Celebrating Sam

Tim and I are down in Philadelphia today to attend the memorial service for our dear friend Sam.The Broad Street Review has a short piece by Kile Smith, one of Sam’s former students, called “Samuel Hsu: A Polymath’s Giant Shadow.”

From the essay:

“Sam was the most ‘in’ the world and least ‘of’ the world of anyone I know. That quality rendered him exotic in evangelical Christian circles— this concert pianist, this Philadelphia Orchestra lecturer, this colleague of world-famous scholars. I suspect it also made him exotic everywhere else— this Bible-study leader, this Presbyterian elder, this Christian summer music camp teacher.”

Sam was indeed an extraordinary human being–extraordinarily loving, gracious, kind, and humble. We will miss him. I would not be surprised if there are literally thousands who will miss him.

I was going to post a video of Sam playing, but since I can’t watch any of them without bawling, I’m posting this video of the great pianist Van Cliburn playing Schumann’s Widmung, which Sam played at our wedding 8 years ago. Listening to this piece makes me cry, too. But it’s not as hard as actually listening to (or watching) Sam play.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qh2_8zFoOXM&feature=related

{See also Sam’s NYT obit}