When your 2 year old takes 2 hot dogs at dinner, holds one to his chin and pretends the other is a bow, you say, “Oh, that’s so cute. He’s pretending to play the violin.” When he does the same thing with 2 pencils, you say, “Hmmm, I wonder where he learned that.” When he does it with 2 screwdrivers, you say, “I think this kid was meant to play the violin.”
Four years later, at the beginning of first grade, Sam started lessons. While he’s a typical kid and hates to practice as much as anyone, I really think he was meant to play the violin. He just gets it. [As a side note, Sterling started taking lessons about 18 months ago just before he started Kindergarten. I decided I’d take lessons right along with him. A friend picked me up a full-sized violin at a garage sale and Sterling and I practiced together everyday. Sterling, like Sam, just seems to get it. He gets such a beautiful sound from his instrument and has made amazing progress in the short time he’s been taking. Me? I quit after 6 months. It’s HARD!!! It made me feel guilty for all the times I was so hard on Sam. I had no idea how hard it is to play! I screeched and sounded awful from the start. I was not born to play the violin.]
Back to Sam — He’s now been playing for 6 years and recently played in 2 concerts with the University Orchestra. There is a program here where “the exceptional Middle School and High School students” are invited to practice and perform with the University Orchestra. It’s an amazing program and one we really appreciate, especially since there is no orchestra in the public schools in this area. Sam has loved orchestra, has learned a lot, and has played some very hard songs -including the 1812 Overture- since he started playing with them at the beginning of the Fall ’07 school year. Because it’s on the same night as church activities, he only participates one semester a year, but it’s an amazing opportunity.
The last concert he participated in was Fright Night where the orchestra is all dressed up in Halloween costumes and they play songs like the Theme from Harry Potter (Hedwig’s Theme) and Raider’s of the Lost Ark (those were in last year’s program) and Night on Bald Mountain and the Planets (this year). Sam was the young King Tut this year. Sam has had the opportunity to work with some very talented and devoted people through these experiences.
And to think it all started with a couple of hot dogs!