| Paul,
That's a rather fascinating story. While I don't think I would have been as curmudgeon-like as Mundi was, by your accounting, I likely would have had a similar reaction to having even a talented 15 year-old come armed with a C trumpet and orchestral excerpts and no method book material. Perhaps he mistakenly took it as a display of arrogance. Even today, I find myself teaching excerpts sooner than I want to because if I don't, my students wind up in the hole because of the demands made these days.
Mundi had his share of occasional chop problems a couple of times in his career and it surprises that he wasn't a bit more sympathetic to you as a result of his own experiences. The one and only time I met him he was a complete gentleman and very encouraging to me. I have also had students who went to take a lesson with him and had only the best regard for him.
Oh, well... as you say, we're all human and I'm sure we've all had our share of misstatements and acts we'd like to take back.
Happy Birthday, Mundi.
ML |