America will not be the same for me anymore. Our good family friend William Skelton passed away in Hamilton, New York, on September 23. Anyone who loves Carnatic music knows his name.
Bill Skelton was one of the first Americans to come to Chennai to study Carnatic music. Being a bassoon-player, he took up the nadaswaram. (The bassoon is a double reed orchestral instrument.)
I met him when I was in Class VII. He used to come to our 20 Sydoji Street, Thiruvallikeni house in Chennai to take veena lessons with my father S. Ramanathan. One day I was sitting on the staircase when he came to the class. I handed him a note saying that it was from my father and that there was no class that day. He opened the note and found that it said ‘April fool’s day’. He laughed so much and, after that prank he adopted me as his daughter.
Annual visits
Bill Skelton (and his wife Mary Lou, who passed away 14 years ago) would bring several Colgate University students every year to India to study Indian music and absorb Indian culture first-hand. I was living in the east coast of the U.S. at that time and went to Colgate University several summers to train students in vocal and veena before they started undertaking those trips.
After our marriage, Frank and I went to visit him together for the first time. His beautiful house was decorated like an Indian household, and there was a huge temple bell hanging outside on the porch. We arrived at his house in the middle of the night. Without thinking, Frank gave the bell a strong hit. The enormous sound floated down the hillside and woke up half the village. Bill came to the door and looked around. With his usual mischievous smile he said: “It’s okay you woke me. I had to get up anyway. Some damn fool was ringing the porch bell.” Frank fell in love with him that very moment, and became part of Bill’s family.
The Pioneer
Bill Skelton was a pioneer in many ways. When he taught his Colgate students the story of Rama and Sita, he demonstrated the events of the story by renting a train which took the students around to all the places where the Ramayana events had occurred. He and Mary Lou climbed the Tibetan Himalayas to Mount Kailash for a darshan. Bill was the only non-Indian invited to be part of the Navaratri festival in the Mysore palace. He arranged to have dancer Kamala Lakshminarayanan do the world premiere performance of Thyagaraja’s opera ‘Prahlada Bhakta Vijayam’ which my father had collected and published.
Bill Skelton was the first to see potential in me and he invited me to perform solo on the veena selections of Russian composer Rimsky Korsakoff’s ‘Scheherazade’ with the Colgate University Orchestra that he conducted. Thanks to him, after this performance I had the opportunity to tour and record with several renowned fusion groups and travel the world.
Love for Chennai
Bill Skelton loved Chennai as if it were his home town. His culinary talents were also remarkable. All by himself he could prepare in one afternoon a four-course south Indian meal served on the traditional banana leaf for 60 people.
I was fortunate to play for his 85th birthday celebration in October 2008 hosted by Colgate University. A number of his former students, including the president of a dot-com company, Professors of music professors and admirers, came from all over the country to celebrate that day. Wearing his dhoti and kurta he played ‘chakkani raja’ on the nadaswaram, and showed the videotapes of his days in India to take us all down memory lane.
For those who had experienced Bill Skelton’s devotion to and love for India and its arts, there is not a pair of dry eyes today.
Keywords: Bill Skelton, American, Carnatic, music, nadaswaram, non-Indian, Ramayana
Comments:
I second all the feelings and emotions shared by Geetha. Professor Skelton is a link between India and the United States for me as well. It's not the same for some reason anymore. However, I will remember what he stood for and channel that energy into my own work.
A touching story. Who can disbelieve the idea of Samskara after encountering such examples! And somehow India attracts like no other. I remember what Swami Vivekananda said after he met Max Mueller.
India is the heart of the world.
Its a great article by Geetha. I didn't know about Bill till I read this article. Wish we had more Bills and Johns (Higgins) to promote & popularise Carnatic Music and Indian art/culture in the West.
An American clad in a dhoti and playing the nadaswaram. Just a look at the photo published tells the deep passion that Bill had for music. He is a source of inspiration for all of us to give our best in our efforts - be it music, politics, studies or just household work. Our government should honour him with an award.
