Tag Archive for: Joshua Bell

The Gift of Music, with Barbara Kyle

 

December marks six years since I took my very first violin lesson. 

An interesting session. It went something
like this:

 

Luckily,
my teacher was, and remains, the super-talented and incredibly patient pro violinist, Anna Hughes.

At
first, I merely dipped my toe in: I rented a violin. After all, I might hate it
or be impossible to teach; in either case, I could just give up.


Wondrously,
neither happened. Novice though I was, every time I picked up the violin to
practice, I felt a lovely, sweet shiver of connection to centuries of great composers
and musicians. 

 

I was dipping my toe into a mighty river of art. 

 

So I committed
to the learning and the practicing. The rental agreement was basically a lease;
after twelve monthly payments, I owned the instrument.

 

Result?
Instant humility. When I arrived for my lessons, the student before me was ten
years old; the one after me was seven. And they were really good. (Anna teaches
the Suzuki Method which starts students young – often as young as four – on small
violins.)

 

A happy bonus
has been my new, deep appreciation of professional violinists.
I had always enjoyed their
playing – w
hether virtuosi of
classical works, spirited fiddlers of toe-tapping jigs, or cool individualists
of jazz – but only by learning each baby step of technique myself have I come to be in
awe of their artistry. 

 

That, in
turn, has made concert-going thrilling. I’ve watched enthralling live performances
by Itzhak Perlman, Natalie McMaster, Joshua Bell, Luri Lee, Sally Fields, and
Timothy Chooi.


And I have come to love the works of brilliant composers who
were new to me, like Florence Price. Listen to her String QuartetNo 2. (Note the ravishing second movement.)

So, that funny
picture I showed you at the top of this post? That was after my first lessons.
Now, six years later, I’m daring to dream like this:

 ___________________________________________________________________

 

Barbara Kyle is the author of the bestselling
Thornleigh Saga series of historical novels and of
acclaimed thrillers. Her latest novel of suspense is The Man from Spirit Creek. Over half a million
copies of her books have been sold.
Barbara has taught
hundreds of writers in her online masterclasses and many have become
award-winning authors
.
Visit Barbara at https://www.barbarakyle.com/  

 

 

Classics, by Barbara Kyle

 

 

Some
things are simply never out of date, right? Thank goodness. Here are a few classics I hold
dear.

 

Classic
Clothes
. I welcome autumn for the pleasure of pulling a smart, tried-and-true blazer out of the closet. And I’m always up for any chance to wear a little black dress; in this pic, it’s for my nephew’s lovely outdoor wedding.

 

Classic
Books
.
Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights and Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the
D’Urbervilles
are time-honored novels that I read as a teen and that influenced
me as a writer. 

Modern classics I revere are John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, Ian McEwan’s Atonement, and anything by P.G. Wodehouse who has
more than once rescued me from blue days with his ineffable comic genius.


Classical
Music
.
The music of Bach and Mozart has enriched my life for decades, and because I play the violin my favorites works of theirs are any that feature that instrument. 

 

A modern
musical classic I adore is Leonard Bernstein’s exuberant and heartbreaking West Side
Story
. Violinist Joshua Bell shines in any genre, from Bach to Bernstein. Listen to him play
the West Side Story Suite. It’s twenty minutes of perfection.

 

 

 

Classic
Movies
.
I’ve watched Casablanca at least a dozen times and the story
never fails to thrill me and move me.

So does the 1951 version of A Christmas
Carol
starring Alastair Sim. My favorite bit in that fine old film is the small
role of Scrooge’s cockney housekeeper played with endearing spunk by Kathleen
Harrison. (She’s in the middle of the photo below.)

 


 


 

Classic
Cars
.
As a young woman, I considered the Jaguar XK-E the epitome of elegance. That
British sports car, manufactured between 1961 and 1975, is still widely admired as a true classic. 

 

I never did get an
“E-Type” but my husband and I recently bought a 2003 Miata and I love driving
it on a sunny day with the top down. My pal Ann drives a 2000 model. That’s us
in the photo with our Miatas (Ann on the left in purple, me on the right).

 

 I
don’t know if our Miatas are technically “classics” but I figure she and I – two
“old broads” – pretty much are!

 


____________________________________________________________________________


Barbara Kyle
is the author of the bestselling
Thornleigh Saga series of historical novels and of
acclaimed thrillers. Her latest novel of suspense is The Man from Spirit Creek. Over half a million
copies of her books have been sold.
Barbara has taught
hundreds of writers in her online Masterclasses and many have become
award-winning authors
.
Visit Barbara at https://www.barbarakyle.com/