Musicians by any other name: a tribute to music students who pursued other careers.

If you tell anyone you're a musician, the next words from them usually will be, "Oh, I studied the piano (or clarinet, or guitar)," and then they will tell you the story of their own musical triumph or failure, including the saga of their fifth-grade performance of something memorable like "Glow Worm." But memorable is the correct word, after all, because that individual usually recalls many details of his experience as a musician, whether it lasted only a couple of years, or formed an essential part of his youth.

As a profession of teachers, we speak with great pride of the accomplishments of former students who have pursued careers as music teachers or performers. But, what of the ones who "got away"? Many of them went on to noteworthy, even spectacular careers, often including music as a vital part of their adult life. The lessons learned in music study obviously served them well--lessons of patience, of dedication, of attention to the smallest detail, of always striving for the highest level of achievement. Let's look in on some former music students, beginning with three who cite music as an important factor in their eventual achievement--election to the highest office in the land.

HARRY S TRUMAN
President of the United States,
1945-1953

The president who proposed America's first national health care plan would have been a musician, but he simply "wasn't good enough." In his own words, Harry Truman often said that, had a career as a musician been possible, he would never have become president.

His musical story is familiar: First, he studied with his mother, getting up each morning at 5:00 A.M. to practice two hours before going to school. At age 10 he began lessons with the "neighborhood piano teacher," Mrs. E.C. White, who herself had studied under famous pedagogue Theodore Leschetitzky. The other neighborhood boys teased Harry on the way to music lessons, but according to his lifelong friend, Charlie Ross, "He didn't lack spunk when he braved the jeers of the boys to go regularly to his music teacher, carrying his music roll."

His mother and teacher had visions of a life as a concert musician, but Harry quit lessons at age 15. Even during his presidency, however, he played and listened to piano music whenever possible, reportedly being especially fond of the works of Mozart, Beethoven and Chopin.

RICHARD M. NIXON
President of the United States,
1969-1974

"My mother felt that I had some aptitude for music. And when I was seven years old I started to take music lessons from my uncle on this Crown piano. I also learned to play the violin, the clarinet, the saxophone and the accordion. I've often thought, that if there had been a good rap group around in those days, I might have chosen a career in music instead of politics," Nixon said.

A photo log of Nixon's years in the White House reveals that he regularly included music in his activities, including a performance on the dulcimer at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville in 1974 and serving as accompanist to singer Pearl Bailey at a White House performance that same year. In an atmosphere reminiscent of his childhood home, Nixon liked to play the piano with family and friends, often inviting guests to sing along with him on popular songs.

WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON
President of the United States,
1993-2001

Who would have thought that the band major of the Hot Springs High School might one day be president of the United States? As a high school student, Bill Clinton was more interested in music than politics, reportedly practicing four hours a day on the saxophone. His diligence won him a place in the Arkansas All-State Band. The Hot Springs Advertising and Promotion Commission includes an adorable photo of the young saxophonist in his marching band uniform at www.hotsr.com/files/standing/clinton.html.

Years later, in 1992, when his campaign for president was wavering, Clinton polished up his saxophone and his sunglasses for an appearance on the Arsenio Hall Show, an event that is often cited as a turning point in his popularity and his eventual win in the presidential race. He reportedly played the saxophone at several of the inaugural parties as well.

Today, the Shrine to Music Museum at the University of South Dakota includes an exhibit of the LA-42T Presidential Tenor Saxophone, an instrument presented to President Clinton in the White House in 1995. Pete LaPlaca, president of L.A. Sax, wrote about the day he took the saxophone to the White House: "The President's schedule was typically `tight,' yet he was able and insistent on spending more than the allocated time visiting with the South Dakota delegation.... It appeared that his keen interest in music and particularly his sax playing took a fairly high priority that Monday in the Oval Office of the White House." LaPlaca recounts that Clinton talked about saxophones for most of the meeting and played some jazz tunes on the instrument. About the President's skills, LaPlaca said, "To be completely honest, his playing was far better than I had heard on TV in the past. He played some great licks and appeared to be totally relaxed with the horn."

An individual whose love for music often can be seen in his face as he listens to outstanding performers, Clinton credits the powerful and positive force that music played in his life:

"Music education is very important to me. When I was a young boy as a school musician, I learned that music was more than scales or keys or how to make sure I was always in tune. Music taught me how to mix practice and patience with creativity. Music taught me how to be both an individual performer and a good member of a team. It taught me how to work always to bring mind and body and spirit together and the beauty of music. I don't think I would have become president if it hadn't been for school music."

