Lawrence Paul Sobol

Professor Sobol teaching the students of Fort Hamilton High School about life, through the music of Alan Hovhaness.

“Watch the stick!” Thank you Mr Sobel for enriching our appreciation of music, in all it’s varied permutations. Your insistence on excellence created many fine musicians, and cultivated much talent. We will miss you.
Attached is a photo of one of your special proteges, Joe Rutkowski, and his friends, Gene Sniegocki and me.

The Friends of Music of Smithtown would like to express our deepest sympathy to Mr. Sobol’s family. He was a legendary educator in our district. We are forever grateful for the scholarship that bears his name. May he Rest in Peace.

He helped us plan the music and played a beautiful haunting clarinet solo at my father’s memorial service. I had no musical talent so did not interact with him directly in high school though I certainly knew how much the band members loved him. I only learned at that time what a great person he was and why my father loved him so much besides their both playing the clarinet. His spirit lives on in the students he touched. The world has lost one of those people who made a big difference one person at a time.

I will never forget the joy Larry brought to my childhood household and years beyond, as he was loved by so many. He was more than a friend, and always referred to as “Uncle Larry”; a musical prodigy, conversationalist, devoted friend, and ever loving father. He always reemphasized the boundaries of great musicianship and how a good listener makes for a quality artist. There was never a dull moment when Larry came to town! The sun has come to pass and set this final time. “Here comes the sun, here comes the sun…And I say it’s all right… ~ All our condolences to the Sobol family!
Love ~ The Pinto’s

Mr. Sobol you always expected more from us than we ever thought we were able to give, but somehow the best in us always came through. Thank you for caring enough to let us shine.

He brought Richie Havens to Smithtown West.
Friendly man always had a hello RIP

Thank you Larry for making me a better musician, for challenging me. From my arrival as a transfer in my Junior year of High School, you gave me a focus that was to serve me very well. I am glad we had a chance to talk at the the Class of ’71 Reunion. I am also so honored you attended the concert I arranged at Smithtown HS to honor our mutual student Ingrid Werth. I will miss thinking – I should message Larry and see if he ….. I had hoped to entice you to come up to Connecticut to conduct the Connecticut Flute Orchestra I am trying to build – I will think of you at our first concert – this gives me a “dedication” to plan. Your memory is a blessing to many students, we certainly butted heads a few times – but I owe you so much – my first PRO gig – that dinner theater “pre broadway” show in 1971….to my 1st concert in Smithtown in over 40 years in 2012. May Larry Sobol’s memory be a blessing. My deepest condolences to his family.

Mr Sobol, you were such an amazing man and mentor to so many people. I can see from all the outpouring of love you energy and enthusiasm will live on for many years in all your students. Rest in peace! You will truly be missed.

Mr Sobel, you were so often kind to a teenage girl who respected you, appreciated you but was so timid that I cried when you gave me that eye and pointy baton in practice! I’ve never had another teacher of your caliber. You took our high school symphonic band to Carnegie Hall! You raised us all to be more than we thought we could be. So many wonderful memories…….
You will be missed.

Thanks to Larry and his constant passion for music, my love of music has continued since graduating Smithtown HS East in 1975. I was fortunate to spend an afternoon with him in summer 2015, sharing memories of the way he challenged us to excel. We laughed at how my fond memories included a time when he flicked the sweat from his brow on me after a particularly grueling rehearsal. But he always loved how we could sass him right back, while working our hardest under his direction. I will miss him. My sincerest sympathy to the family.

I am saddened by this news. My heart goes out to his loved ones. At Mr. Sobol’s final “retirement” concert, when his alumni came back to play under his direction one last time, everyone gave their all. He welcomed us back as a mentor, proud that we still chose music performance in our lives. His children were there and you could see the love in the family. I am grateful to him that I can still play (alto saxophone) well, and perform in a symphonic band more than 40 years after my HS graduation. It must have been the “long tones” (smile). Rest in peace.

What a lovely man Larry Sobol was. His stories and love of music will live on through all of those who had the good fortune to know him and learn from him. His gifts to my son through his teaching, including getting him through the doors of the college of his choice, are priceless. We are beyond grateful to him and send our deepest sympathy to his family.

We have lost a wonderful person. Mr. Sobol was larger than life in so many ways. He touched all of us. RIP Sir.

I am fortunate to have counted Larry Sobol as my friend and colleague throughout the majority of my more than 30 years in music. He was a passionate artist and educator who was always willing to lend an ear and give advice. We are all saddened by his loss. Rest in Peace Larry. You will be missed.

