Arthur Jennings let his passion for music show.
Stefanie Acevedo, a former trombone student, said when he performed the trombone piece Berio’s “Sequenza,” which was written for a clown named Grock, Jennings dressed up as a clown.
The picture of Jennings dressed as a clown is now her Facebook profile picture, the 29-year-old said.
Arthur Jennings, a UF trombone professor, died Jan. 1 at the age of 71.
He died of Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, a cancer that attacks the immune system.
He was sick for a while, said Elizabeth Graham, a UF voice professor who was a friend and colleague of Jennings for 31 years.
Jennings started teaching trombone, euphonium, tuba and classes in music literature and music history at UF in 1985 and retired in Spring 2015.
He played trombone with the Ocala Symphony Orchestra, the Gainesville Chamber Orchestra and the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra.
He also performed in Sweden, Austria and China.
Acevedo said Jennings cared about his students. He painted his office lilac after reading that the color was calming, she said.
“He was that person that you could go to,” said Acevedo, who graduated from UF in 2008 with a degree in music composition. “There was a safe space in his office.”
When she heard he died, she said she immediately started calling friends.
“That night I couldn’t sleep,” said Acevedo, a music theory doctoral student at Yale University.
Outside the classroom, Jennings had friends among UF’s faculty, said Kevin Sharpe, a UF associate piano professor.
Sharpe said he started working at UF the same year Jennings did. They would practice their respective instruments in adjacent offices every morning.
Other faculty members had to remind them to be quiet.
He also said he remembers when Jennings met his wife, Debbie. They were both UF faculty members and didn’t realize they worked in the same building.
Sharpe said he played piano at Jennings’ wedding. It was the happiest he had ever seen him.
“It was really love at first sight for the two of them,” he said. “It was like he was looking for this person his entire life.”
Jennings loved to be surrounded by musicians, Sharpe said. He will never forget the smile Jennings had after seeing concerts.
A memorial concert for Jennings is being planned for this Spring and UF’s College of the Arts has established the Arthur Jennings Trombone scholarship in his honor, said Leah Spellman, the public relations and marketing manager for the College of the Arts.
Sharpe said there will never be anyone else like Jennings.
“He’s the best friend that I have ever had,” Sharpe said. “His picture will always be on my wall.”
Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@alligator.org and follow her on Twitter @k_newberg.
