I celebrated the seventh anniversary of the St. Louis Symphony blog (first post, October 4, 2004, 1500-plus posts and counting) by attending a concert performed at the St. Louis College of Pharmacy. Celeste Golden Boyer, Kristin Ahlstrom, Susan Gordon and Bjorn Ranheim played Dvorak's American Quartet. I sat with my colleague Maureen
Byrne. At the end of the second movement, we both swooned. The ending is like a little
forlorn boat adrift in a wide river.
There was a Q&A session after.
The musicians were asked when they first wanted to be professional musicians.
The ages ranged from about nine to 13. Bjorn observed that he knew this was a
factor that set orchestral musicians (and, I will add, especially musicians of
their caliber) apart. As Bjorn put it, "I don't think many of you wanted to be
pharmacists when you were four."
St. Louis College of Pharmacy audience
Introduction from Brian Walter, Director of Convocations
Quartet in motion, or my hand is getting shakier
