I have Lou Gehrig's disease. it's a rare variant, because I'm still alive, 12 years after diagnosis!
I spend a lot of time in the past.
One of the beauties of this disease is that no one can do anything to you anymore.
I think I will share some old dreams that never came true.
When I was a kid, I wanted to pursue a BM/MM at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY.
I wanted to study clarinet with Stanley Hasty.
I wanted to study theory and composition with Howard Hanson.
I wanted to study conducting with Frederick Fennell and Donald Hunsberger.
I wanted to play in the Eastman Wind Ensemble.
Never let other people take away your dreams. It's like getting murdered.
I finally got to The University of Rochester, the home of the Eastman School of Music, in 1981. I was a newly-minted Organic Chemistry Ph. D.
I was doing a post-doc, a stopover on the way to burial in Big Pharma. I was also an alcoholic. Classical Music was in the fuzzy distant past.
I worked for this guy. He's a highly respected academician. He thought I was a hack. I thought he was a jerk. I taught myself what I needed to learn. Deja-vu all over again.
I never saw the EWE in the Eastman Theater. No time or desire.
I bought a Vega banjo, and disappeared into the mythical world of Old Time Music, maintaining a limited real world presence for money and paid-for insurance.
Don't try this at home.
