Maestro Brendan Townsend, Rhapsody on the Río Grande.
“He was a passionate and kind person. The cultural community has lost a bright one. May the road rise up to meet him.”
Sophia Shackleton
Team Yo-Yo Ma
RAY KECK
Lifetime Educator,
Former President, TAMIU
Conductors, even talented ones, are often not able to perform with the orchestra. Brendan Townsend was a brilliant musician, able to take a place beside his fellow cellists in any concert, a man who thought deeply about music and its place in the human experience. Brendan was also uniquely gifted, as a musician and as a man, to lead us into a new era for music in Laredo. We found him after a national search, interviewing candidates whose preparation and passion might bring together the music community — TAMIU, LCC, our school districts — into a new alliance, partnerships conceived to boost both music students and our concert-going public. We approached the LPO board with a plan for the University to hire a faculty member whose responsibilities would also include the LPO. The University could cover his salary and put him on tenure track if the LPO board accepted responsibility for the cost of concerts. We reached out to LCC, and Dr. Dovalina agreed to hire the new conductor as part-time teacher on the Community College campus. This plan would ensure a united community effort. Though reluctant at first to accept an entirely novel collaboration between an orchestra and a university, the A&M System finally gave its approval.
Brendan Townsend expanded our life in music far beyond anyone’s expectation. Beginning with his first concert, Brendan included in each program one piece by a contemporary composer, if possible bringing the composer to Laredo for the concert. His interpretation of famous pieces, the so-called “warhorses” of the stage, was unfailingly fresh. I recall hearing him direct Haydn’s Creation with the LPO Chorale early in his tenure with us. Everyone who heard that performance left the concert with a new and much expanded understanding of that perhaps overly-familiar work. Before each concert Brendan discussed the music we were about to hear, providing historical and social context for each work. Through Brendan our LPO pioneered a system whereby large screens placed on each side of the stage tracked in silent prose what was happening, what the horns or violins might be up to, guiding listeners to better understand works many were hearing for the first time. This plan to facilitate understanding of great music as one listens won a national award. He planned concerts designed to bring the classics to those who had never before encountered this music in an atmosphere of warm collaboration, a notable example the Disney production at the Arena. Brendan began each concert with The Star Spangled Banner, proclaiming our American identity and filling each heart with a new experience of our national anthem.
Energy flowed from Brendan, inspiration and effort which never rested. He gave every bit of himself — mind, spirit, body— to every performance and to his work as an educator.
Brendan was outgoing, articulate, and interested in people. He had faith in the power of an education and operated with a sense of mission to produce outstanding students. He was often wry and very direct in his manner of speech. I learned to be grateful for this trait when Brendan served as president of our Faculty Senate. “My job is to inform you when the Check Engine light goes on.”
When E.H. Corrigan funded construction of our magnificent organ, Brendan threw himself into exploring and performing the organ-orchestra repertoire made possible because TAMIU had the organ. He was instrumental in helping us recruit Dr. Colin Campbell to join our music faculty. Finally, orchestra members gave Brendan, after each concert, the coveted sign of their approval. As the audience applauded, string players altogether tapped their stands with their bows to salute Brendan. With his students, the orchestra, and the university, Brendan Townsend lived that charge memorialized in Messiah: “Get thee up unto the high mountain.”
Bren led the climb.
ANGELINE TOWNSEND
Assistant to the Dean
Baylor School of Music
Brendan and I were in each other’s lives 36 years. We were in the same after-school music classes and the Cork Youth Orchestra. We were both cellists. Music was never my whole life, but it is the love of music that has kept our worldwide circle of friends together through the years. We are bound by the memory of all those lessons and performances of our youth. We’d always meet up at Christmas in Cork. This year will take another tone as we meet on Zoom and remember Brendan well and miss him.
He came to Laredo in 2003 and asked me in 2008 if we could marry and give it a go there. I had a good job back home, but he had a career. We married in New Orleans. I took a back seat to his role as conductor and helped him on the administrative side of the LPO. This worked well for us.
Brendan’s goal was to make classical music available to all Laredoans of all ages. He didn’t want money to be a reason someone couldn’t make it to a concert, so student admission was always free.
He learned to play the cello when he was five, as I did. His father Declan and his brothers Finbarr and Pedar were also musicians.
For as long as I knew Brendan, he was focused, intense, and passionate about music. When he studied scores for a concert, he read them before listening to them. He had the unique talent of being able to hear the music as he read it. On concert day, he was transported to a different world, and he required lots of space.
His sense of humor was endearing, and so was the affection he had for his dogs, Toby and Wolfie. Toby and Brendan launched many a canoe on Lake Casa Blanca.
