Your First Time…. Cuatro!
We love hearing from long-time members, but I’ll bet there are a few new ones from our recent drive out there who have some great ‘first time’ stories! If you’ve just discovered the WBJC Newsletter, we asked our readers in April to write in about their earliest musical experience and how it affected the music fan they are today. Please comment below, or use the “Contact Us” link above to tell us all about it!
Member and volunteer Paul Heffron of Alexandria, VA writes:
When I was a young boy I loved watching and listening to my mother play the piano.It fascinated me to the point where I wanted to learn to play also. Back in the days when grocery stores had long play records where you would get one every week, I remember my dad coming home with the first volume of “The World’s Greatest Music.” It opened up a whole new chapter in my life and my destiny to become a professional musician. At first I wanted to become a conductor. As I listened to these records, I would often conduct using one of my Tinker Toy sticks.
I was born in Boston and went to my first Boston Pops concert at age nine. I was enthralled to not only be able to hear the music but to see all of the instruments playing right before my eyes! I was also taken to the Boston Symphony Youth Concerts and found that I especially liked piano concertos. This was the beginning of my serious decision to study music, especially the piano.
After graduating from high school, I went to the Boston Conservatory where I majored in piano and music education. Since those days I have had a very rewarding career in bringing the beauty of music to many people around the country knowing that music can touch hearts in a very special way.
A member from Towson, MD writes:
I remember going to many performances of the Doyle Carte in New York when I was little. I always fell in love with the tenors. I wrote Thomas Round a fan letter. My mom said I had to tell that I was ten in the letter or he would think the I was some kind of a nut. I got a signed photograph.
I learned many of the songs. I could sing I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major General at top speed. I remember a lot of the songs fifty years later. I don’t think I got that the operettas were satires. I am sad that there is no more Doyle Carte. It got to be in my blood, so to speak.