Music in School 1965-1977

your blogger on Mt. Pilchuck ca. 1976

I started playing drums in 5th Grade, under the tutelage of "Red" Eickhoff, the band teacher at Phantom Lake Elementary School. I could read music and knew how to practice so I moved quickly up the ranks, or "chairs" as they were called. And since I knew how to watch the director I was tasked with playing bass drum, starring as the eponymous "Mr. Boom Boom" in an early concert. I must have started private drum lessons at about that time. My mom was a musician and that is what one did. I remember a series of private drum teachers (whose names are forgotten) who had little studios in the back caverns of various local music stores, teaching rudiments and sticking technique - and eventually "drum set." Soon I was taking on younger students of my own. At some point I started taking orchestral percussion lessons from an older peer, Cameron MacIntosh. He introduced me to the mysteries of mallets, and that there are many ways to strike a triangle and operate a tambourine.

At Tillicum the band teacher was William Wicker, a jack-of-all-reeds who would regale us with stories of playing for the circus when they would come to town. I don't remember whether I started also playing in the orchestra right away in 7th Grade but it is likely. Marsha (sp?) McElvain was the instructor. One year we entered a student orchestra contest in Gresham, OR, and walked away with 1st Place in our division, beating out our feared cross-town rivals at Odle Junior High, who had won the year before. The trophy we brought back was easily 3 times the size of any of the trophies (all sports) in the case. Miss McElvain was quite pleased.

drawing by Paul Eisenbrey, 1977

At Sammamish High School I was in band (Gary Walker, director) for perhaps a year, perhaps just one semester, opting quickly for orchestra as being more amenable to my personality and schedule - we had been required to play in Pep Band for the first football game, at which I caught walking pneumonia and was out for three weeks. The orchestra and the ensembles were led by Norm Poulshock, who gave me several wonderful opportunities to show off in public (spooky xylophone solos and the like) - and even let me take the school's marimba home one summer to practice. There was a music theory class in those more enlightened times, led by Jack Halm (who also ran the choral program). It was as an assignment in his class that I wrote "Prelude for String Quartet." With my dad's help I even convinced the powers that be to count this music theory class as an "Occupational Ed" credit.

Columbia River

Among my peers during those years I remember Kathleen Ebneter (a guitarist, singer, and huge Sandy Denny fan who tried to introduce me to folk music, and who later went into Astronomy), the remarkably talented violist Karie Prescott (whom I escorted to see Götterdämerung when Seattle Opera first produced it - talk about your first dates!), the cellist sisters Anne and Meg Brennand, (all of whom are, I believe, still active professionally), cellist Larry Chu (went into medicine), my piano duet partner Dean Williamson (from whom I quickly learned that I was not the greatest pianist since sliced bread and who is now an esteemed Opera Director), my good friend in the Thalia percussion section Julia Calhoun (sadly lost track of), and a host of others. At various local piano competitions I was often placed in the same pool of contestants as Christopher Mehrens. For some reason my piano teacher seemed to think we were rivals for something, but when he appeared in my first theory class at the University of Washington we ended up hanging around together quite a lot, He provided invaluable assistance during the realization of my big synclavier work "AKU."

your blogger on Mt. Adams, 1977