Inspiring the Violinist in Us

I recently posted on BlogHer about how my family and I were inspired to learn the violin.  I’ve also posted here about how I first got sucked into became reacquainted with the violin.  The BlogHer story ends where inspiring the violinist in us has come full circle. 

My mother-in-law’s friend had once played the violin quite proficiently as a youth.  Now at 80 years of age, he hadn’t picked up a violin in forty years.  At a get together, I urged him to try my violin.  After a couple minutes, he was able to play a Danny Boy with beautiful vibrato.  He even became choked up over how much he missed the violin.

This occurred about a year ago (drafts are forever languishing at mommy bytes) and here is the rest of that story.  I had come to a family get together in February last year, and was planning to visit with my fiddle friend afterward to try yet another one if his fiddles.  I brought my own violin inside to keep it out of the cold. I had no intention of taking it out, as I had yet to perform in front of them.

My mother-in-law’s friend, RUP, kept asking me about it, telling stories of his glory days as a violinist.  I kept urging him to try mine out, but he refused until he heard me play first.  Finally, I took it out and performed the Thomas Gavotte from “Mignon” from Suzuki Book 2.  This was after less than six months of lessons and no expectation of having to perform it.  I played it passably enough (darn accidentals!) to garner applause from the family.  Then RUP picked it up.  At first, he had trouble placing his fingers, but once he found the notes, his fingers reflexively started to vibrato, and incredibly beautiful sounds came out.

RUP was so moved by holding and playing the violin again that he vowed to have his violin repaired so he could pick it up again.  I received a thank you card from my mother-in-law, where she specifically thanked me for inspiring her friend.

Angela - you have inspired RUP to have his violin repaired. He told me he had a "great time" at the party which he has never said before and he thanked me for inviting him.

Wow, I guess it did leave an impression.  About a month later, I received some sheet music in the mail with this letter.

The duet with RUP has not come to pass, but we’ve had many duets and more with the kids.  I might even dare to say that they actual enjoy playing with me.  Now if I can only get these darn posts out of draft, you’ll see what I mean.

Chamber Music with Falling Leaves

I recently posted on BlogHer about Introducing Kids to Classical Music.  Our children have been taking piano and violin lessons for some time now, so they are quite familiar with the music. But they have never attended a classical music concert.  I grew up attending classical music concerts, ballet, and the like, and always remember falling asleep at those events. It wasn't until I was a teenager that I really began to appreciate them.  So was it too early to think about taking the kids at ages 10 and 7 to a classical music concert?  It hadn't really dawned on me to take them until our violin teacher suggested that we see one to watch the technique of the violin players.



Our first opportunity came in form of a Groupon to see the Worcester Chamber Music Society. Sadly, many of our family activities come in the form of a Groupon like last summer, but heck, it works for us.  When we asked the kids to join us for this very adult program featuring contemporary works by South American composers, Adam refused but Dova was game because she got to dress up.  Not wanting to "force" him to attend, we set him up with a babysitter and ventured out with our precocious seven-year-old.

PIAZZOLLA                    Four for Tango
GOLIJOV                       How Slow the Wind & Lua Descolorida
VILLA-LOBOS                 Duo for violin & viola
                                  Assobio A Jato
GINASTERA                   String Quartet No. 1

Maria Ferrante, soprano; Tracy Kraus, flute; Krista Buckland Reisner and Rohan Gregory, violins; and Peter Sulski, viola
With Guest Artists Gabriela Diaz, violin and Jan Müller-Szeraws, cello

The concert performance was phenomenal. Doug and I thoroughly enjoyed the music which included wild techniques on the violin as well as a theme based on the open strings of guitar. The music in the program was new to all of our ears, but the musicians made it quite accessible.

We allowed Dova to bring a bag with quiet activities such as drawing in case she got bored. Dova was attentive, thoughtful and quiet through most of the performance.  She even bopped her head around during the rhythmic portions of the program.  The only time she took out her Hello Kitty notebook was to write about what she was doing and compose a poem for school.

"today I am at the chaber music concert. tomorrow we might go to the corn maze. On monday I have computer. I have to write a poem that has words that spell Fall. I am going to write Fun jumping in the leaves. all the fun is in  fall. Leaves fall red yellow and orange. liveing in the fall. I hope we go apple picking tomorow"

Sure enough, we did go a corn maze and apple picking the next day (which I posted about one day later instead of 5+ months).  And Dova created her Falling Leaves poem in Computer class the following day.

After the concert, there was a reception with the musicians.  If it had been Adam, he would have sulked behind us not wanting any attention drawn to him.  But the musicians and audience members alike all gravitated towards Dova, exclaiming how well-behaved and grown-up she was.  She smiled and spoke  clearly to everyone with grace and charm.  I explained that she was learning the piano and violin, which served not embarrass her, but to hold her head up high.  It was a proud parent moment to have their child carry herself so well.

Many years ago, I met Yo-Yo Ma's daughter Emily when she was about 10 years old.  I was amazed at how precocious and well-spoken this young lady was.  I thought that someday I would be very pleased and proud have a child like this. This day has come. We love you Dova! You can be an handful, but you more than make up for it with moments like these.