Joe Patrych (1955-2023)

[Donald Isler]

Joe Patrych, record producer, recording engineer, all-around piano maven and raconteur par excellence died yesterday, six days after suffering a massive stroke. He was 68. His family held a private funeral service for him this afternoon.

Joe had an incredible number of friends, all of whom might have felt he was their "best friend" because of his outgoing personality, his caring nature, and his enthusiasm for life, people, and music.

His comprehensive knowledge of piano repertoire was such that Gary Graffman once told me "He knows everything!"

In addition to Joe's recording studio, in the house where he lived all his life, he recently became director of the weekly Sunday evening concerts at Klavierhaus in New York, most of which were livestreamed. Many of the pianists he presented there were very gifted young musicians whom he tried to promote. Just a few weeks ago the pianist of the evening was Hengyi Ye, a really terrific musician, during whose performance he texted me "Damn, what fantastic playing!"

Joe and I were friends for 45 years. He was a unique and irreplaceable fixture of the New York City music scene, who will be missed by many.

[Rach3]

My condolences on the loss of your friend. I knew only of his reputation, and what a sterling reputation it was ; as a pedagogue, too, I believe.His name appears in credits on a few solo piano cd's I have.

[Lance]

Donald, many thanks for posting the notice of the unexpected and shocking passing of JOE PATRYCH. It was through one of our CMG meetings in NYC that I first met him, then visited him at his home and view many of the treasures he accumulated over the years, trying his Steinway piano, and seeing his general setup for recording. I found Joe to be an especially warm and cordial person, and we had communication a few times over the past. He presence will be sorely missed.

Does Anne and Francois know Joe? I kind of think they do.

[Ricordanza]

Don, I never had the pleasure of meeting Joe but I was on his email list for the Klavierhaus concerts, and your post illuminated his impact on the music world. I am very sorry for the loss of your friend.

[maestrob]

Very sad to hear about the sudden loss of your good friend, Don. I also have several CDs where he is listed in the credits in my library. What a great loss to music. Condolences to all concerned. 68 years young is just too close for comfort.

[Rach3]

Tributes on "Slipped Disc" today:

https://slippedisc.com/2023/12/mourning ... rd-legend/

[THEHORN]

So sorry to hear about his passing . 68 years is. not very old at all , and I wish he could have lived longer and accomplished more .

[Lance]

I have been watching for a full obituary notice on Joe Patrych but haven't seen one yet. Other notices I see by his friends and from people with whom he recorded certainly verify his stature in his outstanding work.

[Donald Isler]

I don't know how that comes about, Lance (an obituary in the NY Times, for example), but hope it does. Joe deserves it! Thanks for everyone's kind comments.

[Rach3]

Interview video, Oct.,2022:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GF6R-GpjoQA

[Lance]

Thanks for posting that interview with Sherry Grant. That was, I guess, just over a year ago, and then ...

[Donald Isler]

Here's another article I wrote (on Facebook) about Joe. Hope there will eventually be a formal obituary somewhere (like in the NY Times).

Joe Patrych from the Bronx

Our friend, Joe, was born, and spent the first year of his life in Manhattan. The following year his parents purchased the three family house on Tiebout Avenue in the Bronx that many of us knew so well. Originally, the Patrych family and his mother's mother - his only grandparent to survive the Holocaust - lived on the top (third) floor. Later, they moved to the second floor. Still later, Joe moved back upstairs, and used that top floor apartment for his studio, and living space. But in the early years when I first knew him - the late '70's and into the 80's - he lived with his parents on the second floor. And my first recording (of Artur Schnabel's Dance Suite and Seven Pieces) was made in his original studio, ie his parents' living room.


Joe also had medical and scientific interests, and for many years worked in the urinalysis lab at Montefiore Hospital (where, sadly, he died this past week).Though he phased that job out as he got more involved in music, he actually put in enough years to be eligible for (and may have already been receiving) a pension for his time there. He often worked the night shift, which gave him the rest of the day to pursue his other interests. In those days, before cell phones, Joe used his free time (the night shift was not as busy as the day shifts) to make liberal use of the hospital's phones to stay in touch with his friends. I once suggested that once he left Montefiore they would be able to LOWER the daily rates for in-patients, as the phones wouldn't be used as much!

