I had such fun this afternoon at the state music teacher’s convention in Madison. I received a call late this summer from a woman whose son (about to be a high school sophomore) had been chosen as one of just twenty exceptional young musicians from across the state to perform on a special showcase recital during the teacher’s convention. She was calling to see if I would somehow be able to play for him. Actually, I’m embarrassed to say that she probably had to call five or six times before I finally got around to responding – and mainly out of guilt for being so unresponsive, I said Yes. In fact, come to think of it, I don’t think I EVER got around to calling her back. We eventually crossed paths at a performance in Racine, and when she came up and very nicely introduced herself, I tripped over myself apologizing and in the same breath agreed to play for her son. It felt like the least I could do. Also, it would give me an excuse to get over to Madison where I could visit Dad and Sonja, which was long overdue, and if Kathy ended up going as well, it would be yet another miniature vacation for us – which seems to be all we can manage these days. Anyway, I said Yes.
And I am SO glad I did ! This young man, Will, is an extraordinarily talented euphonium player -and also one of the nicest young men I think I have ever met – and playing for him has been an undiluted pleasure. First of all, it’s always a treat to make music with a crackerjack musician because you feel like you emerge from the collaboration having gained something in the transaction, and I don’t mean the paycheck. There’s just a tremendous energy that emerges when two musicians grab hold of a challenging piece of music and light a fire with it – and it’s even better when one is appreciated as warmly as I’ve been appreciated in this collaboration. So this is one case where a slightly reluctant ‘yes’ proved to be exactly the right answer to the query.
The recital in Madison was an intriguing mix. The organizers had (I believe) hundreds of potential young musicians to choose from (that would be everyone who earned this special Exemplary award at the most recent state contest.) Obviously, they can’t invite everyone to be in this special recital – and they are also anxious that the program be a nice mix of various instruments and voices. I’m pretty certain that they also want a mix of schools represented, which is why there were plenty of students from small towns. (If it had been the Best of the Best, then probably there would have been a much heavier representation of larger schools- and there was not.) So they go for variety, but with the hope that true excellence will be demonstrated by all.
And everybody in fact did well – at least the soloists did. The accompanists, I’m sorry to say, were a more varied lot and one woman played Handel as though sight-reading while wearing the wrong glasses. . . and a guy played “Dancing through Life” from Wicked with all the grace of a cement mixer. It’s a bit catty of me to be so critical, but it frustrated me terribly to see these fine young musicians saddled with accompanists who were far more hindrance than help. Of course, in the interest of full disclosure, I should confess that I butchered the opening notes of the accompaniment that I was playing – which is supposed to be a sequence of three simple octaves, but two of which ended up being major sevenths instead. Somehow, my finger just weren’t quite where they were supposed to be, but fortunately I had my act together by the second measure.
And from there- young Will and I hit a grand slam home run. He played this piece better than he had in any of our rehearsals – and he did so even after following the finest musician of the afternoon, a violinist who played the opening movement of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto without music and with impeccable musicality. I think a lot of young musicians might have gotten up on that stage feeling intimidated and cautious after that – OR pushing too hard to be just as impressive and instead getting themselves into trouble. But no, Will took that stage as though it had been built for him – and he played with dazzling assurance from beginning to end. And I just felt lucky to be on that stage with him, helping to make it happen.
At the end of the recital (Will was second from the end) all ten musicians were asked to stand for a final round of applause – and I was so struck by how young and small Will looked next to the other nine . . . and it made me even more pleased that he played as splendidly as he did. And I strongly suspect that there is a lot of well-deserved applause in this young man’s future.
pictured: GB and Will performing on the recital in Madison. Kathy was in the audience, which also included Will’s proud parents and his middle school teacher, John Nepper.