Being a professional music teacher for twenty-five years, I could cite countless examples of how classical music has transformed lives, beginning with my own. Famous examples abound from around the world--like the Harlem Boys Choir, to
Venezuela’s well known youth orchestras started by José Antonio Abreu’s program
El Sistema to the work of the dynamic, charismatic conductor Gustavo Dudamel. Our collective work has not just kept alive what some think to be a dusty old art-form; it has literally transformed the lives of millions of young people.
As a child, my mother flooded our home with the sounds of classical music. Everything from an album entitled The Top Fifty Most Beloved Classical Melodies to more “serious” pieces like Mozart, Beethoven and Tchaikovsky symphonies inspired and astounded me. I sensed the immense, description-defying power of that music and realized instinctively of its unique greatness.
By age ten, I knew I’d found my life’s passion. I began to teach myself how to play the piano, with a few hints from my uncle, an amateur pianist. I used my modest skills to play hymns and offertories for my church’s weekly services. But quickly my interest went back to classical music, the music that uplifted me from my earliest memories. By high school, I was still very small and never excelled at sports, but academics were my strength, and music became my salvation. I acquired my first real music teacher in eleventh grade and it took hours a day to achieve any degree of proficiency.
Above all, music gave me an identity and a life-long challenge. No longer did I have to be bullied because I couldn’t throw a football or catch a baseball. I could hold my head high around my fellow students, knowing that I was respected for my music, admired for a notoriously difficult skill few others had acquired.
After formal university music studies, eventually acquiring Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Piano Performance and a Ph.D. in Musicology, studying piano with the world-renowned concert artist Ivan Davis, I knew with confidence I could make a living teaching others the art of playing the piano. Not only that, I knew I could teach young people something even more important: developing a passion in their lives, giving them a sense of achievement from week to week--and even in many cases, a sense of self-confidence and identity that would last a lifetime, overcoming any other possible short-comings they may feel they possessed. What could be more rewarding? Even now, my passion for classical music resounds stronger than ever--as is my desire to spread its appreciation to the next generation.
When I wrote my novel Dr. Fuddle and the Gold Baton, I had two basic aims in mind. First, I wanted to entertain young readers in a fast-paced, enjoyable fantasy, making them feel as though they’d actually been in Orphea with Dr. Fuddle and the young heroes and fought the battle to reclaim the Gold Baton. Secondly, I wanted to pique their interest in classical music and demonstrate its transformative powers.
My overall dream is that we, as musicians and music educators all over the world join together, using music to change the lives of young people--that we continue, as a united front, our global movement to transform the lives of children, many of whom are trapped in cycles of poverty and despair. I can hope nothing more than to provide the youth of the world an escape from the challenges of their lives and from the trouble and temptations that surround them daily, inspiring them to aspire toward beautiful and meaningful goals--something higher and nobler than they ever dreamed possible.
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