Nine beautiful minds

My undergraduate professor H. Max Smith always called his students his "children." I do the same, and I enjoy the fresh dynamic every year with students coming and going. Anyone majoring in music is also majoring in their applied music teacher. The "family" element is unavoidable unless you go to some trouble to avoid it. My first couple semesters at Appalachian, my studio was "tight," but I believe the studio I have now represents the greatest level of mutual support, "family," and new ideas I have seen so far.

These guys have gotten excited about a trip to the second East Texas Pipe Organ Festival in a couple weeks in Kilgore, Tex. SEVEN of my nine students are going on that rather lengthy road trip, and they're missing a week of classes to do it. That's excitement in action, and it's exciting to behold. The other two students must be left behind, sadly, but they surely wanted to go with us. And we hate to leave them behind.

These guys are excited about the studio's new Facebook page and YouTube account (which the students set up), and a science experiment going on at my house that we are currently calling 'Frankenorgan.'

Represented in this studio is a wide range of graphic design skills, fine aptitudes for improving the art of organ playing, blossoming professional demeanors, increasing eyes toward effective self- and studio marketing, Halloween ideas, eyes toward helping each other and helping me with non-teaching workload issues. I used to have only one or two right-hand men at a time. Now I have seven, plus two right-hand ladies.

So, I raise my glass (tonight at "family dinner," Hurricane Sandy permitting) to Chase Branham, Nathan Brickman, Carol Brown, Jake Hill (coiner of the term "family dinner"), Caroline Kimrey, Jonathan Poe, Johnson Ramsaur, Rodney Ward, and Shane Watson.