Fairy Pudding: A Personal Opera

Born in Florida in 1926, William Joseph Bryan has seen a good portion of the twentieth century, and writes accordingly of this experience. His is Emeritus Professor of Music at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, California where he has taught Music History, Appreciation and piano for 28 years. Pre-Stonewall riot saw him as Brain Jennings presenting a concert for ONE INSTITUTE in Los Angeles entitled: Music, The Hermaphroditic Art in 1964. Under this pseudonymn, various articles and photographs have appreared in early editions of The Advocate including two cover photo stories. He studied at The Juilliard School of Music, the Saint Louis Institute of Music with Leo Sirota, and as a Fulbright Scholar at the Conservatoire National de Paris, France. Bryan received his Master's Degree in Music Education at the University of Southern California. He traveled around the world during his sabbatical year from 1974 to 1975. He writers extensively about that in his memoirs: Fairy Pudding.

In the years before the Stonewall Riots brought the Gay Liberation Movement into the public spotlight, William J. Bryan was one of many gay artists struggling to pass as "normal" while remaining true to themselves. Mr. Bryan believes a composer of music psychologically composes in a hermaphroditic realm, as demonstrated in his lecture-recital entitled MUSIC: THE HERMAPHRODITIC ART, performed for ONE INSTITUTE. This lecture was an important contribution to the early gay movement and the complete text can be found in Appendix A.