Joseph Foley

“This is so hard to put into words. I can’t believe that Sam Pilafian has left us.

Reading all the wonderful attributes, I also can’t believe that Sam was nearly 70 years old. He seemed ageless and timeless. It just seemed he would always be here. I guess in a way he will. His playing, his incredible teaching, his mentorship influenced so, so many of us.

I met Sam in the fall of 1983 as a freshman at BU. (Actually, I met him a few times before that, hearing the EBQ live, plus wearing out my Baroque Brass and Russian Brass LPs.) Sam made this totally green, inexperienced trumpet player from New Hampshire feel like I could do anything I wanted.

I hear his words come out of my mouth every day whenever I teach and I’m proud to be able to share those with my students.

His concept of group sound, articulation, dynamics- that’s it. A total influence over the original Atlantic Brass Quintet, of which I was a member. Without him, we would not have won six chamber music competitions. Without him, we would not have made those early recordings- more on that later. Without him, we would not have been signed to Columbia Artists right out of college. Without him, we would not have taught all those summers at Tanglewood and become the teachers and players we have. That’s all Sam.

Sam entrusted us with making the first recording of Arutunuan’s Armenian Scenes (A Musical Voyage CD). Sam had surreptitiously obtained the (barely legible) manuscript from Arutunian, and wanted us to record it. It easily could have been Empire. But he chose us.

(I’m told doing the recording of the last movement- wedding processional - Sam was dancing up a storm in the recording booth. Wish I could have seen it, but I can totally see it in my mind.)

Also on those recording sessions, he knew exactly what to do to get the best product. Do this- yes, sir. Take that out- yes, sir. Switch those parts- yes, sir. At a point where we were getting tired and arguing over something, Sam threatened to walk out. That got us in line pretty damn quickly.

(Incidentally, those recordings were made in the middle of the night. We’d teach all day at BUTI, grab dinner, then record until about 3 am - and of course head to Joe’s Diner for breakfast- and start it up again in a few hours.)

Two trivia spots from that CD: at one point, Sam came out and joined us- there’s 16 bars (?) on that CD with two tubas in awesome octaves. Let me know if you find it. Also, we did a short Praetorius piece with percussion and it was hard to get the recording balance right. While they were working on that, I started goofing around and took the tune up an octave. Sam came running out and said, “You can do that?? You’ve got to do that! That will f#*^ with (you know who).” Typical Sam.

And finally, Sam gave me perhaps the best piece of advice I ever received. Getting out of school, I was complaining a bit about lack of opportunities etc. Sam just listened, and said nothing. Then he looked right at me and said, “Be ready.” Intensifying the stare- “Be ready.” He was, as always, exactly right.

Well, we could all go on forever with great Sam stories. His influence over the brass world? Immeasurable.

Thank you Sam for the friendship and the mentorship. You will never be forgotten.”