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| Josie Fitzpatrick...one of my all time greatest finds now co-principal in Barcelona |
The first year was horrible. It seems that the orchestra was mainly an offshoot off the local Suzuki program - a good and strong one - but at the first rehearsal it was obvious that most of the kids couldn't read music or read it properly....that not being the Suzuki method. All fine and good but it was an awful experience.
I went out recruiting musicians to kinda balance things out. I got lucky. Very lucky.
About 10% of them went on to stellar musical careers. They were the best kids I've ever known. I measure them against all...and not fairly to the "others".
I think of this, this snowy evening, temperature a zero, reminding me of my last year with these magnificent people in 1978.
From all told, these and the others, the 300 or so who passed past me in those 5 years (some, lucky for me for years on end), have done well for themselves and all that I have run up against have reported to me the value of that experience.
How blessed can one person be? To think that these kids went on to Barcelona, Atlanta, Duke, Tennessee, ...the list is endless....omg...to my death's day, I can't be as thankful as I am this precise moment.