Joe's ability to manage with little sleep always impressed me. In the early days when I knew him I lived on the Upper West Side and usually had dinner around 10 PM at Tom's Restaurant, in the Columbia University area (the outside of which was later known as "Monks Coffee Shop" where the Seinfeld "gang" would meet.) One of the friends who joined me there often was Joe. On a late evening once he was telling me about his many activities all over the city that day. Knowing he was an early riser I asked when he had gotten up that morning. He paused to think about this, and then said "I worked at the hospital all night!"

There is a brashness, by which I mean a freshness and uninhibited style - not a meanness - which is characteristic of some of us from the only borough of New York City which is on the North American mainland. (The rest of the city is made up of islands, and parts of an island.) Certainly this could be said of Joe. He was outgoing, honest, open-minded, and up for discussion of any subject.

By contrast, much has been written of traumas suffered by children of Holocaust survivors, though the children themselves did not have these experiences. Joe's parents were Polish Jews who lived through World War II in Europe. As he said "My mother grew up in a concentration camp." His father, already a young man when the war started, fled east to Siberia and spent the war years there. This was no pleasure, but it was a safer place for a Jew than German-occupied Poland. Perhaps as a result of these experiences, his parents, who were already retired when I knew them, and were always very kind to me (his mother often volunteering to make me a sandwich) preferred a quiet life at home for themselves. As opposed to the lifestyle of their lively, ambitious and energetic son who never sat still, except perhaps, when editing recordings.

Joe was a quick study. Indeed, listening the other evening to a 1979 interview he and Bruce Posner did with pianist Robert Goldsand for their long-running radio program, Concert Grande (which was recorded at Fordham University in the Bronx), I'm impressed with how much the not yet 24 year old Joe knew about music and performers. He had only become a serious "convert” to classical music a few years earlier, after which he spent lots of time at concerts, and buying records. I got some insight into this quick study aspect of him once when his parents told me a story of a summer vacation they took in the Catskills when Joe was little. They noticed that after his father read a children's book to him, he was able to read it back to them, turning the pages at just the right time, though he hadn't yet learned to read!

One of my favorite stories of Joe's "Bronx-centeredness" was when I asked him which route he traveled home from a visit to Rockland County. Joe said he took the Deegan.
"The Deegan??" I asked.
"Yes, the Deegan" he said.
For those who don't know about this matter of New York geography: The New York Thruway (which goes from the border of New York City north to Albany, and then west to Buffalo) emerges from the Bronx, where it is known as the Major Deegan Expressway. But to Bronx-oriented Joe (who was also, naturally, a Yankees fan!) the name of the entire road was "the Deegan!"

Donald Isler

[Lance]

Don, I loved reading this. I am so pleased that you had such a great friendship with Joe. Was there so much energy in the guy that he really didn't get much sleep? Probably Joe would be surprised to know his demise would be in this manner ... especially for a man who had so much energy and interest in so many facets of life. In the Sherry Grant interview, I had to laugh when he was talking about LP recordings versus digital. But even he had no choice early on when only LPs were available. LPs served my hunger for music for many years.

[lennygoran]

Interview video, Oct.,2022:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GF6R-GpjoQA

Steve thanks for posting this link-really enjoyed it. I liked what he said about Geffen Hall-he didn't know about the acoustics but had it right on what a nice space it is now-sue and I like to stop in there sometimes just for a coffee break. He made me think I have to listen to more Scriabin-he and Sherry seemed so enthusiastic. Regards, Len

[lennygoran]

Here's another article I wrote ...
The New York Thruway (which goes from the border of New York City north to Albany, and then west to Buffalo) emerges from the Bronx, where it is known as the Major Deegan Expressway.

Donald Isler

Don great article-btw I had never associated the Thruway with the Major Deegan although I've been around that area by Elmsford many times over the years visiting gardens in Westchester county. I checked google maps and see that 9a comes into the thruway around there too. I would have loved meeting Joe but got to the forum too late. Regards, Len