Nadine Wins Cattaraugus Scholarship, A Journey

On Wednesday January 13th, Nadine won the Cattaraugus County Music Teachers' Association scholarship competition after all -- She played the Prokofiev sonata just GORGEOUS, and even my accompaniment went well. The back-roads made their own contribution -- no ice. She'll also be playing a solo piece at the All-County Music Festival in March.

The story -- first, in the morning she had clinic, where she'd get the Chemo Nasty Injections of dox and vincristine if her blood levels were high enough. It was icy out and my boot-soles got slick-- I took a fast fall on the porch, felt like my insides had been whirled in a blender, but was amazingly okay. We arrived at clinic -- plenty of time for it all if it goes right, I thought, although it might be tight. I wanted to be in Cattaraugus, 2 1/2 hours away, before 5PM to warm up. It meant a lot to get out at a suitable time, and it was SO slow. And after the blood test the lab should have sent results in under an hour, but 2 hours later they still weren't in. I was pacing back and forth down the hallways.. People at the clinic knew we needed "out" but we were stuck. We should have left by 2 -- at 1:45 the results came in -- the ANC wasn't high enough. No chemo. If she'd had chemo I don't know when we'd have gotten out. As it was, she had a quick doctor appointment, and out the door. By the way, I think that by then I forgot I'd been feeling sick, in all the hubbub.

Of course I went the wrong way on Route 390, had to stop for gas, then took 490 to Buffalo and south on 219. By then I was enjoying the back roads, being out on the road again. South of Springville, I located the obscure place to turn right with a metal shed for a landmark, looked like nowhere, okay the county road appeared and it was up-and-down narrow twisty roller-coaster unfamiliar roads. The snowy hills were beautiful though, and not one drop of ice on the roads, a gift especially for this ice-wimp! Miles onward, we reached Cattaraugus, turned into the school lot. Getting out, I noticed how cold it was.

5PM!!! Our target time!!!! We'd made it. Arriving, we met a cheery music teacher-coordinator, who actually had played the Prokofiev himself (here, I thought no one knew it around there). We were ushered into the room where the test would be held, so we could "warm up", and did a dry run -- the piano bench was so low the keyboard felt about level with my breastbone. Cushions, okay. We started -- HURRAY, the piece sounded gorgeous. Another contestant arrived, her turn to warm up -- the girl's gorgeous voice emanated from the warm-up room. Ruth Fuller (the band teacher) arrived, and after comfy pleasantries with her and the music teacher, Nadine and I did a dry run. This time we couldn't see each other. It was an amazing experience -- I don't think we'd ever coordinated and meshed our music together like that -- just perfect. And then we went in.

The two judges were cheery men, very informal, and made us both feel like we were at a music festival chatting with neighboring campers, banjo in hand. I've met many judges, and it was wonderful to have people who were so expert at putting us at ease. We started the piece, and I heard gorgeous notes coming from Nadine -- amazingly, it was even relaxing and enjoyable to go ahead and play the piece. She sounded so beautiful. Afterwards, Nadine presented her typed resume, which mentioned her classical background and also her "traditional" music and foot percussion, to the judges. One judge asked about foot percussion and asked if she could show him what it was. So she did a rousing version of Set Americaine. She tired out just at the end.

Finishing up, we left -- comic relief. I couldn't remember how to go on to Hinsdale, and it was dark out. Ruth was going back to Hinsdale and I asked if I could follow her home. Sure, and off we went. She turned, I turned, we kept going -- into a "dead end". Oh well, mistake one. We grinned ruefully at each other, she took off again -- we got lost. Finally, we got it, and it was off down the hills and eventually onto the Southern Tier Expressway and back to Hinsdale.

Nadine said she thought the young singer had won. I had little to say -- the girl had indeed sounded gorgeous, but so had Nadine, and I told Nadine how nice she sounded.

24 HOURS BECOME 24 MINUTES
We'd been told the results would be phoned to us in 24 hours.

We settled into the house for the evening -- there was the cat, and the fireplace, and the nice kitchen.

The phone rang. It was Ruth. I handed the phone to Nadine.

Ruth announced that the judges had decided that instead of calling within 24 hours, they'd call within 24 minutes! And Nadine was the winner!!

Well, this means we'll be back practicing the Prokofiev. She'll be playing it as a solo at the All-County music event on March 20th.