Florence Soloveitzik

“Remember LOVE in the name and you will spell it correctly.”

“I am not going to teach you popular music. I teach the classics. You are to find the classics in popular music.”

“I will not force scales and arpeggi on you. You will take two measures of Beethoven and that will be your exercise for the week. When you can play the passage through without making any mistakes ten times in a row, it's yours forever.”

“The most beautiful music is the most difficult to play, and you have to practice. Practice slowly. When you hear something truly wonderful, look at where your hands are and ask 'Why?'”

I have never met anyone at all like her. She displayed perfect dignity and modesty, took no nonsense and yet the quality I remember most about her was the Love she imparted, especially for Beethoven and Chopin. To go to their house on Pleasant Street was to walk into another world, a world of great ideas, eternal Music, and such kind patience.

She truly loved her vocation, and always talked about her teacher, Bruce Simonds. He had been Dean of the Yale School of Music and a conductor of the New Haven Symphony. After I graduated from WHS, she sent me to him for lessons.

I regret that she never saw what I have done since she left us, but a great moment in my life was a solo concert I gave at the Palace of Culture in Warsaw, Poland in the late '90s. After an active fare of wild boogies and bluesies, I was led to perform as an encore, Chopin's “Berceuse.” It was definitely a gamble to play Chopin for the Poles, but I kept the thought of Miss Soloveitzik in my mind the entire time, and it brought the house down.

She had taught me.