PREVIEW: Meet the Extraordinary Herman Rubin

Meet the Extraordinary Herman Rubin

Herman Rubin of Canton is, like most of us, a mixture of ordinary and unusual. By way of ordinary, he’s middle-aged, married, loves classical music and sings in a choir, along with his wife. They live in a nice suburban home, with four pets and two computers. But when it comes to unusual, Herman outdoes all of us – by miles!

First off, Herman has a near-photographic memory, perfect pitch, and no sight. He has never really seen much of anything, other than a small amount of light perception. An accident during birth took away most of his sight before it disappeared almost entirely when he was about two. His parents refused to let that hold back their supremely talented son. They happily encouraged his musical interests, providing piano lessons along with other studies.

In fact, the family of five – Herman being the youngest of three siblings – moved from their original hometown of Petersburg, Virginia, to Canton, after a short time in Tennessee. His father (an upholsterer who would then become owner of an employment agency) heard about Ohio’s progressive ideas toward education of ‘handicapped’ students. Herman adds wryly, “and at that time, it was progressive. Cutbacks in education since then haven’t helped much, but it’s still better than most.”

But wait! I hear you ask. ‘You say he sings in a choir? How does he manage that?’

With a great deal of patience on the part of the conductor, Christine Allison, and the obliging help of those who sit or stand near him. That’s how! His own innate musicality helps a good bit, but for entrances and endings, a gentle tap on his shoulder or arm will clue him in to the right action.

The chorus is called “Chorus for a Cause”, which would indicate an affinity for non-traditional performers, although this is a bit of a stretch for everyone.

“No, I’ve never even sung in the shower. …Much,” he answers my question. “Although I have on rare occasions sung to myself just in private. In the car, for instance. I love Mozart, especially his Abduction from the Seraglio and Magic Flute.”

When you hear Herman talk, it’s obvious he’s a bass, when he adds, rather proudly, “I can go down to a low E-flat, or even D. But I really much prefer listening to opera, although even that is secondary to piano or chamber music, especially that of Beethoven and his string quartets.”

“Being primarily an instrumentalist, of course I mostly enjoy playing the piano. The classics, and Gershwin, Broadway, some classical, pale imitations of jazz, a bit of schmaltz, old stuff. I don’t do much modern, very little contemporary, actually.”

He elaborates a bit, “Mostly I play by ear, although I can—and have—learned new pieces, by either the Suzuki method (repetition) or getting the music in Braille. There’s even some choral music done in Braille, but less and less of it all the time. Still, Suzuki works well – listen and repeat, listen and repeat, and so forth.”

Music, in fact, is what brought Herman and his wife, Mindy Segal, together. You can hear the pride in his voice when he says, “She has an outstanding, trained soprano voice, and has sung in several choruses in the Midwest.” (She’s originally from the west side of Indiana, where she was a librarian at Purdue University.) They’ve been married almost three years, and she’s been an active chorister here since she relocated.

She heard him sing one day and said, “Oh, you have a voice!”

To which Herman answered, “No, I have perfect pitch.”

Mindy’s rebuttal was, “No, you have a nice untrained voice.”

“Now,” Herman adds, “we wanted to do something fun together, and she’s the one with the outstanding voice, and here we are!”

And there they’ll be Sat 9/18 at The Johnson Center of Malone University (in North Canton) at 7:30PM. The Concert for Peace, accompanied by full orchestra, will include an audience-sing-along of Let There Be Peace on Earth, plus a few spirituals; Reflections of Peace; One World; One Voice; Nella Fantasie and Song of Wisdom by Joseph Martin, from the book Old Turtle by Douglas Wood – a grand extravaganza that includes a narrator, along with chorus and orchestra. Proceeds from the concert will go toward finding a cure for juvenile diabetes. Last year’s concert raised some $12,000 for the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure breast cancer fund.

Along the way, Herman discovered another talent: having previously sung only at Temple, he found himself able to do what everybody else does, singing right along with them. “I can’t speak Hebrew worth a tick,” he says with a grin, “except when I’m singing at Temple, and I sound like I know what I’m saying!”

“Singing in the chorus is a good experience for me because it’s further extending my brain capacity, and really makes me work!” Slowly, he shakes his head, and with another grin, startles the listener by saying, “It must work. Look at Placido! How old is he now, and he has 128 opera roles in his head?” (The world-renowned tenor, who is also now conducting opera, Placido Domingo, will be 70 next January.)

The young Herman attended the Ohio State School for the Blind in Columbus for three years. It was a private school, although funded by taxpayers. He wasn’t particularly happy there, so he returned to Canton and Lehman High School, from where he graduated. The school no longer exists, except in memory, as it was closed 4 years after he left to achieve better integration among the city’s students. As an aside, a couple of weeks ago, at a rummage sale, Mindy found and purchased a copy of his yearbook, which contains a photo of the 18-year-old graduate.

Unfortunately, none of those photos show him in his rock band of the time. He was the keyboardist, primarily on organ. Modeling themselves after YES and EL&P, they played mostly “classically-oriented stuff,” and not in public, just in their various homes.

From there, it was off to Kent State University where his “real goal” was to be a star on radio. With a slightly rueful tone, he says “But that didn’t quite materialize, mostly due to the rapidly changing equipment more than anything.” (Your reporter experienced the exact same problem at nearly the same time, but in a different city.) He did, however, leave KSU with a Bachelor’s Degree in Speech.

In 1978, at the age of 25, he followed Horace Greeley’s advice – go west, young man – and headed off to Vancouver, Washington, where he spent the next 22 months learning the art of tuning pianos. Back home again, with a certain amount of optimism, he went into business for himself in January, 1980, when he officially hung out his shingle as a piano technician. Waxing and waning along with the economy, this has been Herman’s major employment since then.

On occasion he relies on a driver to get him to the piano, but he adds, “A good many of my customers pick me up, and bring me back home again.”

It was also while in Vancouver that he first discovered The Toastmasters Club, which aided him in public speaking. He entered—and won—several contests ranging from local to divisional, then even district once. The ever-expanding travel necessary for advanced competitions began to wear him down, and coupled with a seemingly new trend toward more professional presentations turned his attention elsewhere.

Herman has delivered two or three pre-concert talks for local organizations, including the Canton Symphony. And then, in 2004, several local movers and shakers thought it would be good for Canton to have an additional arts emphasis to complement the NFL Hall of Fame, and being opera lovers all, they began the Wagner Society of Ohio, although not under that name at the very beginning.

When he joined up in 2005, Herman was asked to be on the board, where he now functions as Parliamentarian. For a time in the early 90s, he was a member of the International Massenet Society which met in Pittsburgh, where he did several lectures. “Someone there must have thought I actually knew something, but at any rate, my talks were very well received.” But again, expense and travel complications combined to keep him home.

Actually, it was a friend he first met in the Wagner Society who then introduced him to Mindy, proving once again that music can be a man’s best friend.

Be sure to hear Herman and his wife, Mindy, at the Concert for Peace on Sat 9/18 @ The Johnson Center of Malone University in North Canton. The show starts at 7:30PM. Get more info at https://AChorusForACause.org/singforthecure.php.

By the way, Cerridwen has also accepted two of my short stories in their Scintillating Samples (complimentary reads) area: Song of the Swan and Unexpected Comfort. I love photography as well, as you can see here. Occasionally I teach writing workshops and sometimes do editing or ghostwriting on a free-lance basis. But over and above everything else, there’s always been the writing. I can’t imagine my life without it.

And now, after more than a few requests, I’ve started a blog about writing. You can find it here.

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