RIP David Sanjek

Today we were informed of the untimely death of a colleague of mine Prof. David Sanjek who passed away at the New York airport. Like many others, I was terribly saddened by this news.

Last time when I met David was at the screening of the Korean movie Shi (Poetry) at the Cornerhouse. After the screening, we were chatting about the outstanding performance of the lead actress and how lots of complicated emotions and events were smoothly pieced together, but our conversation was shortened because I needed to catch train home. I had no idea then, and still can’t believe that it would be the very last time I spoke to David.

Every time when I met him on the street (for example this summer at the Piccadilly station when he just came back from the United States, many times on the Adelphi Campus), he always smiled and warmly greeted me. He was a loner, but showed absolute passion for his work on popular music. He had so many ideas for book projects. Since he is a research professor, his remit did not include teaching. However, earlier this year, I had the privilege of inviting him to give a guest lecture to my now 3rd-year CVG students about copyrights and IPRs in media industries. Students loved his enchanting, biographical way of introducing this sometimes boring and complicated topic (about digital midi technologies, sampling, law and music business) – what a story teller. A talented Greek student Markela even made a portrait of him when he was speaking, and gave that painting to him after his lecture. He was absolutely delighted, I recalled. How sad that this intelligent and nice man has now left us.

Rest in peace, David – you will definitely be missed.