Interview: A Moment with Dr Tony Birckhead
Article by Alex Thio
It all started with a roller coaster ride.
The rest is history.
Here’s an interview with Dr Oliver “Tony” Birckhead of the SCSS:
AT: SCSS is thrilled to have you on board, Dr Birckhead! Tell us a little more about how you came to the decision to travel with the SCSS as a singer.
TB: Years ago, my son Ollie asked me if I would be a chaperone for his choir’s trip to Chicago. I barely looked up from the newspaper as I told him he must be out of his mind. Of course, he eventually persuaded me (hey, I can be worked with . . .) and so I went on my first Gartner trip. Needless to say, it was incredible and I just came back from my third Chicago trip with Sarah last month. So when Laura asked us about the trip the decision to travel with her the SCSS was a no-brainer. Then when I was asked to sing in the choir it was an honor and I jumped at the opportunity. Because our house is a major gathering place (the Rock Band performances are frequently incredible), Leslie and I have the good fortune to know many of the SCSS singers already, and Dr. Werner has been our opthomoligist for a couple of decades! The whole thing just seems like it was meant to be.
AT: I’ve had the pleasure of working with you on recordings at your studio. Share with us about your musical interests. (We hear you play a mean guitar!)
TB: I have loved music and been compelled to listen to and play it my whole life. I don’t feel I have a choice really — the words to Fascinating Rhythm are way too true for me ( “. . . find at night no work has been done!”). I took piano lessons in the third grade for several years but never learned to be a good reader. I started playing guitar in 1961 so I have been playing for almost 50 years. I learned the chords on a $36 dollar acoustic guitar my dad bought me listening to the Kingston Trio (a folk group whose records made it to top 40 radio) and I learned electric guitar and lead playing listening to the Ventures (a surf instrumental band). My first band was formed with some guys I went to school with (Walnut Hills HS) in 1963. Our first gig was at a “teen hop” at the Pleasant Ridge Presbyterian Church. We got ten dollars ($2.50 apiece). I have been in many bands since then. After I earned my Masters in 1976, I decided to try the life of a professional musician. I went on the road for two years with a band working in bars and doing shows about six nights a week and making almost no money. It was a wonderful experience and I still keep in touch with two of those musicians. But it is a very difficult life. It is for any artist, actor, writer, dancer, etc. — show biz is a tough gig! — especially if you want a family and to actually spend time with them, and make enough money to feed them, etc.
One of my bandmates on the road in the ’70′s said, “You don’t choose music — music chooses you”. He is so right. So if you are chosen, you have to do it, you love to do it, you want to be doing it all the time, but you have to come to terms with how you’re life is going to be, what kind of life do you want for you and/or your family, etc. And life is expensive! I am thankful to have been “pro” enough to know many great musicians personally and even to have played with some.
One of the best things about playing music is meeting people I would never otherwise meet. There are incredible players right here in Cincinnati and it is thrilling to be able to make music with them. Because of my kids’ involvement in theatre, I have been asked to play in the pit orchestra for the Sycamore productions of Working, Footloose and Seussical the Musical at Sycamore High School, High School Musical at the Jr. High. This spring, Mrs. Carol’s mother, who is the music director at Oak Hills H.S. asked me to play in their production of All Shook Up. Through these projects, I have met Mr. Frank, Mr. Rahnfeld and Mr. Swift all of whom are amazing musicians. Recently, Mr. Alexander asked me to sit in with his great band at this year’s Odd Couples and that was a treat.
This might embarrass you, Mr. Thio, a very modest person, but you are one of the best piano players I have ever worked with. It was a lot of fun to work together in the studio to record the SCSS practice CD’s and we are discussing the possibility of a recording project together when we return from Spain.
I’m also very interested in the recording process — capturing these wonderful sounds in the best way — and have a recording studio in my home. I love the recording process because it very creative and is the marriage of science, technology and art. Another way of saying this is: you get to play around with lots of very cool toys.
Last year, I decided to take voice lessons. It was terrifying. If you are playing an instrument, you are not making the sound — the instrument is. The instrument, like any tool, is an extension of you, but it is an intermediary between you and the sound. But when we sing, there is no intervening object — we are making the sound. So it is much more personal and emotional because we are directly connected to the sounds and the related emotions, and therefore we are correspondingly more vulnerable. I think that is why I have stuck with the relatively safe playing of instruments and stayed away from the more emotionally risky voice.
Let me share something I heard recently. Sounds are caused by things that are vibrating. Things vibrating at certain frequencies either alone or in combination with other things vibrating at certain frequencies we experience as music. We use mathematics to describe these musical frequencies and their relationships to other frequencies (intervals, octaves, thirds, fifths, etc.). What is most amazing is that these frequencies and intervals produce predictable emotions in humans. I’m not aware that anyone knows why or exactly how this happens. But ultimately, the frequencies occur according the laws of physics, which we describe with mathematics, which is the same language we describe the rest of the physical universe. So you could say that when we are making or experiencing music we are literally in tune with the vibrations of nature and the universe. Pretty heady stuff, eh?!
AT: I recall at least TWO choir trips with the Sycamore Junior High choirs where I’ve seen you ride the roller-coasters! Give us some sage advice on how you stay young at heart.
TB: In fact, Mr. Thio, I believe that is how we met! I recall slowly riding up the first huge hill of the biggest metal coaster at Six Flags and you telling me about your doctoral studies in piano at CCM. Unfortunately, the discussion was interrupted as the coaster car accelerated to 60 mph for the remainder of the ride and had to be continued at a later time.
For better or for worse, I feel in some ways I have never grown up. There is an incredible energy we feel around the high school years where everything — our relationships with the people in our lives and the things we experience — is so passionate, intense and meaningful. I hope I will always have access to those memories and feelings. Playing and hearing music certainly is a pathway.
AT: The SCSS has prepared some very challenging pieces of choral music for this trip to Spain. How did you manage to memorize all that repertoire amidst your busy schedule?
TB: Repetition, repetition, repetition! I am not a good reader. I can read what we call chord charts and I understand the principle concepts of music: melody (pitch, scales, keys and modes), harmony (intervals and chords), rhythm (tempo, signatures and meters) and dynamics. But I cannot seem to memorize the names of those “golf clubs” and where they are on the guitar (although I know where they are on the piano). So I am a terrible reader. Fortunately, I can listen and find the notes and chords on the piano or guitar — “play by ear”. So I can’t read a vocal chart very well, but if I can hear it enough I can memorize it. I don’t think I am unique — most people my age, for example, know what alomost every Beatles or Stones songs are supposed to sound like. If I am going to play or sing something I have to hear it, and the more the better. And that is how I have learned the SCSS repetoire.
Dr Birckhead’s Biography (in his own words)
I have been married to Leslie for 23 years and we have three kids, Ollie, Laura and Sarah. Being married and having a family is the most incredible and important thing in my life. I’m a clinical psychologist and have been the director of the Health and Counseling Center at Xavier University for 14 years. Before that, I was in private practice for six years and before that I worked in community mental health centers in Maine and here in Cincinnati for about fifteen years. I got my Masters degree from the New England branch of Antioch University when I lived in Maine and came back here and earned my doctorate from U.C., finishing in 1990. I love working with people in health care, they are the most interesting and amazing people (and are hardly ever boring). Being entrusted by people to listen to their stories is a privilege, always interesting, sometimes fascinating and often moving. The most important thing about being a psychologist is not giving good, clever or even scientific advice; it is to be a good listener who is always making sure you are understanding what is being told to you.
