I saw a fantastic concert last night - the incredible fiddler Mark O'Connor at the Dakota with his Hot Swing ensemble. It again reminded me of why music is important in our lives and how it can enrich a living space.
I grew up with music all around me - my mother got me started with piano lessons and I also played the oboe, the cymbals and the glockenspiel in the marching band. My brothers played the trumpet and saxophone, and my mother played the piano, sang and directed musicals. We also had my great-aunt's huge and heavy pedal organ in the house at one point. Our piano was a used baby grand my mother rescued after a local women's club was going to dump it in a remodel. My mother brought it home and lovingly cleaned it up as it took as place of honor in our living room. My mother even had a large bay window put in when they built a new house and I know she had designed the room around that piano. It took a beating over the years from baby brothers, but she still has it. In my home, I have a black, turn-of the century Everett upright that my husband and I have dragged across the country three times. We were given the piano in Connecticut while living with friends in a Victorian house. That piano went to Florida, then Seattle, and finally landed here. Each time, it's been challenging to find a place to put this monster since it's incredibly heavy and pretty tall. There has only been one spot at each house where the movers could place it – so there it went. And I've had to learn to decorate around it. I love the memories a piano brings – the years I practiced for my own recitals and music competitions with my brothers. My older daughter who could not sit still during piano lessons at age 5 and ran around the house taking her clothes off while the teacher tried to corral her. My younger daughter still so tiny that she would reach her hands up to play the keys even though the top of her head was inches below the keyboard. When we're ready to leave our current house, I know this piano won't be coming with us. I might donate it to Keys4Kids or another deserving charity so another family can enjoy it for years to come. I'm ready for a piano that's a little easier to maneuver in a house. There is a baby grand in my future, handed down from my mother. Thanks, mom, for the lifelong gift of music.
