MUSIC IN MY LIFE
Music has been part of my life since I was born because music is in my DNA. It runs in the family. My Swedish grandparents played piano and organ, banjo and mandolin. I would not be surprised if their ancestors were musical, too. Although I took violin lessons as a child, I had no one to play music with in the little farm town where I grew up. I cannot think of another child who was also trying to play violin.
My father taught me piano when I was learning violin since the clef is the same. Later, I asked to take piano lessons because I wanted to learn music that was "modern." By this, I meant songs that people my age, about 11 or 12, would enjoy hearing played on the piano.
My father hired a piano teacher, a serious and accomplished Swiss pianist. She arrived at the house and said, "I understand you want to learn modern music. I have brought you Bartok." Bartok is a favorite of many musicians, but sadly, he and his music never resonated with me. And that was the end of piano lessons.
When my father learned to play cello and found a string group to play with, the one instrument missing was the viola. So, my father acquired a viola for me to learn to play. A violinist named George Weigl showed me how to play it, explaining that the music was written in the alto clef, not the treble clef. George said that he knew I would have no trouble learning the alto clef. As a result, I had no trouble with it. I played with the group for two years and loved every minute.
Then I went to St. Margaret's Episcopal School for Girls in Waterbury, CT, and that was the end of music in my life.
Forty years later, I took up viola again. Ten years after that, I picked up the violin. Since then, I have friended anyone and everyone willing to play music with me. Playing a musical instrument is the most satisfying activity in life except for writing when the words spin a web around me so that I am in a timeless zone.
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