I was just thinking about one of my early violin teachers, and was shocked to discover that she passed away just last month. I studied with Laura in the 1980s for probably 4 years, and she was a major influence on me as a musician, violinist, and just as a person.
There’s a thing that happens almost every day when I’m practicing. As I move through scales and etudes, little bits of memory will bubble up and it’s as if all my teachers are chiming in at various points. They’ll comment on my bow arm, or my intonation, or my vibrato. I’m pretty sure I owe my vibrato to Laura.
I’m also reminded of this wonderful line from the play I’m in right now, Jessica Dickey’s Charles Ives Take Me Home:
…the people we know in life
If we go about things the right way
Are like instruments we can pick up and play
Whenever we want.
Whenever we need.
You can come back to this at any time.
I knew Laura when we were both studying at Lawrence University in the late 70’s. I have a vivid memory of her during an orchestra rehearsal when we were rehearsing Wagner’s Die Meistersinger Overture. There is a wonderful fugal passage just before the piece winds up to its brilliant conclusion where the second violins are playing a beautiful counter melody to the “Prize Song” melody. I can still see Laura with her long hair, jeans and hiking boots gently swaying to the music. She was so in the moment and in touch with the spirit of the music that I admit I developed a crush on her. I was a first term freshman and she was, I believe a sophomore. A wonderful gentle spirit who’s image I recall every time I perform that overture.
Wow, Frank, thank you for that wonderful memory! I wondered if she and MT had somehow known one another at Lawrence (they didn’t) but of course you knew her.