Bill Wacker (Mar 18, 2007)

I remember well the Dekoven Concerts and the Barracoco Society of which I became a member in the early 60's. I listened to him on classical station WNCN (now defunct - replaced with the usual rock junk) in New York. I had the privilege to meet him at one of his lectures at Town Hall in NYC; his presentation was accompanied by the flutists Theodore & Dorothy Schultz. Before its start, My wife and I met him outside and we chatted a while while sitting on the curb! He was a truely unique personality and greatly missed.

Bill Wacker
williamwacker3@yahoo.com

Philip Smith (Aug. 13, 2006)

DeKoven woke me up to OTW music via KDNA in St. Louis. The signal reached the forty miles to Principia College where I loved hearing his show. I can still hear his voice and his great style. DeKoven and PDQ Bach double-handedly (quadruple-handedly?) brought life back to the pre-Classical musical era.

Philip Smith

Barry Buehler (July 25, 2006)

I will be forever grateful for D's radio mentoring.

I wish I had some tapes, but somewhere, I do have (somewhere !!) one of his mini-writing postcards. Between DeKoven and Jean Shepherd, New York radio had a tremendous influence on me.

I remember that he had a business relationship with conductor Max Goberman to issue all the Haydn symphonies through a society or record club, the name of which I can't recall. I do remember having a childish thrill one day when I passed
a building (I believe in Westchester, NY off the New England Thruway) with a sign indicating that it was the society headquarters. I enjoyed the few recordings I purchased.

Does anyone recall the name of this organization/record club ?

Barry Buehler

Ruth L. Jackson (June 1, 2006)

If this is still a legitimate email address, let me know. I loved, ABSOLUTELY LOVED, DeKoven, and I have a picture I took of him in Boston which you will love.
I carried his legendary bumper sticker "VIVA VIVALDI" on my car for many years, and supported his program, "DE KOVEN PRESENTS." I even wrote him a poem.
Ruth L. Jackson.

Allen Allison (Apr. 19, 2006)

Hi,

I was pleased to find a page dedicated to Seymour DeKoven (I never knew until now what his first name was!). I have very fond memories of listening to "DeKoven Presents" when I was a kid, from about 1965 to 1973, when I left home for college. I listened on WGH-FM in Hampton Roads, VA. DeKoven helped me to develop and cultivate my musical tastes, which still essentially embrace the "Barococo" period. I can't overemphasize how important DeKoven's "labor of love" was in shaping and influencing my early musicological education! I wrote him several times and (eventually!) received some plain postcards back from him with added personal notes.

I noticed that there's a nice article about DeKoven on the Wikipedia site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seymour_DeKoven .

I wish that some of his nearly 600 shows could be put on CD and made available to his affectionate and appreciative listeners. DeKoven, you're OTC (literally now, I guess!)!

Thanks,
Allen Allison
Encinitas, CA

Peter hendrickson (Mar. 21, 2006)

Has anyone ever considered putting recordings of dekoven’s radio programs into a form which could be listened to on the web? When I lived in nyc in the early 60’s I loved listening to his show..very informative and lots of good listening…I may have some reel/reel tapes of some of his programs…I am planning to go through my tapes to see what can be salvaged and saved…

Peter hendrickson

John Quigley (Feb. 4, 2006)

As a student at Marlboro College from 1973-77 I so looked
forward to "DeKoven Presents" every Sunday evening which
aired over WFCR in Amherst(?), Ma. I only began my class-
ical music education as an undergraduate in Vermont, and
what an incredibly large role "DKP" played in it. Each Sun-
day evening I hurried up mountain from choral rehearsal in
Brattleboro & parked atop a hill facing south to secure the
best reception possible to listen to, what I thought was, a
spellbinding hour of music.The enthusiasm alone for the subject was infectious. Boy, how I miss those days.

We even corresponded a couple times by postcards.
DeKoven wrote in the tiniest of print in lines & circles in
order to fill every miniscule space on the card...Amazing!
He was NEVER short on words or opinions. I learned so much from him & became a Life Long Fan on Barracoco Music. Thanks to "DKV" & my Choral Teacher & Life Long
Friend, Blanche Moyse (living still in Vt.@ 96 years young)
I have had the best of musical educations.

P.S. Are there any available tapes of the old shows ?!*

*** With Much Thanks, John Quigley, Bucks Co., PA.

David Korkosz (Oct. 5, 2005)

Hello...

I was a long time listener and supporter of Dekoven's radio extravaganza!!

Do you have any idea if either of his albums are available anywhere?

Also, it would be great to find a list of his favorite pieces that he played. He was an outrageous and extraordinary man. I still miss him and the energy and wit that infused his work.

I am at [...withheld...]

Thanks

Dancing Buffalo (July 11, 2005)

Mid-1970's. Black winter night ,driving alone on a flat highway on the Prairie, Dekoven on the radio. He played something that I wanted to remember, so I whistled the tune all the way home. I could still whistle it.

Donna E. Wynne (June 28, 2005)

BRAVO!!! Friends. Three cheers for David Dubal and those like him – Jim Svejda and Seymour DeKoven (of blessed memory).

