Something good about Soundbridge

From Seattle Times, July 5, NW Home and Life;

"About six years ago, I took my son to a Seattle Symphony Orchestra's "Discover Music!" concerts...

Afterward, we poked around the lobby, where a kind of "petting zoo" for orchestral instruments was on display. While my son screeched on a violin, I picked up trumpet for the first time in my life, put it to my lips , and -- wow!


In 2001, SSO opened Soundbridge a music exploration center, on Second Avenue and Union Street where interactive exhibits allow visitors to see what it's like to wield a baton or play in an orchestra. There are also real instruments to handle and 500 classical recordings at a listening bar.

Seattle Symphony's school curriculum includes "Symphony on Wheels", a van that brings orchestral instruments and education staff to visit third through fifth-grade kids at their schools."

Tom Keogh's experience at the instrument "petting zoo" brings back the best memories of my volunteer years at Soundbridge.
That - "Wow!" from the kids when they first experienced making sound come out of an instrument was the best reward I ever got there.

Too bad volunteering for the "Symphony on Wheels" job turned out so wrong.
I did enjoy my thousand hours of volunteering, however, and I try to keep in touch with the friends I met there.

Showing the Boy Scouts how to build violins was another high point.
Starting off with a small section of a log and ending with a finished violin creates a good metaphor for the process of self-fulfillment.

Kind of an "Ugly Duckling" story sort of thing, wherein we all have an inner beauty that we only need to believe in to realize.

This is what I try to remember when i think of my time there.
It all goes down the toilet whenever I walk by B-Hall, however.

Gotta new picture for ya.
I'll see your sweetie little kittens and raise ya an angel.