The Violin

I’ve been playing the violin since fourth grade. In high school, I participated in New York State All-State Orchestra my junior year and seniors years and the All-Eastern Orchestra my junior year. I attended the New York State School of Orchestral Studies in Saratoga, NY during the summer of 1977. So you, (and my parents) might have expected me to go on to major in violin somewhere, but instead, I went to Cornell and majored in Soil Science. Despite this, I performed every semester with the Cornell Symphony Orchestra as Principal Second Violin. When I headed off to graduate school at the University of Florida, I left the violin behind, only to fetch it after my first year of graduate school. Thus, I horrified and confused my advisor by taking violin lessons and performing with the University of Florida Symphony Orchestra and with the fledgling Gainesville Chamber Orchestra. It probably came as no surprise to anyone except me when I decided to stop working on my soil science dissertation to pursue music at Louisiana State University. I continued with the violin, performing with the LSU Symphony and Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestras. I continue to play the violin with the Brockport Symphony Orchestra and now the Brockport College-Community Orchestra.