Speaking of DeKoven, what about finding some tapes of old broadcasts of the Maestro DJ himself and repeating them now and again for the benefit of posterity? He was absolutely “OTW,” as he was oft to say praising a particular piece in his unique way. He stood steadfastly on the ramparts of Barracoco-dom defending us lovers of classical music from the “Vultures of Philistia”

Cordially,

Donna E. Wynne

Carol Wickenkamp (June 13, 2005)

How I do miss DeKoven! It was from DeKoven that I too was introduced to the Canon in D and learned to love it before it became elevator music.
His encyclopedic knowledge of the music of that period, his enthusiasm and his remarkable personality made an impression on me that is indelible. He changed the way I listened to music for the rest of my life.

If anyone has any recordings that they are willing to share, I would love to have a tape or two to share with my grandchildren and their music teacher. And of course, to listen to myself. I am on Google, as is everyone else here.

Thank you so much for devoting this space to that incredible man. I hope he is somewhere listening to his most favorite passages, over and over, and enjoying them every time.

Carol Wickenkamp

Buzzie Guffanti (June 4, 2005)

I listened to ' DeKoven Presents ' in the 60's while living in North Jersey. Dekoven came on Sunday nights
at 10PM.His show lasted an hour. I'm pretty sure that at one time he switched radio stations

He knew his music! He referred to Bach, Vivaldi, and Handle as the blessed trinity of the baroque era.
I went to one of his lectures in NYC and stood in line and was greeted by him after his presentation.
I have two LPs entitled Dekoven and More Dekoven, several post cards from him, and I was a mamber of the Barococco Society
.
In the late 60's I recorded his programs reel to reel but some how the tapes got erased.
In the early 90's, WAWZ , Christian station in Zaraphath, NJ rebroadcast some of his shows. I have a few of those recorded on cassetts.
I believe his date of death is 10/29/84

He was a Great Man !

Buzzie Guffanti [ 6/4/2005 ]

Steve Cohen (Apr. 13, 2005)

I, too, received a three page letter written on one side of a postcard in a tiny hand. But it was a pleasure to get such a card from someone who had the same enthusiasm in his writing as on his program. I listened to him in the late '60s and early '70s. I remember being introduced to Pachelbel's Canon by DeKoven, years before it became a popular favorite everywhere. I remember him having at least three grades of excellence when it came to music: OTW (out of this world), Super OTW (one step above that), and OTU (out of this universe), reserved for just a few works. I wish there was someone like him on the air today.

Steve Cohen
Reston, Virginia

James J. Daw (Mar. 21, 2005)

It was always a joy to hear them on WFUV. DeKoven is one of many New York delights who/which are no longer with us. Do you know the source of the music that was used to introduce his programs? I believe it was a piece by Handel, and I always enjoyed listening to it. Much as I like the piece, I always hated hearing the "Entrance of the Queen of Sheba" which signaled the end of the program.

Lance P. Jarvis (Feb. 4, 2005)

I fondly remember listening to DeKoven Presents on one of the New York City FM stations in the 1960's. His unrestrained enthusiasm accompanied by his vast knowledge of the music of this period made listening to his program a most enjoyable and enriching experience. I very much looked forward his program and missed listening to him when I left New York in the mid-1960's.

The miracle of stereo was just beginning to overtake monaural sound at about this time.

As a frequent listener to stations that played classical music, it was a very different experience to hear DeKoven describe a selection as "super OTW (out of this world)" in his fast-paced, somewhat high pitched voice just brimming with deep affection for the composition. What a contrast to the usually rather somber hosts of classical music programs who simply announced the names of the composition, its composer, and the performing orchestral or chamber group.

DeKoven was one of a kind and by listening to his program, I developed a deeper knowledge of and appreciation for what DeKoven called the Barococco genre.

Michael Corey (Nov. 26, 2004)

I remember DeKoven with great fondness. I listened on KING FM in Seattle in the early eighties. He was opinionated, but his opinions were extremely well-informed and valuable. Somewhere I have a postal card from DeKoven with pre-printed information, but around the edge, DeKoven himself had printed a beautiful, thoughtful message in an astonishingly small hand. One phrase was something like "A magnifying glass may help you decode DeKoven." He is greatly missed.

Michael J. Corey

David Ellis (Sept 18, 2000)

Hello, name is David Ellis and I live in Seattle. My family and I remeber listening to a wonderful radio program called DeKoven Presents. It was dedicated to the "Barococo" period, as he called it, and he was a whole lot of fun. I was thinking about this, and thought I'd look on the web to see if he or his show was still around, but didn't come up with anything. I did, though, come up with your web page, and I thoght I'd ask to see if you are aware of this show, and if you know anything about the man behind it. Hope this is not an intrusion.

David.

PS, you have a fun web-site!

John Walsh (Jan 31, 2000)

Dear Elyon:
Several weeks ago I was bemoaning the lack of good classical music programs on the radio. I recalled that perhaps the best of these was run by a gentleman, Seymour DeKoven. Up until sometime in the eighties he broadcast from the Fordham University station in New York. He called himself simply "DeKoven" in later years. He favored what he called Barococo music, baroque and rococo music.
DeKoven's musical knowledge was encyclopedic and I learned a lot. He was very opinionated but, since his opinions coincided with mine, I thought he was great.
I surfed the net and the only site I could find that might possibly have a connection was yours.
Regards,
John Walsh

(pianomag@aol.com)

First post

Since the first notes went up a couple of years ago about Seymour DeKoven at DeKoven Music, many people have written to share their memories, their impressions, their stories.

If you have something to share, please add it as a comment at the end of the page.

We look forward to hearing from you.