Photo courtesy of Angeline Townsend
Reading The Nutcracker score with Toby and Wolfie.
He leaves behind his father, his mother Grainne, and Pedar.
That Brendan and I could no longer live together did not destroy the lifetime bond that kept us in each other’s hearts. When we parted, there was no malice, only the wish that we each find what brought us peace and fulfillment. I had last spoken to him only days ago.
ROBERTO LOPEZ
Trumpet Player, Laredo Philharmonic Orchestra
Music Educator, VMT School of Communications & Fine Arts
He brought the energy that the LPO was hungry for. When we met him we saw a young man who was passionate and had a plan to transform the LPO. He saw the potential in us to perform the traditional classical repertoire, but he was also interested in premiering the work of new composers.
He took us to new heights of collaboration and other genres with his work on Rhapsody on the Río Grande, an original composition by Dr. Colin Campbell. Maestro Townsend simultaneously conducted the LPO, El Mariachi de Nuevo Tecalitlan, and Dr. Campbell on the pipe organ for the performance of the Rhapsody that was filmed and televised by KLRN.
Another of the highlights of working with Maestro Townsend was helping to organize Yo-Yo Ma’s Day of Action on the riverfront and in Nuevo Laredo in 2019 . He completely embraced the importance of that day. We felt it in our hearts.
As a conductor he was clear about his expectations and how he would elicit them from us. We likewise had to have knowledge of the man holding the baton. He was a great programmer. He challenged us and was always proud that we would rise to what he asked of us.
JOHN KILBURN
TAMIU Chief Research Officer, Professor of Sociology
In reviving the Laredo Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO), he built an institution that this City could be proud of. He well earned those two American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers Awards he received for creativity in 2007 and 2014. He was innovative, progressive, and adventurous — always interested in bringing new works into the Philharmonic’s performances.
I admired his passion and his willingness to teach me about music. His enthusiasm made me an active fan of the LPO.
I will miss his human side — hanging out and the cups of coffee with a good friend. I will miss our conversations. That grieves me.
Photo courtesy of Armando X. López
Bienvenido a Laredo, Yo-Yo.
KAREN MEJIA
President, Laredo Theater Guild International
I first met Brendan in 2008 during our production of Oliver!, just one of many shows in which he served as LMTI / LTGI’s musical director and conductor. Brendan was a master at his craft. He painstakingly and patiently worked with the actors and orchestra members to create theater magic. Brendan’s musical knowledge and skills, combined with his humor and wit genuinely made him a one-of-a-kind great friend that I will truly miss.
I was lucky to have sung in the Laredo Philharmonic Chorale under Brendan’s direction. I always will remember his exuberance in conducting, most notably during our annual performance of Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus in which he didn’t need to have the music in front of him to brilliantly conduct the orchestra and chorale. He introduced me to Mozart’s Ave Verum Corpus, which is one of the most beautiful works I’ve ever heard.
Though humble about his role in Yo-Yo Ma’s historic visit to Laredo last April, Brendan connected the full spectrum of Laredo’s arts community to create an incredible event that will never be forgotten.
JOE FLORES
Actor, producer, director
“He was a colleague and a collaborator, and he was my friend. We first worked together when he conducted for Man of La Mancha in October of 2009. This is where I came to know of his passion for music, theater, and the arts.
More recently, we portrayed the two gravediggers in Hamlet. We worked well together, lots of comic relief. His sense of humor was one of his greatest attributes.
His passing is a huge loss for the arts, especially for TAMIU and Laredo College. He was our advocate, our go-to for anything to do with music.
VERNON CARROL
Dean of Theater, VMT School of Communications & Fine Arts
When Brendan conducted for one of our musical productions, the overture would resonate with a gorgeous perfection that would carry through to the last scene.
His artistic standards were so high that he wasn’t always warm and fuzzy. In audition, he could fathom how much an actor had to give and that is what he wanted.
He made it possible for live music to be part of our productions. If a play is a dialogue between the actors and the audience, then the addition of live music expands and enriches the dialogue to include the musicians.
He was so skilled as a conductor that should an actor hit a rough patch in the production, he could use music to make an adjustment.
Our collaborations on a production were enriching. It was refreshing to work at his level of professionalism as we would talk through a show, establish expectations and visions, and note exits and entrances.
Whether it was a symphony or a musical he was conducting, or hearing the progress in a student’s work, music excited Brendan. I thought he wanted us to understand as he did what the music was offering, what was in it that elevated us. It brought him to life and focused him.
Though he was demanding in his professional life, in friendship he was un-demanding, content to be part of whatever was going on. If we had plans for target shooting, those would become his plans, too.
