Klarinet Archive - Posting 000551.txt from 1996/10

From: "Elizabeth R. Goeke 99" <goeke@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re: Decisions, decisions...
Date: Tue, 22 Oct 1996 22:52:21 -0400

Kelley,
Speaking as someone who decided that they weren't going to major in music
before getting to college and then thought better of it, I'll explain my little
story to you. I've been playing the clarinet for over 11 years, which often
seems a very long time until I relate it to the 13 years I've been playing the
piano. When I went to go look at colleges, everyone from my band director to
my piano teacher warned me that being a musician was not all it was cracked up
to
be and really should consider finding some other profession. Now, I went to
high school with several people who ignored these warnings and went on to
various
conservatories, including a classical pianist who was twenty time better than me
and Peter Stoltzman (yes, son of the streaker, who plays jazz piano and
composes).
They outclassed me, so I thought I should hede the warnings I had been given.
I decided to go to Middlebury College and be a geology major. I wasn't here
for more than a week, before I signed up for my first music class. The second
week I joined the college choir and started taking voice lessons.
By the third week, one of my profs had convinced me to join the orchester as
second clarinet. October saw me a member of the clarinet ensemble that had
just
formed. By November, I was a double major (geology/music). I still tell
people
that I'm going to be a geologist, but I see myself composing music on the side
and probably assuming the position of music minister in some Catholic church.
Yeh, its not real glizty, but hey, it will still be music.
Oh, by the way, I'm now a sophmore.
beth goeke
--
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'A composer knows his work as a woodsman
knows a path he has traced and retraced, while a
listener is confronted by the same work as one is in
the woods by a plant he has never seen before.'
- John Cage

Elizabeth Goeke
Middlebury College
Box 2804
Middlebury, VT 05753
goeke@-----.edu

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