My interest in the piano got the attention of my parents.  Since neither of them was involved with music in any way, it must have been a challenge for them to find me a teacher.  This was borne out by the fact that I was about five years old when I first started pretending to play, but it took until I was almost ten years old for me to begin formal piano lessons.   In the meantime, at about age seven, I started parochial school and as part of the school day, had my first experiences with music as a class.

Given my parents’ lack of involvement with, or knowledge about music, finding the right outlet for my musical talent would probably have been a trial and error process, had it not been for the arrival of a new music teacher at my Catholic school.   This teacher – I will refer to him as Jim –  would be the catalyst for my finding good instruction in music, as well as the individual who would, up until I entered college, guide and shape my musical and, by extension, social life.

I was first introduced to Jim in our school’s parish church, during a First Friday Mass assembly.  As part of this school activity, Jim introduced a group of boys that he had auditioned for a new school boy choir – what would eventually become the organization with which I would be a member for the next ten years – the St. Catherine of Siena Boy Choir.  To demonstrate, Jim had the boys sing a hymn for the entire student body, and I was instantly convinced that I had to be a member of the choir.  I can remember the feeling of excitement I felt, along with the realization that these boys were special.  They got the attention of the entire school and I thought this would also be a way for me to be signaled out as a “talent”, something that much later I would realize, was my deep desire and need for recognition and affirmation.

I auditioned for the choir and on my first try, did not get in.  I don’t remember the feelings of rejection that I must have had, but I do remember being more determined than ever to make the cut on the next try.  On my second go around I got in, but I remember thinking that I had not sung very well, and that my acceptance into the organization was at least as much due to my eagerness and determination to get into the ensemble, as it was my raw talent.  I did have talent and, by the age of about six or seven, had sung a solo at my dad’s office Christmas party, as well as my impromptu singing with a neighborhood friend in our backyard, where we used to pretend that we were part of a famous musical group that was giving a performance to a packed stadium.  I engaged in this type of imaginative musical play throughout my childhood, and I believe that it served me well later as I continued to imagine myself as a successful musician.

I did not realize at the time I entered the boy’s choir how much that experience would shape my life, but looking back, it was the most important activity of my childhood, and the activity in which I was introduced to the music that I have come to love and perform the most.