Hankus Netsky's Introduction for Ran at NEC Commencement
“It is my great honor and immense personal pleasure to present to you Ran
Blake, extraordinarily gifted and unique pianist, improvisor, composer,
and teacher, and founding chairman of New England Conservatory's
Third Stream/Contemporary Improvisation department.
“Ran Blake was the very first faculty member I met upon my arrival as a student at NEC in August of 1973. Homeless and disoriented as I was, trying to find my way in a strange new city, I chance upon him in his secluded office in the basement of this building, hunched over a piano, surrounded by posters, books, music magazines, and several ominous paintings. Always known for his generosity, he immediately set about trying to find me a place to live, offering to call a woman who ran an all-male boarding house — as I remember it, one with a ten-o'clock curfew and no female visitors. I went right out and found myself an apartment.
“Since that day he has guided me, as he has guided a varied and distinguished cadre of other musicans, providing a model for a life in music that is truly an expression of one's own personal essence, a life of perpetual learning and constant reinterpretation, a life of artistic expression without even a hint of compromise.
“A musician whose work spills over any boundaries one tries to impose on
it, Ran weaves a dense musical narrative informed by sources known and unknown: the field holler, the gospel shout, the transcendentalism of Charles Ives, the cafes of Athens, the cries of the displaced, the mysterious look James Stewart gives Kim Novak in Vertigo. It's all part of his musical self portrait, a signature sound that has inspired so many of us and that, lately, even the outside world has finally begun to recognize.
“But as he creates that sound, he cautions his students: it isn't easy, there are no shortcuts. Work hard, be prepared, persevere, listen until you can hear it, sing it before you try to play it, and, above all, go out and listen to others. Take it all in and, some day when you're ready, it will be your turn to play. And you too won't sound like anyone else.
“These are the lessons Ran Blake teaches us, and the music community is so much the richer for it.
“I am privileged to present to you Ran Blake, for the honorary degree, Doctor of Music.”