A Gift of Gratitude

Two years ago, I stumbled across a familiar name in my Internet wanderings: Walter Ehret. He was my high school choir director. Amazingly, his postal address was in that Internet posting, so I decided to write him a letter.

I started by recounting how we met. I was a sophomore at Scarsdale (NY) High School, and I had a good friend, Steve, who was in the school's Concert Choir. Steve urged me to audition for the Concert Choir, but I would have none of it: I didn't think I could sing, and besides I was way too shy to have anyone hear me singing.

Then one day Steve and I were walking in the hallway, and Mr. Ehret was approaching from the opposite direction. Steve wanted to introduce us, so I shook Mr. Ehret's hand saying something like "I'm fine, thanks." Mr. Ehret's response? "Listen to that resonance!" Without letting go of my hand, he steered me up to the "music tower" where I was auditioned and accepted into the Concert Choir on the spot.

That was the way Mr. Ehret was: brimming with enthusiasm, positive energy, and encouragement. From him, I quickly developed confidence in my singing and a love for choral music. His humor and nurturing spirit (for all of us) made my 2+ years of Concert Choir the platform for a life of singing. He saw to it that I had voice lessons, got me to enter competitions, and had me soloing in performances by my senior year. (At my first concert that sophomore year, I was so nervous just singing in the 60-member chorus that I could hardly make a sound.)

I should add that he was an extraordinarily prolific arranger, author (e.g., "The Choral Conductor's Handbook"), and was a leader in music education beyond Scarsdale High.

In my letter back in 2007, I recounted our meeting, enumerated my singing experiences over the past 45 years -- and thanked him for launching me on the activity that has so enriched my life. He sent me a nice return letter, and that was it until about a month ago.

That was when I received an e-mail from Mr. Ehret's son, David, informing me that his father, Walter, had passed on Nov. 16 at the age of 91. David was writing to me because his mother had saved that letter I wrote and wanted to read it at Walter's memorial service on Dec. 5 in White Plains, NY. Would I mind?

Would I mind? Of course not! I would be honored to have my simple expression of thanks read on that occasion 3000 miles away. But there was more. There would be a video of the service, which I could watch after the fact.

I did watch, and during that hour-long service many people got up to say how grateful they were for the influence (sometimes quite profound) that Walter Ehret had had on their lives. Then at the end of the service "Mr." Ehret's widow stood up to read my letter, one example to represent the thousands of students who had been inspired, even blessed, by his encouragement and teaching.

I had thought of my letter as a sort-of "gift" to Mr. Ehret, an expression of thanks reaching across the decades. In the end, though, I think I was the one who received a greater gift -- the appreciation of Mr. Ehret's family and the knowledge that I had been fortunate enough to have been given the opportunity to convey my gratitude to him while he was still alive.

Do a Google search on "Walter Ehret," and I think you'll be amazed.

The Best Toy I Ever Owned

I've always loved toys. It's just that I have progressed from buying them at a toy store, to buying them at a hardware store, and eventually an electronic store. Now I'll say that the best toy I've ever owned is my iPhone.

The iPhone came on the market in June of 2007, and it wasn't the first smart phone with the ability to access e-mail and the Internet, but I do believe that it and the other smart phones that have been coming onto the market recently have the potential of changing society almost as much as the Internet has done over the past 15 years.

I've only had my iPhone for a couple of months, but it has changed the way I do so many things, and if I don't have it attached to my belt, I feel positively naked. Now I can read my e-mail wherever I happen to be. And I can resolve almost any question (definition of a word, location of Vilnius, the cast of "Lawrence of Arabia," etc.) from wherever I am. And that's only the beginning.

I'm not going to buy a GPS system for my car because the iPhone has built-in GPS, and I can get voice-assisted directions and locate businesses around me with my on-board software. I can even plot my progress on a map as I bicycle the streets of Roseville (and track distance traveled and average speed).

There are some 100,000 applications in the "App Store" on iTunes, and most of them are either free or cost just a dollar or two. Most iPhone aficianadoes have lots of games on their phone: I don't have any. It's not that I don't enjoy a game now and then; it's that there are too many useful applications to explore, and I feel as though I'm just beginning to learn the conveniences that are now at my disposal.

I don't listen to the radio in my car any more: I plug my phone into the car sound system and listen to exactly what I want to listen to -- without commercials. And it's not just real-time listening: if I miss "Morning Edition" on NPR, I call up the NPR app and play the current day's program at any time of the day -- as if it were recorded and just waiting for my summons (which it is).

I can download any of tens of thousands of books (classics are free) and read them on my iPhone without having to get something like Amazon's Kindle. My personal calendar, plus weather, stock market data, sports scores, and news stories are right at hand. I don't need an iPod or MP3 player because all my music, plus videos, are right on the phone. And yes, call quality is excellent.

This is clearly the electronic version of the Swiss Army Knife.

Expensive? I wouldn't say so. You can get refurbished iPhones for $50 (and the standard 2-year contract with AT&T). And although I've heard that some pay $30 per month for their service, mine is just $24.

Considering how much I use the iPhone, it has changed my life (for the better, of course), and in time (and not that much time), competent phones -- really hand-held computers -- will be changing the lives of a significant part of the population of our country and the world. For me, it's great fun to be participating in this change.

Opera? Seriously?

I think I saw my first opera when I was about 17, and it impressed me to such a degree that it was about 40 years before I saw another. Actually, my first experience with opera after the age of 17 was in 2000 when I had the lead role in the production of "The Tsar's Bride" by Roseville's Russian American Music Academy. Since then I've seen a few productions at the San Francisco Opera, and they were, indeed, impressive.

But lately, I've become excited about the productions of the Metropolitan Opera that are broadcast in high definition at Century Theaters locally (and at hundreds of other theaters through the U.S. and the world). I've seen "Tosca" and "Aida" and this past Saturday Ginger and I saw "Les Contes d'Hoffman" by Offenbach with our friends, the Ellises.

As impressive as "Tosca" and "Aida" were, I was absolutely blown away by "Les Contes d'Hoffman" -- especially the first act. The singing and orchestration were top-notch, of course, but it was the acting and staging that were especially impressive. I think that even someone who is lukewarm toward opera (as I still am) would have found this performance especially impressive. (It's being rebroadcast on Wednesday, Jan. 6 at 6:30 p.m. (local time throughout the U.S.).

I'm so excited about these productions in general for a lot of reasons. The sound quality is excellent. The visuals are great: brilliant camera work gives you a better experience than you could get watching live in the theater. Costumes and sets are wonderfully creative. And there is a backstory: interviews of performers, director, etc. during intermissions. And you get all of this for about $24.

I plan to see all the remaining productions live on Saturday mornings here in Roseville, and if I've piqued your interest, you can get local details through my Placer Performance Calendar (www.perfcal.com) or the Metropolitan Opera website: www.metopera.org.

Starting Point

Seems that lately I've been having more thoughts and experiences that I would like to share with friends and acquaintances, so I've finally decided to go the blog route. I'l try to keep postings brief, and I hope they'll be interesting. We'll see.

I have to add that I've dabbled in Facebook, and it just doesn't do it for me: too many friends, some close, some not -- and too many postings that just aren't very significant. It will be my objective not to waste the time of friends and family, and I'll welcome your feedback.