Making it happen

Between 1990 and 2000, I did little violin playing. My days were taken up with teaching classroom music and I harboured the thought that because I wasn't teaching violin, there was no real reason for me to play or perform. I saw playing and teaching as two separate activities.

There was also the lack of confidence that lingered from a conversation I'd had with Tony at the end of the time he taught me. Frustrated by my lack of progress after 10 years of daily lessons, he told me that he'd done all he could to make me a player and it was now obvious to him that I would never be one.

I believed his implied assertion that I had exhausted the modicum of ability given to me and I simply did not have the right stuff to go beyond my current standard.

It was not until decades had passed that I questioned this assertion and decided not only to get back to my previous level but see if I could surpass it and prove him wrong.

Twenty years later, I had quickly overtaken my previous peak and worked my way through his repertoire. Now I play anything I want and I constantly look for music that not only resonates with me but pushes my technique even further.