This morning, I received an email from a friend and staunch HSO supporter. He tells a humorous and rewarding story of his fifteen-year-old nephew’s brush with the unintended cruelty of teen-age peers, and how the young man identified with Carlos’s unique method of marking his scores, as shown in the 07-08 program book.

As the scene opens, the all day rehearsal of a state-wide honor band is taking a quick five minute break from intense playing this week-end. As the young musicians stretch and shuffle around music stands and say “hello,” the #1 chair French Horn player turns sweetly to the #3 clarinet chair (my nephew). Her pleasant face smiles—then suddenly grimaces and she laughs derisively and points to his score, saying, “You mark on your music???—You mark on your music???—You’re not supposed to do that!!! Hey (turning to French Horns #2 and #3)—look at this—he’s marked up his music!” Apparently, according to my nephew, this goes on for some time and at several points during the day. He reports that he said “Well, I mark up my music because that’s what helps me—you can do what you want—I do what I need to do—I mark everything.” As he recounted this story to me in great detail, he seemed more than a little hurt and angry. Probably there was an element of attraction or interest in the French horn player, probably thought of “I was doing right and here is someone who is supposed to know who is telling me I am not only wrong but stupid,” probably the teen-age hormones and sensitivity were close to the surface in a very competitive environment—probably a lot of things. “Aha,” I said, “before you decide not to mark your music—before you give up the clarinet because some cute French horn player indicated to her friends that you were a clod—allow me to share a symphony program with you”… you guessed it…when I showed him the HSO program with Carlos’s marked-up score on the front, his face completely changed. He quickly read how Carlos marks his score and I could hear him saying, “yes—me, too—tempo, dynamics. key signatures, sharps, flats, key phrases—wow—Carlos does it too!!! Hurrah!”

So, thanks to everyone at the HSO for choosing that theme for the program, and thank you, Carlos, not only for sharing your musical creativity but also for helping a fifteen-year-old musician feel not so stupid.

I’ll be posting the cover art and the explanation pages soon.