He was sharp and funny. I think he lived to hear others laugh. I will miss him and remember him often.
JUDY KILBURN
President, Laredo Philharmonic Orchestra
He was a big part of this community, which he embraced full force. There was so much life left to live in Brendan. He brought talent and great vision to the LPO. This is a heartbreaking, devastating loss.
JOE ARCINIEGA
Co-founder and former Artistic Director of Laredo Theater Guild International
I met Brendan through Hortense Offerle and Dr. Ray Keck when we first moved back to Laredo 15 years ago..
Ours would be a long, intense collaborative relationship replete with our famously strong debates. I respected his brilliance and all the ways he raised the bar for music, theater, and the performing arts in Laredo.
Thanks to him, LTGI productions like The Sound of Music, Annie, Cinderella, and My Fair Lady now had the dramatic, enriching component of live music.
We lost Hortense, our dear common denominator for all things musical in Laredo —who had such a love and admiration for Brendan — he played the cello at her bedside just before she passed.
Early this year he overheard a conversation I was having about the visit to Laredo of Dr. María Carrillo, the chief science officer of the Alzheimer’s Association. He offered that he would play the cello and Colin Campbell would play the piano at a reception we were hosting for Dr. Carrillo.
Brendan was complicated and intense, but was also kind and generous.
LOLA NORRIS
Associate Professor, TAMIU
President, Faculty Senate
What a tremendous loss. Bren was a brilliant, gifted musician, and also a great colleague and a wonderful friend who was very approachable and funny. While lining up for commencement, I was often lucky to be placed next to him, and it was invariably entertaining, a great opportunity to catch up on his stories.
Shortly after coming to Laredo, he approached me and my youngest daughter to participate in the performance of Peter Boyer’s Ellis Island: The Dream of America as voice actors in the roles of new immigrants to America. He wanted each of us to read one of the seven short monologues that were woven into the music. While my daughter had some voice and theatrical experience, I did not, and I was hesitant to read the part. But Brendan convinced me. He did not want a polished reading performance, he said, he wanted voices with natural accents that represented true immigrant voices.
I am thankful for his kindness. I am the current faculty senate president at TAMIU, and this year has been so difficult due to the pandemic. Bren emailed me frequently to offer support. Having been president of the senate several years ago, he was well aware of the challenges I faced as an intermediary between faculty and administration. His sense of humor evoked a laugh even when there was not much to laugh about. He was truly one of a kind.
TRICIA CORTEZ
Director, Rio Grande International Study Center
Brendan took the city and arts world by storm. I was a reporter at the newspaper at the time, and we became fast friends. He was a huge, larger than life personality and a skilled storyteller with a crazy sense of humor. He had a visible genius for music. He was a perfectionist and could be incredibly short-tempered and demanding with actors in musical productions, but he brought out the best in each of us. He transformed the LPO by having it take root at both TAMIU and LC, and by expanding classical music and singing to a much broader audience. He modernized the LPO and made its performances more understandable with notes and detailed intros at the beginning. He was part of a move to create a new hip gathering group of people who loved the arts. He left his mark in Laredo and deepened the richness of our arts community.
Photo courtesy of Armando X. López
Yo-Yo Ma, Brendan and Angeline Townsend. Day of Action, April 2019.
ARMANDO X. LOPEZ
Poet, Attorney-at-Law
I first got to know Brendan when my kids participated in theatre productions, but got to know him well when he coordinated Yo-Yo Ma’s Day of Action visit to Laredo in April 2019.
Beyond the intricacies of all that had to be coordinated internationally to get Yo-Yo to Nuevo Laredo and back, beyond whatever obstacle arose, you could see Brendan’s will prevail to honor Yo-Yo Ma’s wish to make his visit to the border an event for the people.
Brendan was so attuned to this man he considered a personal hero that he invigorated everyone involved in the process to lay the groundwork, to set the stage, for the power of Yo-Yo Ma’s message of love.
This sprawling daylong event from the park on the riverbanks, meeting dignitaries and students, reading from poet Emma Lazarus’ The Colossus as he faced Mexico, his visit to Nuevo Laredo, and his time at the Laredo Center for the Arts seemed to have happened effortlessly — which it did not. This said something about the bi-national cooperation of local and federal agencies of los dos Laredos.
As well it said something very specific about Maestro Townsend’s drive to keep time, to coordinate with precision the timing of Yo-Yo Ma’s expressions of love for humankind, music, and art, and his pronounced assessment of the absurdity of a border wall.
It was a gift.
Further reading: Meet Brendan Townsend: many hats, one baton (LareDOS, October 2003)
