Arne Döpke

I remember hearing about Christopher long before I met him, which was during the late 90s. At the time, I was Purple’s voice teacher and lived just down the street from the McMullen-Laird family. I taught quite a number of Steiner School students and Christopher’s reputation definitely preceded him! He had been described to me…

From day one I met Chris back in 2017, he was all about unconditional giving and help to everyone around him. He organized practice sessions for the conducting module to help those with no previous experience, asking for nothing in return. He was one of these people who spill positivity on you with the simplest…

Christopher – or Zeke, as we called him at Dartmouth – and I became dear friends in college despite never having taken a single class together. We have always shared a love of languages and as undergraduates, we had a common (and very lucrative!) side job as teaching assistants for introductory French and German courses….

Passing along this memory on behalf of Bill Summers’s, Zeke’s Senior Fellowship advisor at Dartmouth: A great shadow has darkened the sky.  The birds have begun their silent mourning.  They sense the powerful moment of someone’s passing.  Nature knows another spirit has retired from the earth, and we who remain behind veil our faces as…

Immortality is surely what is left of us in the thoughts and memories of others. Christopher, you will truly live forever in all those you touched with such humanity.

I only knew him for a brief few weeks as he culminated his time at Dartmouth College in NH. I was lucky enough to be part of his Mozart Requiem project, through which his charisma, talent, passion for music and conducting, and unflinching ambition shone brightly. He had the voice of an angel! When we…