Bummed out

[SpacemanSpiff]

I get bummed out about some things, but this one hit me across the head like a two-by-four.

Chris Falzone was a kid my son's age, went to school with him and was great friend of his until the went their separate ways in college. I'd coached him for several years in soccer. But he was a gifted musician, primarily. He went to Curtis in Philadelphia for piano studies, and had done some performances here and there. Today, I was listening to our local classical station where they mentioned Curtis, and I thought, "whatever happened to Chris?"

So I looked, and found out that he'd died two weeks ago today at age 29.

[EDIT] A good local blog on young Chris's death http://letterv.blogspot.com/2014/10/chr ... -2014.html [/Edit]

http://slippedisc.com/2014/10/the-unrep ... r-falzone/

http://www.qobuz.com/fr-fr/info/Actuali ... mort176309 (it's in French, but you don't have to speak it to get the jist.)

To get an idea of his genius, this video clip of Chris playing the fiendish Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto #3 (adding in notes for an absent orchestra) will give you an idea.


It's a very sad thing to have happened to someone I once knew.

[mrkelley23]

A death that can actually be designated as a tragedy.

As a human being, I am curious about the details of his death.

As a human being, I respect the need to stay away from that, at least for a while.

RIP, young genius.

[Bob Juch]

His statement here is rather disturbing: http://www.gofundme.com/Christopher-Falzone-piano

[Bob78164]

His statement here is rather disturbing: http://www.gofundme.com/Christopher-Falzone-piano

Given that the Court imposed a guardianship on him, it raises my eyebrows that his parents, rather than his wife, were appointed as his guardians. --Bob

[SportsFan68]

His statement here is rather disturbing: http://www.gofundme.com/Christopher-Falzone-piano

Given that the Court imposed a guardianship on him, it raises my eyebrows that his parents, rather than his wife, were appointed as his guardians. --Bob

They're lawyers, probably very smart and talented as such, and they wanted to hog his musical genius all to themselves, manage his career, and dictate his every life choice.

I admit I jump to that judgmental and pejorative conclusion based only on the young man's statement in Go Fund. The real story may be something completely different, more like the unfortunate experience of Christy Brown (My Left Foot).

[silvercamaro]

His statement here is rather disturbing: http://www.gofundme.com/Christopher-Falzone-piano

Given that the Court imposed a guardianship on him, it raises my eyebrows that his parents, rather than his wife, were appointed as his guardians. --Bob

They're lawyers, probably very smart and talented as such, and they wanted to hog his musical genius all to themselves, manage his career, and dictate his every life choice.

I admit I jump to that judgmental and pejorative conclusion based only on the young man's statement in Go Fund. The real story may be something completely different, more like the unfortunate experience of Christy Brown (My Left Foot).

According to the comments following Spiffy's link in English, the wife is the one who wrote the Go Fund page (and something else attributed to Christopher -- Facebook, I think.) The commenters who said they knew the couple seemed to be largely wary of her. For that reason, I'm inclined to avoid accepting the Go Fund statements at face value. For the future, there could be one heck of a fascinating book about the events leading to Falzone's tragic ending, if the truth ever can be sorted out.