Gary McAleer

During the months before I was born, classical piano literature was a part of my life. My Grandmother was a retired concert pianist, having performed with the Chicago and Detroit Symphony Orchestras, and was a conservatory professor of piano (Shreveport, Louisiana), and my mother also studied the classical literature at her mother's tutelage. Through their daily practice my prenatal ears heard classical music from a grand piano every day: Chopin, Liszt, Debussy, etc. As a result, I memorized the notes of the piano, thus affording me the blessing of perfect pitch. At the age of four when I learned the musical alphabet, from A to G, it was discovered that I could identify the different keys of music. This determined my career as a musician. I knew since age five what I was to do for the rest of my life. Starting on piano for three years and then switching to the violin for the rest of my education.
My mother and father were undivided in providing me a wonderful violin (Peresson) and music education: studying with Juilliard and Peabody professors, and symphony concertmasters. Each had an area of expertise that laid the framework for the technical demands of my trade of playing with the symphony orchestra. For nine years I enjoyed the company of the Florida Symphony in Orlando. After they went out of business (1992) I began to teach. Having a busy schedule of sixty students, I was blessed to see how a little girl could play Mary had a Little Lamb as mature in artistry as a professional: gracefully accentuating non-chord tones with tasteful rubato. Although these children were unable to play difficult literature, their understanding of the tools of artistry offset the frustration of building technique, that all along the path of their advancement they could find happiness in the art of music.