Larry’s technical command, dynamic control and warmth of tone on the clarinet was extraordinary, and made a huge impression on my young ears in 1969 during his visit to Smithtown’s Great Hollow Junior High School. Attending his Carnegie Recital Hall debut that included the world premier of “Saturn” by Alan Hovhaness, his unbelievably soft tone permeated the hall, embracing audience members to the balcony back row (near where I sat), such was the intensity and focus of his sound. Such a great musician and champion of new music! For a glimpse into his very active artistic life see his book, “Serve the Music” 94 Exercises for Clarinet” (2010) where he describes performing and commissioning new compositions by major 20th century composers Ingolf Dahl, David Diamond, Roy Harris, Karel Husa and Walter Piston. In high school our music teacher Mr. Sobol was legendary and transmitted to us his deep love of music, brought us together into a community of music, and showed us the transformative magic of making music. Etched especially deep in my soul are the Broadway Show performances we prepared of My Fair Lady, Oklahoma and West Side Story. I join in the chorus of his students when saying the single-minded intensity with which this man prepared us for a concert, the incessant drilling, and his unrelenting demand for excellence, set the standards for all the performances throughout my life, as a symphony musician, as a research scientist and as a teacher. I was fortunate to play along side Larry professionally, including one recording session that featured the great tenor Luciano Pavarotti. I feel so fortunate that we shared an hour long phone call last June when we reminisced about the past and spoke of upcoming performances and he spoke of the love and pride he felt for his family. Though gone, he lives through his influence and so will always be remembered. A ball of energy during rehearsals, he coupled humanity with ferocity, and demanded, refused to settle for anything but our best. Miriam Pashenz Kluger (from Smithtown HS Symphonic Band ’74) joins me in sending respects and condolences to his family.

Mr. Sobol changed my life. He infused in me a passion for excellence and an intense work ethic that led me to respect true skill and ability wherever it may exist. The lessons Mr. Sobol taught, while sometimes difficult to experience, equipped me to face future opportunities and challenges that fell far outside of the musical context that was his craft. With Mr. Sobol, good was never enough. He was a superb musician and artist who drove those he worked with to higher levels. The musical mastery that he demonstrated established a level of credibility that I have attempted to achieve throughout my adult and professional life. Under Mr. Sobol, I learned to take complex challenges and break them into smaller, more manageable parts and reassemble them into a finished work. I lost contact with Mr. Sobol after graduating from high school, but have never forgotten what he taught and will forever appreciate the gift he gave so freely of knowing what excellence feels like and how to go about achieving it. My sincere condolences to the Sobol family.

My experiences with Mr. Sobol were few, though intense and something I will always remember. He was a great man and my heart is saddened by his passing. My thoughts and prayers are with his Family and all those who mourn….RIP❤

Larry Sobol was a force of nature. I had the privilege of having him not only as a band and pit orchestra director, but also as my private clarinet teacher and mentor for 3 years. He tortured me daily in band rehearsal (my fellow band members know what I’m talking about!), and I loved every minute of it. He also had a wonderful sense of humor and a soft spot that wasn’t too hard to find. He demanded excellence and his students always rose to the occasion. To be a music student in the Smithtown schools from 1970-1976 with John Pinto in junior high and Larry Sobol in high school was a true gift and fills me with so many warm, and sometimes laugh out loud, memories. I am forever grateful for those experiences. Mr. Sobol may be gone from this earth, but he lives on in his colleagues, friends, family and untold numbers of music students.

We all have the memories…..I’m reflecting here…….please allow another story….I know I wrote already……Needing a teacher, I was a freshman at the High School of Performing Arts in Manhattan (1981). We had to perform annual juries and I needed to find a playable concerto. I went to Patelson’s Music House next to Carnegie to look at sheet music (after I met Prof. Sobol I went mostly to Frank’s Music). I found a playable concerto by Stamitz. I the looked for the LP. I found a recording with a clarinetist named Lawrence Sobol. I remeber the picture on the back was a black and white photo. I believe Prof. Sobol had a chain watch on across the vest and it just seemed old 🙂 . I told my HS teacher, another amazing mentor, Jonathan Strasser, that I found a piece and the clarinetist was amazing. I told him that the clarinetist’s name was Lawrence Sobol. Mr. Strasser said, “Larry Sobol? I went to MSM with him.” He gave me his contact information. I was extrememly nervous when I called him and asked for a lesson. Prof. Sobol said, “I’ll let you audition for my studio.” lol. I was a young punk from Brooklyn. I was like, damn this is serious. I got my dad to drive me to Dix Hills. I entered and Prof. Sobol put me in the “hot seat.” He sat behind his desk with a cigar in his mouth and said, “Play Oberle.” After I played a bit, he got up and sat next to me. He took my clarinet. He took the biggest breath I have ever seen and began playing my clarinet. When he finished, he slowly took the clarinet out of his mouth with that look…..(you all know what I mean :))) and said, “Your clarinet. Your mouthpiece. Your reed. You do it.” :)))
I remember the reed felt so much better following his playing it. It vibrated better. The whole reed was working. When I got home, I felt like a different player and person.
I am sure this has happened to many.
Sorry again for writing again….I may write many more times too… lol
Never Forgotten 🙂

Mr. Sobol shaped people’s lives through music. I will be ever grateful for his enthusiastic urging that we received as young musicians of the symphonic band to excel with each note played!