About two decades ago, Doordarshan once telecast first a nadaswaaram recital, which he made with aplomb wearing a dhoti and then a chamber piece in a tail-coat! I recall Prof. Skelton's visit to my house with his wife one evening while learning Philosophy (my late father was one of his mentors) at the University of Madras. I am sure his legacy of west meeting the east will continue and prosper.
Thank you, Geetha, for writing this lovely article. I got to know Bill just a little when I taught bassoon at Colgate in the early 1980's. His support and encouragement were very much appreciated, as this was my first job out of undergraduate school.
My son Christopher studied with Bill Skelton on the 2003 Colgate group in Chennai, and my wife and I were fortunate enough to visit Chennai and experience the wonderful collaborations between Indian artists and American students (and for my son, Bill was the gateway to learning to play and enjoy cricket!). As a Colgate graduate myself, I know Bill was a giant among the faculty of his era. He fostered a deep appreciation for Indian culture and opened us all to a broader perspective of the world.
At the time, I believe signing up for one of his classes (1974) just satisfied a requirement....as I look back, it was one my most interesting, fulfilling, memorable and enjoyable classes at Colgate. Thanks to Prof. Skelton for satisfying more than a requirement - he satisfied a mind that was craving beauty and music and peace during what for me was often a time of mind-numbing, never-ending HARD WORK. The class was pure joy!
I was lucky enough to be part of the 1997 study group, the one in which he rented the train and followed the path of the Ramayana. It was an incredible trip and I consider myself very fortunate to have been part of it. But, I'll always be grateful how he organized our experiences, procuring rare performers, giving us the opportunity to study with masters, and always throwing us right into the heart of everything. Bill had many sides; many years ago, he worked as a musician on Broadway and he was a bomber pilot during World War II. Needless to say, he lived an incredibly full life. The last time I saw him, in 2004, he was already quite old, but he was consumed with what he was going to do with his next study group. That kind of endless enthusiasm was inspiring. I will miss him, but I'm thankful that I knew him.
Bill was an unbelievable man, a supportive mentor and an all-around great character. His passion for India was contagious to all of my peers who studied with him in Chennai and we all look back to our semester with him as the fondest time during our period in college. His approach with the study abroad program emphasized full immersion for his students and allowed us to learn from some of the best in the world in carnatic music, yoga, Sanskrit, Tamil and in my case, Cricket! There was no other study program like it, whether it be in India or anywhere else. My positive experience fostered by Bill encouraged me to return to India for a year in 2005/2006. Simply put, I would be a totally different person if Bill Skelton had not been a part of my life. He will be missed.
I went to India with Bill's study group in 1997, not knowing a thing about India but intrigued by Bill and what I had heard about his previous study groups. I have since come to recognize just how this trip to India became so much more than a 'study group'. Bill’s love for India cannot be quantified or overestimated, and this love and enthusiasm for the country was contagious. Throughout the experience, Bill provided us with endless opportunities, not just the amazing cultural doors he opened, but the freedom he gave each and every student to make of the trip what we wanted. Throughout that journey, Bill was always supportive, truthful and filled with energy and excitement for what his students would be able to experience there. I am continually grateful to have such a positive influence at such a transformative time in my life. I went back to India in 1999, went on to get a graduate degree in South Asian studies, and today travel the world working for a humanitarian aid organization. This path is something I never would have imagined before this trip to India, and I often reflect on how Bill’s adventurous life and spirit enabled it to happen. We will all miss him, but I too, am grateful to have known him.
I was fortunate to go on one of Bill's famous programmes abroad in 2002. He had more energy than the 17 twenty-year-olds combined. His knowledge went beyond textbooks and I feel so blessed to not only have experienced India with such a man but to have had the chance to meet such a legend. There will never be anyone like him, but the stories Bill gave to everyone fortunate enough to meet him will live on.
Thank you for such a touching tribute to a remarkable man. It is testimony to the universality of our culture.