We are sad to report that Milton Scheuermann, Jr., co-host of Continuum, our program of early music, passed away peacefully in his sleep on Thursday evening, May 16. He was 91 years old.
A true New Orleanian, Milton was born in 1933 on Mardi Gras day, attending P. A. Capdau Grammar School and Warren Easton High School. After completing the five year program of the Tulane School of Architecture, he was drafted into the Army in 1956. After a two year stint in the combat engineers in Germany, he returned to New Orleans to work with the architectural firm of Goldstein, Parham & Labouisse, becoming an associate in the firm of Parham & Labouisse after Mr. Goldstein’s death. He was appointed University Architect for Dillard University in 1972 and retired from that position in 2002.
Milton was a faculty member at the Tulane School of Architecture for 56 years, retiring in 2015 as Adjunct Professor of Architecture. He taught courses in drawing, photography, calligraphy, visual presentations and two courses that he designed himself; Architecture & Music and Architecture & Mysticism. Both courses involved his passions for music and magic.
A passion for music
Milton taught piano since he was an 8th grade student at Capdau School. He studied piano for 16 years with Gordon Kirst, pianist at the original Roosevelt Hotel. Milton joined the New Orleans Friends of Music in 1955, as a member and later, as President. While in Germany with the combat engineers, he frequently performed as a pianist, and he also bought a Renaissance style recorder. After returning to New Orleans he began playing in a recorder ensemble, the Woodvine Recorder Consort, started by the then new South African Council General, Vere Stock. His growing love for early music culminated in the formation of New Orleans Musica da Camera in 1966; the ensemble is now the oldest surviving medieval and early music organization in the United States.
Ten years later, in 1976, Milton released the first broadcast of Continuum, an enduring radio program on Musica da Camera that airs on Sundays at 6 a.m. on 89.9 WWNO and 8 p.m. on Classical 104.9. Along with his co-host, Thais St. Julien, Continuum has produced over 2,000 programs. Though it has been in repeats since 2017, at 48 years, Continuum is the longest-running early music radio program in America, if not the world. The program has been a winner of the Early Music America/Millennium of Music National Radio Competition, and received the KXMS Fine Arts Radio International Award.
Equal to his passion for early music (particularly medieval and early Renaissance) was his passion for the music of Richard Wagner. He was an expert on Wagner with a deep knowledge of all of the composer’s operas, both German texts and scores, knowing all of them from memory. While still in high school, he taught himself German so that he could understand Wagner's librettos.
A passion for magic
Milton’s third great passion was magic, as a performing art. He was a member of the Knights of Slights, and former officer of local chapters of the Society of American Magicians and the International Brotherhood of Magicians. Mentalism was his specialty, with his performances often leaving audience members more than a little uneasy about the transparency of their thoughts.
Remembering Milton
Milton is survived by his loving wife Margie Tucker Scheuermann.
All friends are invited to attend visitation services at noon on Friday, May 24, 2024 at the Lake Lawn Metairie Funeral Home, 5100 Pontchartrain Blvd. in New Orleans, followed by service at 1:00 pm. A reception will be held following the service. Donations in Milton's memory should be made to Tulane School of Architecture's RMH Renovation Fund - Richardson Memorial Hall, 725 Howard Ave., New Orleans, LA 70130 or to New Orleans Friends of Music, 5500 Prytania St., P.O. Box #402, New Orleans, LA 70115.