The practices for musicals, concerts, and field trips to NYC were unforgettable. We had the privilege to play Symphony No. 23 Ani by Alan Hovhaness. He will be fondly remembered.

Marty Jackson SHSE ’74

Larry Sobol was an absolute madman. His madness, though, was of an unconventional order; he was mad about music, about playing it and teaching it. He was a romantic, and found the romantic impulse everywhere. He even instituted a musical series, “The 20th Century Romantic,” which featured new music, music that would tax any imagination familiar with musical romanticism. Nonetheless, his was a larger than life soul with an ear for the soul of all kinds of music. As a conductor, his gyrations would make a Bernstein or Maher seem tame, and one such gesture caused his pant to fall down. As a private teacher, he demanded work. So many of us have fond memories of being struck about the head and torso as he taught how to parse a dotted rhythm, or how to solfege. He insisted on precision of technique and tone, for these were the rudiments for effecting beauty. He was uncompromising in every endeavor, and he imparted all his students with a sense that excellence was rare but worth achieving.

After he was my teacher, he became a friend. As he moved into the future with the rest of us, he became something of an elder statesman of music and education. And I smiled to learn how he befriended the Athletic Director. I remember I broke my finger just before NYSSMA, he said, “Calandrino, what did I tell you about those sports!!”

Larry could eat, and he ate like he played the clarinet, with panache and gusto. Somewhere between all that food and music was a fine man, if not a man for all seasons, certainly a man of a particular moment that betrayed a musical prodigy who had one foot firmly planted in the 20th century, and the other firmly in the 19th. This complex, romantic soul has left us, not alone, but with a rare ethics and values.

If music be the food of love, play on…

Mr Sobol was an incredible musician, educator and motivator. He challenged us to become better musicians and better people and to learn that with practice and endurance we could create something wonderful. As adults, so many of us continued on into the arts– be it vocation or avocation– I am most certain it had to with Larry. RIP Mr Sobol.

I was so very saddened to hear of Mr. Sobol’s passing. He was an extraordinary teacher and a refined, virtuosic musician, and I feel privileged to have been one of his students at Smithtown High School. Mr. Sobol (I’m sure he would want me to call him Larry, but I can’t), is the first person to introduce to me a world of music, and my first exposure to classical music: Wagner, Strauss, Mozart, Haydn, Rossini, Mahler, and more. Do my fellow Smithtown alumni remember performing, “Death And Transfiguration”? A heavy piece for a high school wind ensemble, let alone professional ensembles! I mention this piece because of his impassioned interpretation and meaning he explained to us, and sadly now has come to pass for him. But no matter what the music, Mr. Sobol put his heart and soul into each piece, and expected his students to do the same. So much passion! It’s no accident that so many of his students pursued music in college and beyond. It wasn’t until I was playing professionally, with students of my own, that I truly appreciated the accomplishment and skill he possessed. And the way he shared it with his students! As example, the premiere of the Hovaness Symphony 23, WITH the composer attending rehearsals in Smithtown, then getting to premiere the new Symphony at Lincoln Center. How many high schoolers experience that intensity? Mr. Sobol pushed me beyond the limits I thought were there. He did that with each student-he was very demanding, and pushed students because he saw their potential. At 16, he took me aside, to encourage me about my trumpet playing. “You should learn the Hummel Trumpet Concerto, it’s an important part of the repertoire”. When I told him it seemed a bit daunting, his response was quick and adamant, “You are ready—I know you can do this”. He wasn’t one you argued with! And he was right.
Sure some comedic moments come to mind: Missing some notes every now and then always led to some kind of Sobol-ism, that he would always deliver with a chuckle.
But it was his high standards, his adamant commitment to practice (and yes, long tones), and musicianship, that ultimately inspired me to continue my music education, and brief professional performance career. After landing a job in the music publishing field, I eventually moved to Los Angeles which led to a successful career in the movie business. Recently, as a member of a local community orchestra, we performed the Weber Clarinet Concerto. I thought of Mr. Sobol’s performance of this piece I recalled, and Martha and I did a google search to find it. It was there that we saw this obituary. Martha and I wanted to add our condolences to his family, and friends, and share the loss with our fellow Smithtown High School alumni.

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