaps it stems from my desire to stop closing chapters of Patrick’s book, as if it would change things somehow.
For now I’ll refocus. Two hours, then 24, and let the rest come when it will.
Here’s a map of Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati Ohio, where the US memorial will be held on 21 October 2017 at 1:00 PM. The cenotaph honoring Stephanie and Patrick will be placed in Stephanie’s family plot. Continue reading “Map of Spring Grove Cemetery”
Here is the program for the memorial concert held on the 13 September 2017.
In addition to the works listed, the orchestra played two encores:
Tchaikovsky’s Elegy in Memory of I. Samarin and Piazzolla’s Libertango. The last piece was a brilliant choice, an uplifting, energized way to end the concert, a dynamic way of celebrating his life instead of mourning his demise.
Here are the guest book entries from the memorial concert of 13 September 2017. Thank you, everyone, for sharing your thoughts and memories of Patrick and Stephanie.
I remember him playing the double bass or an organ, conducting a chamber orchestra he himself had created, conducting a choir, or directing the Music Festival, a miracle that remains very much alive, eager to recall the enthusiasm with which Patrick turned Deià into a musical world reference. There were moving speeches to remember Patrick Meadows (Susanne Bradbury, an old friend of those heroic and wonderful times, was unable to finish her reading). There were his son, his friends, the owners of Son Marroig, the conductor Misha Rachelevsky — and Stephanie Shepard, present as always. It was an extraordinary concert, outside the original program of the Festival, that served to bid farewell to Patrick with the sadness of the loss (Schnauber’s piece and the elegy in the encore), but also with the elusive joy of music. The Kremlin Chamber Orchestra interpreted some of Patrick’s favourite pieces. In the first half we heard a transfigured Night that lifted the spirit of everyone present. Memorable, as was Tchaikovsky’s Serenade: two pieces that lead the orchestra to its full expression — a young orchestra that sounded as though it was composed only of masters. The concert was excellent in every way: precision, style, pure rhythm and vitality, as well as dynamic, subtle and conclusive in Piazzola’s Libertango — the conductor’s last present to us in the second encore. Vigour and enthusiasm: I can’t think of a better setting to pay tribute to that restless pioneer we all owe so much to.
Concert in memory of Patrick Meadows: Kremlin Strings. Conductor: Misha Rachlevsky. Repertoire: Works by Schubert, Schoenberg, Schnauber and Tchaikovsky. Location: Son Marroig. Date: September 13.
F.M. PALMA
(Translation by Nicole)
An elegy (Tchaikovsky) and a tango (Piazzola) crowned Misha Rachlevsky’s return to the Deià Festival in what turned out to be a very special evening in memory of Patrick Meadows – creator of the Festival – who passed away a few months ago. The truth is we missed a sign of affection such as this event, whose main instigators were the pianist Susan Bradbury and John Patrick, Meadow’s son. Continue reading “Concert Review from El Mundo”
Here are some pictures of Patrick’s marker in the Deia cemetery.
I also include a photo to show how to find it. (Hint: it’s very easy.)
Patrick and Stephanie received a plaque of recognition from the Town of Deia in appreciation for their work in founding the International Music Festival of Deia.
He specifically asked that the plaque be used for his marker, with the addition of their birth and death dates and “Founders of the Festival” also added. Rather than use the original silver plaque, which would not hold up in the weather or to vandals, we had a copy made in stainless steel, as seen here.
