Paul William Lyddon, Jr.

Born in Rochester, New York... Paul William Lyddon, Jr. (October 6, 1931 - May 10, 2024) began the Eastman School of Music's preparatory program at the age of three, becoming the youngest student ever enrolled. He once described himself as a "product of the Eastman School," having been a student there until earning his Bachelor of Music with Distinction. Lyddon frequented Arthur Rubinstein's concerts at Eastman, drawn to the stage presence of a man he described as a "performer's performer." When reflecting on his own concert career decades later, Lyddon attributed his emphatic “sense of showmanship” to the influence of Rubinstein’s performances.

From 1956 to 1959, Lyddon served in the U.S. Army and was stationed at Fort Myer, Virginia. As a member of the U.S. Army Band and the piano accompanist for the newly formed U.S. Army Chorus, he was often called upon to entertain at high-profile events. This would eventually take him to the White House where he would perform for President and Mrs. Eisenhower on multiple occasions. He often obliged the former first lady, Mamie Eisenhower's requests to play her favorite pieces such as Clair de lune and Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata.

Lyddon had a share of rather inauspicious experiences involving rainstorms during his time in the army. Once after performing in Chicago, the plane that the chorus was travelling in nearly crashed during a severe storm. On another occasion, Lyddon was invited as the piano accompanist for the U.S. Army Band on a barge in the Potomac River, but a rainstorm destroyed the piano he was meant to perform on. Fortunately, his performances with the Army Band and Chorus in the Hollywood Bowl and Denver's Red Rocks Amphitheater took place without any weather-related disruptions.

Following his military service, he began his teaching career at Northern Illinois University in 1959 before joining Monmouth College in 1960. In February of 1965, he was invited to play a recital for The Phillips Collection in Washington D.C. The relatively unknown pianist delivered a performance far exceeding the expectations of the doubtful critics in the crowd. Persuaded by the young pianist's undeniable talent, a critic from the Washington Post commented that the sounds he heard that night "should demand with the proper business matters settled, a full house every time."

Lyddon maintained a careful balance... between his work as an academic and his rapidly growing concert career. He joined the music faculty at the University of Wyoming in Laramie in 1965, and over the next eleven years he would give over 700 performances across the country as well as in England, Germany and Austria. Among his many solo recitals, he also had hundreds of appearances as a soloist for larger orchestras. He toured with The Denver Symphony Orchestra during the spring of 1969 to perform Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto. The tour concluded with the final performance of the renowned French American conductor Vladimir Golschmann's career.

Reviews of Lyddon's pianism from this period praised his artistry in major Romantic works. The Bozeman Daily Chronicle described him as a "master of the situation at all times" during an appearance with the Bozeman Symphony Orchestra. A critic attending his performance with the Casper Civic Symphony emphasized the "judicious sense of rhythmic weight" in his playing. He caught the attention of various New York management agencies who sought him out several times a year to accompany their artists in the Rocky Mountain region. Among the many artists he accompanied were:

• Violinists: Charles Treger, Pinchas Zukerman, Toshiya Eto
• Cellists: Roger Drinkall, Daniel Domb, Joel Krosnick, James Stroud
• Tenors: George Shirley, Vahan Khanzadian

Towards the end of his tenure at Wyoming, Lyddon felt that he had slid into a period of stagnation. He felt his life graying into a dull monotony despite his busy, and often overwhelming concert schedule. He distracted himself for a year by managing a U.S.O. (United Service Organizations) tour in East Asia from 1970 to 1971. The final destination of the tour was the island of O'ahu. While there, he became enamored with the island's natural beauty and wildlife, and developed a deep respect for the dignified local culture that sought to preserve it. The year after the tour, he went on a sabbatical to attend a Masterclass taught by Alfred Brendel. Upon returning, Lyddon decided that what he needed to get out of his artistic rut was a change of scenery, and in 1976 he left Wyoming to start a new life in the Pacific.