Mr. Bennett (on Mr. Darcy to Lizzy)

"I could not have parted with you for anyone less."

Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

Lizzy (my 10-year friend who happens to possess the same lovely name) quoted this in her facebook message to me. I absolutely adore her. 

From my violin teacher

Dear Hannah,

I was delighted to hear from you and so sorry it took me such a long time to respond. I'm sure your senior year continues to be eventful. I hope playing is going well for you. You were a good student. If you ever want to come to Chicago for a single lesson, it would be fun to see you again. I really enjoyed working on the Bach and talking to you about literature. I've been reading Proust's "Remembrance of Things Past" which is a lengthy undertaking but it is really good. Remarkable descriptive language. Wish I could read it in French. ...

From Myra Patterson's email to me, November 12, 2010

Reading this made me happy like a child. I had wondered, assumed, convinced myself that my email got lost in the middle and that she never received it. But here is the reply I've been secretly waiting for for almost three months! I admired Myra for all the musician, reader, philosopher, and genuinely good person she was (and still do)--she let me see that yes, it is absolutely possible that you possess, master, and teach multiple arts at the same time. From her I learned more than how to train my ear to the right pitch, but also how to breathe Bach, peruse Forster, and laugh at the meaningfully funny jokes she would tell me. I came to her expecting to learn the forte, the staccato, the A minor but she taught me more than the technical. 

She told me she had her first violin lesson when she was eighteen, which was ten years ago. Her maturity of music is what still strikes me; her 10 years of practice is definitely worth more than the necessary 10,000 hours. People thought she'd never make it, but she did. The judge at her audition later sold his prized viola to her (very cheaply)--he was probably blown-away impressed by her audacity and hard work, felt bad that he dismissed her at her first audition, when, the very next year he sat next to her in the orchestra). 

November 20, 2010

David! I had fun not being afraid of you in my JRB song yesterday and thank you for your incredible music. You made me love it more as I listened to it, and in the middle of the song, I looked back at you to where you stood and I could see the brilliance of it all, behind and before and beyond me. And do you know what I love about your music? "To live a creative life we must lose our own fear of being wrong." --Joseph Chilton Pearce -- Your music is fearlessly created and creative. Oh, and happy belated birthday. I should give you a flying hug next time I see you.

Me, Facebook wall post to David Lin

So on Monday during our voice lesson, Mrs. Plambeck and I had a conversation instead of a song, and I think that was the best voice lesson I had this semester. Because we talked about music and the art of carrying that inside you. Because we talked about music that comes from the heart and not from the head, and making that music yours. And because she told me it's okay not to have found David in the audience--she told me there will come the perfect moment. I need not look for it. It will come to me first.