Joe Hill by Charles Frink (1967) 
Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra
Victor Norman, Conductor
Radio broadcast, August 14, 1982, New London, CT, USA
From the collection of Karl Miller
Charles Frink sounds like a very colorful , stubbornly individualistic character, and this work is a very enjoyable neo-romantic work. Among the other things about him that have attracted my attention, , Frink seemed to engage on a personal war with television---
http://articles.courant.com/1999-08-29/news/9910070076_1_zenith-long-island-sound-espinosaArticle about “Songs for Travelers” Edited to help get in size limits
Composer Charles Frink is ...www.theday.com, 11 Dec 2008 [cached]
Composer Charles Frink is living every minute to its fullest as he awaits the West Coast debut of his "Songs for Travelers."
Charles Frink explains, simply and matter-of-factly, why it's so ironic that one of his compositions - one about death - is going to be performed on the West Coast.
"It's interesting," the New London resident says, "that the Festival Chorale Oregon is going to do this piece because I have a terminal illness."
He goes on to describe what has happened to him since last winter. In March, a 100-percent bowel blockage almost killed him. Frink was then diagnosed with a very rare condition called sclerotizing mesenteritis, a progressive infection of the mesentery, which is the network of connected tissue and nerves that keeps intestines in place and provides the nerve impulses that tell the intestines what to do.
A doctor cut out the blockage and spliced two pieces of intestine together. But something else was discovered: a 4-inch mass in Frink's abdomen. Although there's no evidence it's cancerous, it cannot be removed.
Frink, 80, recalls what the doctor said about the sclerotizing mesenteritis: "'If it progresses far enough, it's fatal.
The idea of trying to do something of value every minute is hardly a new or foreign concept to Frink.
For three decades, he taught social studies at New London High School. He became a playwright. In 1980, he and Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra conductor Victor Norman co-founded the William Billings Institute of American Music, to focus on unsung composers and work in the area. Out of that grew the community theater group Performers' Co-op.
Frink even spent time in city politics, serving on the New London City Council from 2005 to '07.
Music, though, remains his singular passion. Performances of his work have been confined to New England for the most part, so the prospect of being sung in Oregon is particularly exhilarating.
Frink jokingly says that some people have told him over the course of his career, "You'll be acknowledged when you're safely dead," but then he adds, "I may be around for a quite a while. You can't tell."
And he remains heartened by the message of all this: that a new level of recognition can come even late in life.
Holmquist says Frink's music "is approachable without being trite.
Kolwicz fondly recalls his time singing for Frink.
For Frink, composing is not really a choice.
"The simplest answer is, I write because I have to. It is in my heart. That's speaking metaphorically. It's the best that I can do. I began thinking up music when I was 4 years old," says Frink, who lived in Norwich until moving to New London when he was 6.
That first song was inspired by a visit to a local farm, and it was a short, childlike piece with lyrics about a boy riding a goat.
"This delighted everybody. I didn't talk, by the way, not a word, until I was almost 3 years old ... but I sang," he says.
Frink also stuttered badly. When he was a sophomore in high school, he had to speak in front of his class. He didn't think he could do it, but his teacher told him, "Look, you have things to say, and we're going to listen. It doesn't matter if you struggle or not. We'll listen."
Frink says, "Gradually, I learned how to be able to talk without that stammer.
Frink studied at the Yale School of Music before deciding he didn't want to become a professional musician and ended up majoring in philosophy instead. He later earned a master's degree and a doctorate in education from Yale as well.
Much of his music is now archived at the Yale Music Library.
Frink doesn't usually compose at the piano. Instead, he sits at a table by his front window and writes it all down. He will go to the piano - there are actually two in that room - when he hits a snag or things get so complicated that he needs to hear how they sound from outside.
When Frink heard that Holmquist has asked where he had been hiding, his response was: He hadn't been hiding. He had been hidden.
"You see, I've been kind of strange in the kind of music I've written all my life because I have not joined what I call the orthodoxy of the pseudo-avant-garde. And that is a powerful force," Frink says.
Ultimately, Frink says, that orthodoxy tends to regard music as an occasion for analysis instead of as a source of spiritual communication.
Years ago, he met with the concert music director for a performance licensing agency that puts compositions in the hands of performers, and showed him one of his compositions.
"He opened it, very briefly to the first page, glanced and said, 'Simple,' and closed it," Frink says. "He was right. It's not really simple, but compared with the so-called new music, because of the traditional element, it's easy to understand."
But Holmquist, and others, have happily found the "hidden" Frink.
Lessons: Also interesting is this web site that was last updated in 2011, where Frink was giving piano, voice, and composition lessons for a very modest rate of 25$ an hour. (That’s about half the going rate where I live) He must be doing this out of the love of music. I hope some promising people have come to him for composition lessons--
http://www.findproz.com/music-lessons/connecticut/new-london/charles-frinkI have another letter by Frink I'll post in another reply. .
