Musicum Rex

Rex Levang, Classical MPR's Music Director, is retiring after 30 years at Minnesota Public Radio. Some of Rex's colleagues share their favorite stories about the charming man with the indefatigable love of music.

Lynne Warfel

Rex is one of the first people I met when I started at MPR in 1993. As many will have noted, no doubt, Rex has encyclopedic knowledge of opera and recorded classical music, but he is also an aficionado of classic TV and a good laugh. Rex and I shared a lot of laughs as we discovered our mutual admiration of classic, old-time funny people: Jack Benny, The Marx Brothers, Warner Brothers cartoons and Rocky and Bullwinkle.

Over the past 22 years, I'll pass through the library, thinking Rex is unaware of my presence, when suddenly from his office will come the one-liner, "You're not the ONLY Jack in the world, you know!" from an ancient Jack Benny Christmas show, or "Take out a Hungadunga and put in a windshield wiper. (Marx Brothers).

Non sequiturs. Those insider, funny lines shared between old friends. I'd always crack up. Funny guy, our Rex. Ask him about the old Alka Seltzer commercial featuring the Katzenjammer Kids. He's got it down word perfect.

John Zech

Rex and I were both born on Nov. 5 — Guy Fawkes Day in Britain. Our former colleague, Craig Curtis, was born on that day, too. So in the tradition of the annual Sherlock Holmes breakfast celebrated by Baker Street Irregulars on Holmes's birthday (Jan. 6), we would try to have a "Guy's" breakfast as close to our birthdays as we could. I sometimes refer to us as "The Three Guys. Rex is Guy 1.

Rex majored in German at Columbia University, where he would sometimes hang out with fellow undergrad, Jim Jarmusch, the indie filmmaker. Rex has more than a nodding acquaintance with a number of languages, especially insofar as they appear in opera lyrics. If you start speaking with him about an opera, he might just sing a bit of an aria or a chorus in Russian, Italian, French or a few other tongues. (I believe he has done a new translation of the libretto for Der Rosenkavalier for Naxos or other label.) Rex's knowledge of opera is so vast that he was once a panelist on the Metropolitan Opera Quiz.

A typical example of a conversation with Rex goes like this: A story in the news reminds him of a quote from Sherlock Holmes, or we might start the conversation about the revival of interest in traditional martial arts, such as "bartitsu" and "single-stick fencing" (both skills that helped Sherlock Holmes in his own fights). That could lead us to Bertie and Jeeves … to "Goodbye, Mr Chips" and the English pronunciation of Latin (e.g. "vicissim" as "we kiss'em") … to the use of "Vivat!" in Perry's anthem "I was glad."

Jay Gabler

Rex is an encyclopedia of knowledge about music as well as about the people who write it, play it and record it. Despite his busy workload, Rex has always been happy to take time to talk with me and share his thoughts on the topics we're covering for the website, and his contributions have inspired or improved many stories. He's always musing on ideas to help us connect with our audience in new ways, and though I'm still relatively new to MPR, I can appreciate the magnitude of Rex's legacy.

Luke Taylor

Rex and I started working together back in 2005; at that time, Minnesota Monthly magazine had a content section created by MPR, and each month included a department called Recommended Listening. Every other month, it was Classical's turn to recommend a CD or a group of recordings. Rex always had such wonderful ideas, I started referring to the feature as "Rex-ommended Listening."

But the best part was getting to talk about classical music with Rex; his love for the music is so palpable. The way he talks about it, the way he hums a snippet of a tune or sings an opera, the distinct way he pronounces "piece" when referring to a piece of music … his fervor and respect for the music is really catching. And it's all done without attitude or affect, but instead with a friendly gee-willikers Midwestern affability and a heaping helping of humor. When I moved to the Digital Music team in 2013, I was delighted to be able to talk to Rex about music many times every week. I'm really going to miss working with him every day, and I wish him every happiness in retirement.

Elena See

Picture it: A scared 22-year-old. Fresh out of college. No idea what's she doing when she lands an intern gig at a little something called A Prairie Home Companion. Lo and behold, the working world is wonderfully appealing. That internship turns into a full-time job with Minnesota Public Radio as a production assistant for PHC. Jump ahead a few months … and turns out, there's a staff talent show. Young intern also happens to be a clarinetist, just like the music librarian for PHC. The two decide to do a duet at the talent show. Enthusiastically received, most especially by CMPR's fabulous music director, Rex Levang. Not only does he make it a point to hunt down shy clarinetist in the PHC offices, he's quite complimentary about her performance. One of the highlights of that year, most assuredly.

Flash forward. Eight years later (or thereabouts). PHC production assistant is now applying for a job with C24. During her interview, she sits down with Rex to talk about music programming. First thing he says? "Elena! Do you still play the clarinet? That was a wonderful performance you and Kathryn gave at the talent show back in your PHC days." In the midst of a rather stressful (read: totally frightening and daunting) day, Rex Levang offered a moment kindness and support.

And that's Rex: he's kind, supportive, a genuinely wonderful person whose ability to remember the little things makes him special and important to anyone who is lucky enough to get to know him.

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