Learning to Embrace a Challenge.

Playing the viola allows my emotions to weave their way into my music. Shaping a discordant sound into expressive music has been a lengthy, laborious, but ultimately rewarding process. I was switched from violin to viola by Melba Sandberg, a brusque, no-nonsense conductor at the New England Conservatory. During my violin seating audition, in what I thought was polite conversation, she remarked that my hands were large enough to play viola; had I ever thought …

…the viola. Her persistence, which upset my comfortable world, was really a challenge to believe in myself. Before this experience I had often shrouded myself in the security of the familiar. Mrs. Sandberg's enduring, sometimes obstinate confidence forced me to confront the boundaries I had placed on myself. She taught me to embrace a challenge rather than shrink from it. I learned to trust those who believe in me, and I learned to trust myself.