Music

  1. The Piano – Beginning
    Part 1

A slight introduction is necessary.

In 1952, I arrived with my parents in Australia. That is 7 years after World War II ended. All I had seen till then were bombed cities, bombed countrysides and many dead bodies.

First Australian port was Fremantle, then Adelaide, followed by Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane. You can imagine my surprise when nothing was destroyed here. This was followed by the long, slow train trip to Townsville where the person lived who guaranteed for us to arrive in Australia.

We stayed there a year before moving to Brisbane. Now, building a life started in earnest. We boarded with a family before my parents bought a run-down house that needed massive renovations.

No one had any money so, all the migrants exchanged services as house repairs were needed, roof repairers, plumbers, concreters, electricians, my parents did their own painting. and so on. People grew their vegetables in their back yards and joined consortiums to buy other foods cheaper in bulk.

When I was about 12, my mother decided I should learn the piano. Up the road from where she had her dressmaking shop/business was a piano teacher, an elderly lady. Once a week I would go there for a lesson. She was strict and often hit my knuckles with a ruler when my hand position was not to her liking. But I liked her, and I grew to love the piano.

After 4 years, my father regraduated from medical school and could earn money, and so my mother closed the shop. My father had been a doctor in Europe, but Australian law dictated that all such professionals had to redo their studies.

I was sorry to leave my piano teacher, but my love of the instrument was cemented for life.

Fast forward

As a result, by the time I was 16, I had decided that I wanted to be a professional pianist when I grew up. I went to the Music Conservatorium to engage in advanced study. My teacher and I strongly disagreed in many things. Also, my home life had become a friction factory, no one got on (they soon divorced) and, I decided, I didn’t need another source of friction with my piano teacher.  I was then placed into boarding school.

The photo above is me at the Steinway Showroom in 2011 in New York. Physical tours no longer are offered but, you can do a virtual tour if you follow this link.

Me playing the Steinway grand at the New York showroom in 2011.