I have with me a piece of history...

January 27, 2008 at 6:44 AM

So today I went to the violin shop today to buy a new cello bow for the school I work for. I don't frequent this place much but the guy does know me well. He asked me randomly "Does the name Howard Hill mean anything to you?" I replied, "Yes, he was my former viola teacher about 8 years ago..."

Turns out his daughter had found a bunch of sheet music at his estate and didn't have a clue as to what to do with it. So she took it to this violin shop. The store owner felt it would be best if the sheet music were in the hands of people who would make good use of it...particularly his former pupils otherwise it would've either collected dust or worst, in up in the garbage. He let me look through this collection and take whatever I liked. I was shocked... there were some amazing works: Beethoven Violin Concert, Brahms Violin Concerto, Schubert Viola Sonata, Bach Sonatas, etc....many having his fingerings and what not. This man graduated from Juilliard so he definitely knew his stuff. So the store own let me take all home for free. Granted, the music is quite old so a lot of the paper has become brittle and there is discoloration. Still...I'm very fortunate to be able to have a piece of history.

Hopefully one day I will reach a point where I can become accomplished enough as both a musician and education in order to teach this pieces to my future students.

R.I.P. Howard Hill and thank you.

From Drew Lecher
Posted on January 27, 2008 at 4:32 PM

That's a nice treasure……enjoy!

From Terez Mertes
Posted on January 27, 2008 at 4:56 PM

What a great story, and what a find!

From Kristin Mortenson
Posted on January 27, 2008 at 9:09 PM

What a treasure to have your former teacher's music! I wish I had anything from Leonard Posner...

A few months ago I got a call that a former adult student of mine had died. Her family asked me to play for her funeral service, which I was honored to do. A week or so later I got another call from the church organist saying that the family had been going through her music and that they wanted me to have all of it! I was very touched and accepted, of course. When I got the box of music, I saw that about half of it had *my* name on it!! I've never been great about keeping track of who I lend music to; at least I can rest assured it'll get back to me... eventually! :-)

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I have with me a piece of history...

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