Martha Potter Kim

As we continue to explore Earl Kim’s legacy and impact, artistic director Rachel Goodwin and I had the honor of interviewing Martha Potter Kim, Earl Kim’s widow. She is a retired violinist. On 11/09/2020, we spoke about Earl Kim’s life, Now and Then, and their work with Musicians Against Nuclear Arms.

 This interview has been edited for style.

Rachel Goodwin: Now and Then meant so much to me in my own life. The piece stayed with me when I heard the East Coast premiere back in the 80s. It felt like a piece that expressed something that was so hard to face and that the music expresses it in an incredibly poignant way.

Martha Potter Kim: As a matter of fact, when Earl finished writing it, it was the anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki. I asked Earl, “Are you aware of what today’s date is?” He found it a little surprising, but I didn’t find it surprising at all. I believe we are always aware of anniversaries. I think he responded to the imagery of small children because our daughter was about three years old at the time. 

During the war, Earl was in the central Pacific as a captain in the Army Air Force. When he saw the photographs of Hiroshima, they didn’t make any sense to him. He couldn’t understand it. When he heard that another bomb had been dropped, he ordered up a flight. He flew over Nagasaki. Nobody had told him anything about hazard or to stay away. I’m sure all of the people on that flight were injured—as was Earl. Those atomic injuries usually take about 50 years. He said that it was charred—that the Earth was charred—that there was nothing there. He had to go down a little further and a little further and eventually he said, “let’s get out of here.”

R: I remember the word “little” just stuck with me when I heard it.

M: Yes, “fair daffodils.”

R: Would you say that the experience of war was with him for his whole life? 

M: Yes, definitely. The whole experience of war was a trauma that he carried with him, as most people who experienced it did. I don’t think that enough attention is paid to the after-consequences of war for the people who are mobilized. 

Earl was not on the front lines but nevertheless, he narrowly escaped being shot several times. It was a particular hazard for him being an Asian person. Sometimes the American soldiers thought that he might be the enemy.

Nicholas Tran: I spoke to Anthony Brandt, one of Earl’s former students, a few days ago, and he told me stories about how Earl was mistaken for a spy and some of the prejudice that he faced. Despite all of that, Anthony told me that Earl seemed to keep a very positive outlook on life. 

R: I’m curious: Did you and Earl always feel supported by other musicians in your social justice work? 

M: Oh yes! We did! Basically, what Musicians Against Nuclear Arms (MANA) did was we would try to go into all of the major city orchestras and try to align with a major disarmament group such as American Friends Service Community. I know that the people in Berkeley were very active: They had a big gala and smaller concerts, raising money for quite some time.

R: How long did MANA exist? Does it still continue to this day?

M: It no longer exists. It really was the brainchild of Kathleen Houlihan. I don’t think there is any continuing organization for MANA. We ourselves did not have a budget. We worked out of the kitchen. This was right before Congress voted for the Nuclear Freeze. It’s always helpful when politicians come on board and support your cause.

R: What exactly was the Nuclear Freeze? 

M: Stop building nuclear weapons and stop assisting in their dissemination throughout the world. 

R: It’s a cause that we need to keep revisiting. I’m sure you know that we are closer to midnight than ever, according to the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. 

M: People are very resistant of recognizing this peril. They just do not want to believe it. 

R: I knew about this as a child, but I feel like the threat of nuclear weapons is even less in our minds than it was in the 80s.

M: Yes, that’s true. It has receded in the public eye—understandably, as we are more concerned right now with the on-going destruction of the environment. It’s become difficult to prioritize one’s causes, I suppose. 

N: I definitely grew up not thinking much about nuclear weapons. The education that I received seemed numb to the threat of nuclear war or that it seemed like nuclear weapons were inevitable. 

R: Maybe I’m optimistic, but I think this issue will come back into the public eye. 

M: I’m sure that it will. 

R: Joseph Gerson (President of the Campaign for Peace, Disarmament, and Common Security) and Ray Matsumiya (Executive Director of the Oleander Initiative) will be part of our salon event.

M: That’s wonderful. I’m sure Joseph will remember MANA or recognize the name. MANA was never part of American Friends Community. Each organization has their own responsibilities. 

R: We’re trying to bring this piece of music into high schools to teach students that a work of art can be a key gateway into processing a life-changing event and that maybe one day they can be the ones to write the poem or music. 

M: Well, we all have to hope that when those kids are adults, that we will have a better handle on this monster of nuclear destruction. The reality seems to be that it will be with us for a long time. 

R: Is there any message that Earl and you would give to young people?

M: I cannot speak for my husband. His music will speak for him now. He did say in a mood of lightness that “The world would be a much better place if people would just stay home and practice.”

R: I guess we’re being forced into that now!

M: And you could practice anything. It would be piano, meditation, working in a lab—whatever. 

R: Yes! I took “practice” to mean something in the global sense. 

N: I would love to know what it was like being married to a musician. I’m a composer and my fiancé is a horn player. How did your musical lives intertwine? 

M: We met because of music. I did a certain amount of coaching with him and eventually played a number of pieces by him. We played sonatas together quite a bit—occasionally piano four hands. 

R: You’re a pianist as well!

M: Well, I play the piano, yes, but I am not a pianist. With my generation, it seemed necessary to have some keyboard skills. 

R: Our soprano, D’Anna Fortunato, told me that she was required to do a half piano recital to graduate when she was in school. 

M: I love D’Anna! She’s great. Yes, I had to pass a piano requirement at Juilliard. 

R: I went to a conference about music and time at Harvard. There were several students of Earl’s who were speaking. They loved him so much as a teacher.

N: I definitely heard that Earl was very careful not to police people’s aesthetics. 

M: He wanted each of his students to write their own music. Nothing like his own. Earl’s music is sometimes tonal, sometimes atonal, maybe it’s a waltz, or maybe unmetered. It’s hard to make any type of generalization about Earl’s music. His choral songs are extremely tonal, but time doesn’t seem to exist in those songs. 

M: The testimony of the people who lived through the war and who saw it can really help us.

R: I think those concrete stories of real humans who were resilient and who tried to tell their stories to the world are so powerful. That’s one of the reasons why I am so grateful to Earl Kim. 

M: I think it’s safe to say that Earl would be delighted that his piece was helpful in this way. That’s saying a lot for him, because in general he did not believe in political music. As a general rule, he thought that the art has to speak for itself and reach some sort of truth that doesn’t require words.

R: The piece is beyond political. You can be compelled by it without even knowing the story.

M: Yes. That’s very true. I look forward to hearing this performance! 

N: Thank you so much for speaking to us today. It’s been an honor!

Rachel Goodwin is a pianist, artistic director, and the founder of Convergence Ensemble. She has received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, funding from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and was named Artist/Humanist Fellow in 2002 by the City of Boston. She holds degrees from the New England Conservatory and the Mannes School of Music.

Nicholas Tran is a composer and Convergence Ensemble’s Administrative-Operations Manager. He earned his Bachelor’s of Music in Composition at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee. His collaborators have included the JACK Quartet as part of the National Sawdust 2020 New Works Commission and the Mivos Quartet.