Fresh off the plane 24 hours prior, I found myself on the morning of Friday, March 2nd driving down to Eugene. My aim was to meet the music faculty at the University of Oregon and make a final decision as to whether or not to attend the college. I received my acceptance letter to the music school in February and was on the verge of accepting. I just wanted to be sure that the faculty and I would get along.

 

I pulled into a gas station around 10:30am and began to pump gas into my car. I barely got the nozzle off the hook when I heard, “Sir, what are you doing?” “Oh, yea...” I replied. I forgot I was in Oregon (where it is illegal to pump your own gas). I walked into the office to pay and found a map of Eugene. The cashier, very politely asked, “where are you trying to get?” He then gave me explicit directions complete with exit numbers which made my entry  into the city quite easy.

 

I found my way to the Collier House, the oldest building on campus, and home of the music department complete with small recital hall. My first appointment was at 11am with Dr. Marc Vanscheewijk. Marc runs the Collegium Musicum, classes in Period Performance, and Early Music. We spoke at length on various topics ranging from his research to mine and the program at the U of O. He informed me that he was trying (and succeeding) raising the quality of the department by accepting only the choicest applicants: those who are proficient musicians and those with intense musical curiosity. I was told that only three doctoral students had been accepted for the coming term, me among them. I was relieved to speak with a scholar who was clearly a gifted performer. I’m glad such a phenomenon is becoming less rare.

 

Marc excused himself to prepare for a class on Baroque instrumental music at noon, so I went to grab a coffee in the student lounge. On the way out of the Collier House, I had a look in the recital room. It was a small space complete with a 9-foot Steinway, harpsichord, and positif organ...looks like the right place for me to be.

 

I had a brief spin around the library before heading back to attend Marc’s lecture. The music section of the Knight Library would bring any musician to his or her knees. Aisle after aisle of scores, journals, biographies, and recordings stretched for a quarter of the building.

 

After Marc’s class, I met the other members of the music faculty including Marian Smith and Mark Levy. We discussed everything from my goals to where the good housing is in Eugene. Mark is a piper himself of the Bulgarian variety and said some very kind things to me about my own playing. Marian conducts courses in classical dance and opera and inquired about my research into the Bach transcriptions of Liszt (who also transcribed operas which he dubbed as paraphrases).

 

After this meeting, I walked across the hall to say hello to Lori Kruckenberg and thank her for the acceptance letter. Our conversation was brief as she had a doctoral evaluation to oversee. I left the campus and headed to most host’s house up on the hill. One of the festival organizers and his wife were kind enough to put me up for the evening.

 

Having dropped off my things at Joe and Jan’s house, I headed back out for a lesson with Gary who had made remarkable progress in the short year I had been working with him. At the lesson’s end, I returned to Joe and Jan who treated me to a much needed evening of American-Chinese food. There is Chinese food in Ireland, of course, but it’s slightly different than in the U.S.

 

The next morning, Satruday, 3/10/07, I woke up early to prepare my presentation/demonstration of the pipes. I also had three hours of lessons to teach with pipers from Eugene itself and Salem.

 

My hosts prepared me a lovely breakfast. As I sat with my eggs, still a touch shell-shocked from the manic nature of the past few days, I heard Jan say from across the table, “Give me your shirt.” A bit stunned, I replied with a word between a grunt and “huh?” I looked down at myself...the button-up I’d chosen had more wrinkles than an octogenarian. “Give me that shirt and I’ll iron it for you,” she said again. “No, that’s ok. You don’t have to do that,” I said. I was already grateful these people had housed and fed me. I didn’t want them to have to do my laundry too. “Common,” she said. “I’m a mom.” 15 minutes later the thing looked brand new.

 

I piled all my things into the car and headed back over to Gary who had offered to host all my lessons at his house to save me some time and gasoline.

 

At noon, the lessons were finished and I was following Leonard over to the festival grounds at Sheldon High School.