Michael Lisicky.
I love Mike Lisicky. As a librarian at Enoch Pratt’s Central Library, I’m used to seeing the match-fit BSO oboist and department store history buff make frequent stops in our Maryland and Periodicals departments – often fresh from a run and still clad in his running clothes (he runs 7-to-9 miles a day and has lost 90 pounds in the last 10 months) – to research his numerous books on local department store chains. He’s an endless bundle of energy with an ever-curious mind about just about everything, and even finds time for social media – for some reason he follows my Facebook postings (though he’s the interesting one, not me!). And though he’s a professional oboist, he’s a modest guy who never toots his own horn, despite all the accolades for his books and musicianship (though if you inquire, he’s more than glad to talk about running, department stores or music). So I was glad to see him get profiled in the weekend Sun, as featured below.
– Tom Warner (Baltimore Or Less)
Woodward & Lothrop: A Store Worthy of the Nation’s Capital’ is latest release
By Mary Carole McCauley (The Baltimore Sun, November 16, 2013)
Michael Lisicky’s department store books (Amy Davis, Baltimore Sun)
You might think of Michael Lisicky’s obsession with department stores as an orchestral tone poem for a single oboe: at turns plaintive and raucous, eloquent and funny, with unpredictable little swerves.
Lisicky is second oboist with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and also plays the English horn. Two of his main obsessions — and the 48-year-old Lisicky has many — are music and his dedication to tracing the history of the elegant emporiums of the past. His love for these grand old stores has become a kind of shorthand for his love of his fun and gregarious late mother, Anne.
Continue reading “BSO oboist Michael Lisicky’s books recall department stores of the past” at baltimoresun.com.
