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Music
is the single most important touchstone of my life, and has
always been, since my beginnings at the piano (classical) and as
a boy soprano in a gospel quartet that sang on the radio in
Natchitoches, Louisiana every Sunday morning. Later, as a
Marine, I took violin lessons in Barstow, California, where I
spent the last year of my four-year enlistment.
The
bandmaster saw me one day walking and carrying my violin, and
stopped to invite me into the Marine Band, Barstow. (No, there
were no violins in the marching band! -- it's just that, since I
was able to read music, he knew he could teach me a band
instrument -- two really: saxophone and flute).
After
my years in the Marines, I continued actively in music
performance in college, in both instrumental and choral
organizations. I have not been active in the past few years in
performance, but continue to listen actively to music of all
sorts.
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