ALAN GREENSPAN
Chairman of the Board of Governors of
the Federal Reserve System

Today, Alan Greenspan walks through the doors of the Capitol and speaks to Congress; once upon a time, he walked through the doors of the Juilliard School as a music major.

A member of a musical family, in which his mother, Rose, sang and played the songs of Cole Porter and Jerome Kern, and his grandfather was a cantor at a Bronx synagogue, young Alan joined right in. His cousin, Wesley Halpert, remembers the young, precocious boy singing the depression tune, "Brother Can You Spare a Dime?" and invariably receiving one from Wesley's father, Jacob Halpert. When company came to the house, little Alan was trotted out to do his tricks: to sing and to add up three-digit numbers in his head. He also took up the clarinet. And, while he was busy practicing, a gift from his father, a book about Roosevelt's New Deal, went unread.

Photos of the high school orchestra show Alan in the clarinet section; he also played in the Lee Hilton Orchestra, a high school dance band that ended each show with Glenn Miller's "In the Mood." At a salary of $2 per person per show, the group played dances, proms and bar mitzvahs. The citation under his high school yearbook read: "Smart as a whip and talented, too. He'll play the sax and clarinet for you." Like so many music students, Greenspan was a good citizen as well, serving as president of his homeroom and as a member of the "lunch squad," a group whose job it was to break up fights in the school cafeteria. Although Alan did not meet him, one of his schoolmates was Heinz Alfred Kissinger, who later changed his name to Henry.

Alan's high school teacher was Bill Sheiner, and under Sheiner's tutelage, he auditioned and was accepted into the Juilliard School of Music. He stayed for only a year, before leaving school to tour with a jazz swing band, now at the salary of $62 dollars a night! The group was called "Henry Jerome and His Orchestra," and played for middle-aged crowds who danced to tunes like "Stardust" and "All the Things You Are." Alan befriended Stan Getz, who later became one of the most respected names in jazz history. The two had similar family backgrounds and spent some time "hanging around" together, trading licks on the saxophone and talking about their idol, Benny Goodman.

Those who write about the jazz years of Greenspan's life characterize him as a "good section player"--solid, dependable, but imply that he wasn't much of a star, not a solo player, or a strong improviser. When the band shifted styles and began playing the newly popular "be-bop," Greenspan's technique began to be tested. It was about this same time that, according to his biographer, Alan began to exhibit "latent and long-repressed accounting tendencies."

When the rest of the band went out late at night to carouse, Greenspan stayed up reading economics treatises, keeping the band's books and preparing band members' tax returns. By 1945, his future as an economist was defined when he left Jerome's band and enrolled in New York University's School of Commerce, now known as the Stern School of Business. Years later, Greenspan recalled his musical ventures: "I was a pretty good amateur musician, but I was average as a professional, and I was aware of that because you learn pretty quickly how good some professional musicians are. I realized it's innate. You either have it or you don't.... So I decided that, if that was as far as I could go, I was in the wrong profession."

ALBERT EINSTEIN
Scientist

Albert Einstein has been called a "genius among geniuses" and a "pre-eminent scientist." His name is linked to the most important scientific discoveries of all time, including the Big Bang Theory, nuclear fission, and quantum physics and electronics. But his mother wanted the young boy to play the violin.

His mother, who is called in some sources a "domineering, musically inclined" woman, encouraged Albert's interest in the violin. She nurtured his love of Bach, Mozart and Schubert. As an adult, the scientist was a friend of Shinichi Suzuki, the renowned Japanese pedagogue.

Playing the violin was an important part of Einstein's life--many photos attest to his regular practice and performance. One source calls his playing "perfectly acceptable, though a little labored," and refers to a home recording once made of Einstein and Tosca Siedel playing the Bach Double Concerto, although the location of the recording is not cited.

CONDOLEEZZA RICE
National Security Advisor to President
George W. Bush

Condoleezza Rice's mother, a pianist, envisioned her child as a musician and derived her name from the Italian term "con dolcezza," meaning "with sweetness." Born in Birmingham, Alabama, Condi, as friends still call her, was a classmate of Denise McNair, one of the girls murdered in the infamous Birmingham church bombings. The daughter of parents who felt strongly about education, Condi studied piano, skating, ballet and French, and skipped two grades, the first and the seventh. One source reports that she could read music before she learned to read words.

