Talented Children
Some events defy description. Even tiny ones. I was awakened about 6 am by one of the most astounding sounds I had ever heard. I leaped out of bed and ran into my six month old daughter Lisa's room and there she was on her stomach looking at me with a smile having just hummed "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" in the exact melody. When I relayed this incredible story to my friends they looked at me with a quizzical stare assuming I had just been released from a lunatic asylum because it was absolutely impossible for a six month old baby to hum anything in tune. But it did happen. It really did.
Her unusual talent carries me forward about ten years when Lisa was eleven. She was studying piano with Eleanor Statmore, an excellent pianist and a superb teacher. If you were ever as a child a piano or violin pupil you probably remember that every few months the teacher arranged "recitals" with her most promising students performing for an audience of appreciative and adoring family and friends. I wasa professional violinist and violist in those days and Eleanor and I had fun playing Mozart, Beethoven and the like for a select group of close family until some times, completely engrossed in our playing, we were still at it until two or even three in the morning. We usually stopped playing, grudgingly at times, when we were exhausted and realized what an ungodly hour it was.
Eleanor always asked me to play a special solo for her recitals as a special treat and my wife volunteered to accompany me in Fritz Kreisler's "Praeludium and Allegro", a standard encore selection for a violin recital. My wife and I earnestly practiced every day until we felt that the piece sounded well enough for an audience. I was the professional and my wife was an amateur but I have to add that she played a helluva good piano. I fully expected her to dutifully sit at the piano keyboard and accompany me. I could have been knocked over with a musical feather when Lisa sat down at the piano instead. Let me tell you friends this was no "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star".What I did't know that as soon as her mother finished practicing Lisa, who had been hiding and intently listening to every note, would rush in and emulate exactly what her mother had been playing. It was, needless to say a tremendous shock to me albeit a very pleasant one. Lisa and I displayed great sympatico considering that we had never played anything together before. I must add that my son, Brett, also a fine pianist in his own right, often played Mozart sonatas with me. I was blessed with two very talented children..
Some events defy description. Even tiny ones. I was awakened about 6 am by one of the most astounding sounds I had ever heard. I leaped out of bed and ran into my six month old daughter Lisa's room and there she was on her stomach looking at me with a smile having just hummed "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" in the exact melody. When I relayed this incredible story to my friends they looked at me with a quizzical stare assuming I had just been released from a lunatic asylum because it was absolutely impossible for a six month old baby to hum anything in tune. But it did happen. It really did.
Her unusual talent carries me forward about ten years when Lisa was eleven. She was studying piano with Eleanor Statmore, an excellent pianist and a superb teacher. If you were ever as a child a piano or violin pupil you probably remember that every few months the teacher arranged "recitals" with her most promising students performing for an audience of appreciative and adoring family and friends. I wasa professional violinist and violist in those days and Eleanor and I had fun playing Mozart, Beethoven and the like for a select group of close family until some times, completely engrossed in our playing, we were still at it until two or even three in the morning. We usually stopped playing, grudgingly at times, when we were exhausted and realized what an ungodly hour it was.
Eleanor always asked me to play a special solo for her recitals as a special treat and my wife volunteered to accompany me in Fritz Kreisler's "Praeludium and Allegro", a standard encore selection for a violin recital. My wife and I earnestly practiced every day until we felt that the piece sounded well enough for an audience. I was the professional and my wife was an amateur but I have to add that she played a helluva good piano. I fully expected her to dutifully sit at the piano keyboard and accompany me. I could have been knocked over with a musical feather when Lisa sat down at the piano instead. Let me tell you friends this was no "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star".What I did't know that as soon as her mother finished practicing Lisa, who had been hiding and intently listening to every note, would rush in and emulate exactly what her mother had been playing. It was, needless to say a tremendous shock to me albeit a very pleasant one. Lisa and I displayed great sympatico considering that we had never played anything together before. I must add that my son, Brett, also a fine pianist in his own right, often played Mozart sonatas with me. I was blessed with two very talented children..
