Mountain Solo by Jeanette Ingold

Author:Jeanette Ingold [Ingold, Jeanette]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

My lessons with Mr. Geisler that winter sparkled like bright patches amid days that otherwise felt as drab as New York clothes.

Mr. Geisler taught me the way my very first teacher Mr. Dreyden, had, insisting that I understand that to play meant I should have fun as well as make music. "Don't take yourself so seriously," he told me. "Music's to be enjoyed!"

He made me laugh at myself. "What?!" he'd demand, when I'd lose control of a rapid piece. "Have you a bow arm or a flapping turkey wing?!"

But we worked hard, too, and we had a goal in sight: my audition for acceptance into one of the world's most renowned music schools. Kids came from all over to study there, and many famous musicians traced their training to it.

Just getting accepted for an audition was a job in itself but Mom took care of that, filling out forms, gathering recommendations, and recording the required tape of me playing Mr. Geisler and I concentrated on making sure that when I did get an audition daté—he wouldn't let me doubt that I'd be given one—I'd be ready.

I wouldn't only have to show that I played well. I'd also have to demonstrate that I already had command of a basic repertoire of classical pieces. And I'd have to be able to play them completely from memory, too. It was a huge amount to learn, and once I started attending a public junior high, I had fewer hours to practice.

The junior high was more of Mr. Geisler's doing.

When I mentioned I wasn't in school, he questioned Mom about it. She gave him a vague explanation without mentioning the limbo of my school status. As far as the state of Montana knew, I was still living in Missoula and being homeschooled. And as for New York—nobody in that system even knew I was there.

"But what about her meeting other young people?" Mr. Geisler asked. "Tess needs more than music."

"I just don't think this is the time," Mom countered.

At my next lesson, Mr. Geisler brought it up again. This time he said, "You realize that if Tess isn't comfortable playing in a group, it will hurt her chances of being admitted to music school. She needs some orchestral experience."

I didn't know whether that was what convinced Mom or if she gave in because it was the only thing that made sense once she found a job Anyway, in late February, the same week that Mom mailed my completed music school application, she enrolled me in a junior high that had a small school orchestra.

It was a pretty pathetic ensemble, made up mainly of bored students who didn't particularly want to be in it. The weary teacher tuning stringed instruments for a line of kids who couldn't tell an A from an A-flat, looked as if he didn't much like conducting it, either.

I concentrated on following his baton and tried not to let my playing stand out, but it did, anyway. After my first orchestra practice, some kids came up to ask how I'd gotten so good.

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