By her teens, Condoleezza was committed to a future as a concert pianist. When her father became vice chancellor of the University of Denver, she enrolled as a music major and attended the Aspen Music Festival one summer. Halfway through her degree, however, she realized that her aspirations were not destined to be reality and left the music program for a major in English, then government and finally found her career home in the field of international relations. In an incredible coincidence, she became a mentee of Josef Korbel, who headed Denver's school of international relations and who was Madeline Albright's father.

Her accomplishments are myriad, including being named provost of Stanford University at 38. But about her musical aspirations, she states, "I structured my life to be a concert musician. That was all I wanted to do. And it fell apart on me."

Although her life has taken a different path, Rice continues to play. On April 22, 2002, she accompanied cellist Yo-Yo Ma in the second movement of Brahms Sonata in D Minor.

ALBERT SCHWEITZER
Philosopher, Physician and Humanitarian

Albert Schweitzer was born in 1875, in Alsace [France] into a family devoted to religion, music and education. Both his grandfathers were organists. Schweitzer studied piano and organ, and first performed in his father's church at age 9. From his professional organ engagements, he earned funds for his later medical schooling and his African hospital. Schweitzer is noted for his deep commitment to serve humanity through thought and action, and was awarded the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize.

Music played a very important role. At age 21, he decided on the course of his life, planning to spend nine years studying three subjects--science, music and theology. After that, he would devote the rest of his life to serving humanity directly. He studied organ both in his hometown and in Paris. At the conclusion of his nine years, he was a respected writer on theology, an accomplished organist and an authority on the life and works of J.S. Bach. His 1905 biography of the great composer is considered one of the best studies of Bach; he wrote it in English and later rewrote it in German. The book emphasizes the religious nature of Bach's music and advocates a simple, undistorted performance style that later became the standard.

In 1912, Schweitzer collaborated with famous organist Charles Marie Widor to produce an edition of Bach's organ music. Two albums of his organ playing (Pavilion Records, Ltd.) were recorded in 1935-36.

MR. ROGERS
Television Personality

Few people know that America's "favorite neighbor" was a music composition major at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida. During his senior year, Fred went home for Easter break, complete with a plan to enroll in the seminary after graduation, and eventually become a minister. He attributes his change of plans to watching a program on television in which people pelted each other with pies, somehow inspiring him to consider using television as a medium for public service. Thirty-three years after beginning the show Mister Rogers Neighborhood, Fred removed his signature sweater and sneakers for the last time in August 2001, dosing the final episode of PBS's longest-running show.

Fred met his wife, Joanne, at Rollins College, where she also studied music and is now a concert pianist. As for Fred's musical training, he continually put it to use -- he composed all the songs used on the show.

ANSEL ADAMS
Photographer

World-famous photographer Ansel Adams began to teach himself to play the piano at age 12, and by his early 20s, he planned a career as a concert pianist. After meeting photographer Paul Strand, he changed his mind and decided to specialize in photography. He can rightly be called a quintessential Renaissance man--musician, photographer, writer and teacher.

Ansel compared his photographic negatives to a musical score. In the same manner that a score is interpreted by a performer, the photograph is open to interpretation during the process of printing. A fascinating feature of a January 2002 San Francisco exhibition, "Ansel Adams at 100," is accessible on the Internet at www.sfmoma.org/adams. As you move the mouse over the photographs, you will hear the sound of a different note from a piano on each photograph, producing a wonderful "windchime" aural effect to accompany the photographic beauty.

WOODY ALLEN
Actor and Director

"Film director and actor Woody Allen ... is not a bad clarinet player. He is something even worse: He's a mediocre clarinet player," according to Salon.com. Woody confesses to having worked hard to maintain this level of skill, saying, "I've practiced every day of my life," and plays regularly in a Dixieland group at Michael's Pub in New York. Allen says, "It's just a hobby of mine."

STEPHEN KING
Author

Not all former, or current, music students acquire a high level of skill, as evidenced by a rock group who toured under the unambitious title, "Three Chords and an Attitude." Composed of a group of authors, the band was first formed as the "Rock Bottom Remainders" and debuted at the 1992 American Booksellers Association convention in Anaheim. Author and band member Dave Barry said of their musical prowess: "The band plays music as well as Metallica writes novels."

