Einstein - a "miserable" violinist?
Do you know the people in your neighborhood? We were fortunate to have Vincent Mauricci as our children's violin teacher. He taught well into his nineties, and always served cookies (yes, there was a plate of cookies for me as well). He charged 1970s rates despite any and all efforts to raise them, and even offered to give me solfeggio lessons for free (for those of you who knew Mr. Mauricci, you know what I'm talking about).
I never left Mr. Mauricci's house without laughing. He once told me a story from his days playing for the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, with Dimitri Mitropoulos. According to Mr. Mauricci, Dimitri Mitropoulos, having tutored Albert Einstein on the violin, remarked that Einstein was a "miserable person". After considerable back-and-forth discussion, we agreed that all we could say for sure from Mitropoulos's observation was that Einstein was a "miserable violinist".
That is why this article caught my eye:
As such, I would take the advice provided above with the proverbial grain of salt. But I would like to thank the authors for reminding me of my neighbor, Vincent Mauricci, who inspired his students to play through his dedication and skill as a teacher (not to mention the beautiful duets he played with his students - think of that!). Although I have never picked up a violin, I miss looking forward to those lessons with Mr. Mauricci. Just seeing the kitchen sponge he rubber-banded onto his viola as a shoulder rest forced me into an involuntary smile. There is a lot less laughter in my life on Thursday afternoons.
Moral: Enjoy the Mr. Mauriccis, Balich's 5&10, Brighams, and Johnny's Foodmasters while you still can!
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6 个月I was fortunate enough to have Mrs. Mauricci as my violin teacher when I was in high school while my father, who took me to the lessons, sat on the couch behind us. Later in life, I was the one sitting on the couch while my son took lessons with Mr. Mauricci. Mr. Mauricci and I had such a great friendship that he insisted on giving me violin lessons, and yes, solfeggio lessons from the same book he learned from when he was a boy. May times we would just play duets, sometimes with him on his viola and sometimes on his violin.
Co-CEO and Chief Engineering Officer at Viridos
5 年Nice piece, John - great memories!