Klarinet Archive - Posting 000242.txt from 1999/03

From: LeliaLoban@-----.com
Subj: [kl] Options for further education
Date: Thu, 4 Mar 1999 16:39:46 -0500

Ryan Huch wrote: .
> I am a High School senior [snip]. Just recently I was
> shown what the Marines have to offer with music. They offer many
> opportunities, but it almost seems too good to be true. If it weren't for
> the 4 year commitment, I wouldn't have to think so hard about the whole
> Military thing, but 4 years is a good chunk of time. I am interested to
> know what other Clarinetists who have been in this position have to say
> about this, and what suggestions anyone can offer.

I've never experienced military service and I'm not a professional musician,
but I heard a story about military music from an excellent repairman, Peter
Ferrrante, who also plays clarinet and sax professionally in Washington, D. C.
area dance bands. He told me that when he joined the service (I think it was
the Navy, but my memory is a bit hazy) in the late 1960s, the recruiter
encouraged him to expect that he'd play in the band. But once he signed in
blood, the brass offered him this option:

1. Quit arguing, forget playing in the band and learn to repair instruments
for the band instead; or
2. We'll be happy to send you to Vietnam.

He received excellent training, and discovered, much to his surprise, that he
loved repairing instruments. He now owns his own small shop, Presto Brass and
Woodwinds, in Arlington, Virginia.

Lelia
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"The best sort of music is what it should be -- sacred; the next best, the
military, has fallen to the lot of the devil."
--Samuel Taylor Coleridge, _Table Talk_ (1833).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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