A New Teacher

Today,  after I picked up my smiling "Beethoven" boy from his piano lesson-  he cheerily shared with me what pieces he worked on with his teacher. Christian has only been studying with his new teacher for four months but already, there is a wonderful connection. "Robert," has been slowly restoring Christian's innate musical touch that his last teacher tried to pound and wrench out of him. I can breathe easy now because my gifted boy is finally back in extremely capable and caring hands. 

Christian had been on a perfect path since age five under the expert guidance with the renowned Mr. Peter Turner. However, colon cancer stole Mr. Turner away at age 88 and since his death, Christian had been floundering. Christian had just turned eight when Mr. Turner passed and he plunged into a terrible depression. Of course, the music suffered, but then again Mr. Turner was the type of teacher and mentor that deserved this little boy's profound grief. Their story is incredibly beautiful and will be told in time but right now at age 13, Christian has a piano teacher "Robert" that is his new beginning. Christian had been "going through the motions," with a different teacher for 3 years but it was fraught with tension and little joy- despite this, Christian still played beautifully but never quite the same- his heart was not fully in it.

Then, came an opportunity for change and after many months with no teacher, we found Robert. The interview flowed natural as I watched two kindred spirits find each other and realized thankfully that our search was over. The serendipitous part of this new partnership was the fact that "Robert," has studied with (and loved) Mr. Turner for five years- at age 13.

It was a positive year of change as Christian returned to his year of public school since losing Mr. Turner. Finally, Christian has found kids that accept his tremendous love of music and made him feel welcome. It had not always been that easy as a five year old boy who listened to Rachmaninoff to go to sleep doesn't always fit seamlessly in a school system. Surrounded by children, Christian felt very alone as he didn't relate to kids his age. I still remember vividly one day picking him up after school and he was very lit up telling me about playing with all the kids at lunch.  I was encouraged and asked him what game they had been playing. "Oh," he responded quite cheerily, we were in two groups and the rock group was chasing the classical group. Oh, that sounds interesting, I responded hopeful and who else was in your group. "Oh, I was the only one in the classical group" Christian answered most matter of fact, "but nobody caught me because I was such a fast runner".

 Raising a gifted intelligent boy was certainly a joy but it brought constant worries about ways to help guard his sensitive heart.