I soon became inspired by his combination of academic smarts and musical talent. It was really great, though, how we both seemed to really connect on certain elements of humor and music. Fooling around at rehearsal, one of us would invariably break into Harry Connick, Jr.'s "We are in Love" and the other would pick up the horn parts. For us, Harry was coolness personified. And then there was the "nuttin'." As in "You got nuttin', baby, nuttin'!" [Robert DeNiro as Al Capone in "The Untouchables", yelling to Kevin Costner's Eliott Ness upon learning of Ness's singleminded campaign to put the gangster behind bars, "You got nuttin'. You ain't got da bookkeeper, you got nobody! You got nuttin'!"] With characteristically silly generic male banter, each of us jabbing a finger at the other's chest, you got nuttin' baby! It was our greeting.

Our shared sense of what was giggly funny continued as we baritoned our way into the Paul Hill Chorale. Once, a couple of years ago during a dress rehearsal of Bach's B Minor Mass, one of the altos raised her hand to ask a question of guest conductor Richard Westenberg. "Don't you want two distinct 't's' on the et tibi, as in 'et [space] tibi?" Westenberg responded in his slightly bemused way, "Well, do you go to the vendor at lunchtime and say 'I'd like a hot dog please.'?" I turned around to smile at Tony; he was already laughing. After that, whenever a similar situation arose during rehearsal Tony and I would look at each other across the rows, smile, and mouth the words "'I'd like a hot dog please." Just last evening at rehearsal, the Chorale was working on Haydn's Te Deum and came across the words fac cum. Maestro McCullough stated that he wanted only one consonant "c" sound. Instinctively I looked up to find Tony's smile, and my own quickly vanished. The poignancy of loss continues even as we celebrate his life.

My wife Deena had called Richard Hsu earlier that day. She told him that I was in the market for a new tux and asked him if he knew where I could get a good deal on one. When I saw Richard last night with a tuxedo on a hanger, I knew immediately whose it was. An eerie feeling came over me. "Try the jacket on", Richard said, "I think it's your size." Well, it did fit nicely and I will wear it. It will be my honor.

Oh thank you, I'm glad you like it. This once belonged to Tony Went. He was my friend.