Finding their musical experiences great fun, the band, now made up of fifteen of America's most popular writers (including Stephen King, Amy Tan, Dave Barry, Barbara Kingsolver and others) embarked on a multi-city tour. The result is preserved on the CD, Stranger Than Fiction. One critic remarked that the band included "skill levels that range from the amusingly inept to the downright catastrophic."

The story of these individuals, who studied and love music, is echoed thousands and thousands of times over in the lives of people who may not be so publicly noted, but who achieve daily excellence as lawyers, doctors, teachers, preachers, businessmen, plumbers, or moms and dads. To their rich lives and challenging careers, they add the lessons of dedication, perseverance and attention to detail that the study of music taught them. And those lessons, and the self-confidence gained in learning them, serve them well. To Bill, Alan, Condoleezza, Ansel, Fred and all the others who "got away," we say, "well-done" and "lessons well-learned." To the band, Three Chords and an Attitude, we offer a good theory book, a lesson on secondary dominants and the gentle reminder that it's never too late to take more lessons!

SOURCES

Ansel Adams
www.betterphoto.com/exploring/ansel.asp
www.sfmoma.org/adams

Richard Nixon
www.nixonfoundation.org/TheMuseum/
  Birthplace.shtml
www.americanpresident.org/kotrain/
  courses/RN/RN_Family_Life.htm

William Clinton
www.nara.gov/exhall/treasures/clinton.html
www.hotsr.com/files/standing/clinton.html
www.lasax.com/la42t.htm

Alan Greenspan
www.jewishpeople.net/alangreenspan.html
Greenspan: The Man Behind Money, by
  Justin Martin (Perseus Publishing,
  Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2000)

Albert Einstein
www.geocities.com/conniesunday/
  einstein.html
www.time.com/time/time100/poc/
  magazine/albert_einstein5a.html

Stephen King
www.horrorking.com/rockbottom.html

Woody Allen
www.salon.com/col/vowe/1998/05/
  01vowe.html

Condoleezza Rice
www.csmonitor.com/2001/1010/
  p3s1-uspo.html
National Review; New York; Aug. 30, 1999

Harry Truman
www.trumanlibrary.org/kids/piano.htm

Fred Rogers
Office of Alumni Public Relations, Rollins
  College
The Christian Science Monitor

Albert Schweitzer
www.tennesseeplayers.org
www.pcisys.net/~jnf/schplays.html
www2.lucidcafe.com/lucidcafe/library/
  96jan/Schweitzer.html
www.encyclopedia.com/html/s/schweitz.asp
http://encarta.msn.com/find/concise.asp?ti
  =05625000//myhero.com/hero.asp?hero
  =albertschweitzer
www.nobel.se/peace/laureates/1952/
  schweitzer~bio.html

RELATED ARTICLE: It's a musical day in the neighborhood.

"When I was a preschooler, my parents told me I could choose anything I wanted from a toy catalog. When I saw a little green pump organ on one of the pages, that was it! Happily my parents got it for me, and little by little, I found that I could play out my feelings on the piano. That's when I discovered the healing power of music. From that little pump organ, I went on to playing a real piano and a real organ in grade school and graduated from Rollins College with a Bachelor of Music degree with a major in composition.

"Now it seems to me that music has always been at the root of who I am and what I do. Even today, I can laugh and cry and express anger through my fingers on piano keys. Often on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, I tell children that they can discover many different ways to manage their feelings, ways that don't hurt them or anyone else. Music is one of those ways, and it's most certainly one of my important ways.

"In fact, one of my greatest joys has been writing the songs for our Neighborhood series about all of the growth tasks of childhood, songs like It's You I Like, You Can Never Go Down the Drain, Sometimes People are Good, I Like to Be Told, Let's Think of Something to Do While We're Waiting, Peace and Quiet. Another great joy is to hear that parents and other caregivers are singing those songs with their own children, using them in their own traditions as they grow.

"Music is such a healthy way for us to express all sorts of feelings, and it has a chance to become a child's way if that child is given an appreciation of it by `music givers' who truly love music and truly love children. I've always been grateful for my music teachers--all along the way. Giving children such a gift is a wonderful blessing. It lasts forever. It's such a good feeling to know you're alive."

--Fred Rogers

Kathleen Rountree, NCTM, is dean of the College of Performing and Visual Arts at the University of Northern Colorado. She has written numerous articles on piano literature and edited two anthologies for Warner Publications. She is chair of the American Music Teacher Editorial Committee.