Aidan did a great job. He's a great set player. Like everything he does his love of music just shines through. I got a little choked up on the last tune "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" because he was up there playing with the band and also just singing along in full voice. All I could think was that there's just so much music in this kid you can't get it all out.
But, I digress because most of my experience with Aidan is one on one at the piano. Fifteen years worth.
Someday, if Aidan becomes a piano professor at some highfaluting college I'm going to have to publish the video of his Book One graduation, well. . . dissertation. His first lecture recital. Four years old. To an audience of his parents, myself and a few family friends he played the eighteen Book One selections. Except, unplanned and unbeknownst to his mother and I, he verbally introduced each piece, giving us his ideas about each of the folk songs. I can't remember specifically, but it went something like this, "This is Go Tell Aunt Whody. I weally like this one. This is the fewst song that uses the subdominant cwode in the weft hand. I hope you wike it." Big smile. Big Aidan smile. He proceeded to swing the eighth notes of the chordal accompaniment-- watching the movement of the hammers through the strings in the Baldwin grand.
It has been a privilege to teach this kid. I use the word teach lightly, because I'm not so sure I ever taught him anything. It was more like reminding him of musical insights and details that he already knew. I'm not self deprecating--I've watched him in masterclasses with master teachers from all over the country and it was exactly the same. Whatever they said, he got it, almost before the words were out. What is there to teach? He understands music.
That's not to say he understands how to practice slowly. . . I have had my role here and there.
Aidan is above all a modest guy. Only interested in the music and never for his own ego. I had to find out third hand that he got the coveted instrumental musician of the year award from his high school. If you know Eastview High, then you know that is some serious award. Aidan won every audition we ever tried for. Twice playing at the national Suzuki convention. Once selected for the Colorado Suzuki Institute Honors recital. If he had been the contestant type, I'm sure we could have taken it all the way. But that wasn't his deal. He was only ever about the music.
What about his mother? She and I share a bond. The bond of two mothers with first born sons born on July 18 who came out of the womb crying to the pitch of the hum of the florescent lights in the hospital room. She has paved the way for me in so many ways. I've learned so much from her. So, Jonelle, I say thank you. Thank you for trusting me. With your baby. With your teenager. I pray that we were the right combination at the right time. I wouldn't have missed a day.
What are Aidan's plans? He's going to Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. Is he going to study music? He doesn't know. He hasn't specifically declared a major. There are a lot of things, like computer science, that he is interested in. But. . . he has auditioned for the piano professor and plans to take a lesson. And he wants to play in the jazz ensemble and maybe a couple other ensembles. Maybe take some college theory and aural skills. And some music history. And piano literature would be really cool. Of course he wants to accompany some singers and instrumentalists. And there's jazz arranging to consider.
Are you getting my point?
After the Bravo show Saturday night it all became very clear to me. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if he declares a music major or basket weaving. The train has left the station. This kid loves music. Music is gonna be in his life one way or another.
Bravo, Aidan! I'm looking forward to your last performances with the studio. We're gonna miss your music! We're gonna miss that big smile when you bow. I'm gonna miss hashing out the minutia of Beethoven's phrasing with you. Every time I teach one of the many, many sonatas we worked on together--a piece of you will be in the next kid's music. Beethoven will never be the same. I will never be the same. I'm a better teacher having had the privilege of knowing you.
Bravo, Aidan. Good luck. Oh. . . heavy sigh. . . it's so much more than good luck--you're taking the love of your family, this studio, and me with you wherever you go. We'll be listening for you. You'll be back. And you can teach masterclasses in my studio and I'll take notes for all the kids in colored pencil in my Beethoven Sonata book, and we will all keep learning and loving music.
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