Stephen Cleobury, former director of music at King’s College, Cambridge, died November 22 in York, UK, his home since he retired in September, after a long illness. He was born in Bromley, in Kent County in southeast England, on December 31, 1948.
“These people will be your friends for life,” Karel Paukert pronounced to his organ class at Northwestern University in the mid-1970s. Looking around, we students likely smirked, unable to imagine this motley crew being lifelong friends. Almost exactly fifty years later, on November 17, 2023, many of those former students along with colleagues, family, and church members gathered to celebrate Karel’s life of teaching, leading, and performing.
