Reader post on classical guitarist Olen MacCutcheon

Just purchased the set. William Foden is mentioned. Did you ever encounter Olen MacCutcheon in Parkersburg W VA? Mac studied with Foden in Chicago one summer in the early 1900s. Foden came through Parkersburg as part of a vaudeville show. Mac was hooked on classical guitar after he heard Foden. Mac went to UC, degree in piano/violin. After hearing a NYC live broadcast of a chilean or argentine guitarist by name of Ogurayen (sp?) Mac jumped a freight train to NYC with his duffel and guitar. He found the guitarist and followed him around like a puppy dog until he condescended to teach him. Mac would go on to become a peer of segovia’s, met him in 28 (I think) and then blew segovia away in 1935 at sophocles papas’ studio in dc.

Segovia had shown up with a Bach prelude and fugue. Mac asked to see it, sat down and then played it as if he had played it all his life. Mac did not naturally have a photographic memory but developed by looking at one bar looking away, visualizing
it and then playing it until over time he could do an entire piece. In the mid 1970s an acquaintance I met had a friend who was there that day and had raved about Red MacCutcheon ever since. Segovia walked around muttering impossible all day. Mac was light years beyond segovia. Mac returned to parkersburg in the 1950s after a couple of heart attacks. He was teaching at his home and the Powell and Clark music store the last time I saw him in the late 1970s. Bill Powell and I were talking one day. Bill said he had wondered about Mac’s story with the Prelude and Fugue. Bill ordered Lauro’s’ Venezualen Waltzes that had just been published and showed up at Mac’s with the Waltzes. Bill said Mac took the book, looked thru it. Went back into the house and came out with his guitar. Bill said he then played every one of them as if he had played them all his life. Just before Mac met Segovia for the second time in 1935 he had spent about two years practicing scales and chords
at his grandfather’s farm in blackwater falls VA. Mac had thought he would never be good enough so went there to practice. In the late 70s a few of us went to hear Segovia perform in Columbus. We couldn’t get Mac to come with us. All he said was ‘I’d rather hear you guys play than listen to that old shit.’ Afterward we went offstage to pay homage to Segovia. After thanking him for the performance we asked if he remembered Red MacCutcheon, His face lit up with a huge smile and he enthusiastically nodded yes. That was a miracle since Segovia was known not to be kind to competitors.

Foden was the first great American Classical Guitaris. There was a woman ‘Evelyn ?’ (I think first name is correct, can’t remember the last name) who was the first great woman classical guitarist. Mac had studied with each of them.

Regards,
Tim