Monday, May 23, 2005

Best wishes to Scotty D.

The New World season ended a couple of weeks ago in a whirlwind of minimalist music, massive loads of laundry, and inflatable boat races. I wanted to post something about one member of this year's orchestra who is leaving, Scott Dixon.

Scotty D. is from my part of the country, the Pacific Northwest, but I didn't meet him until I came to Florida last year. He's a pretty quiet, mellow person, but after you spend any time around him you're impressed by what a friendly personality and a great sense of humor he has.

Scott with Katie, onboard the R&R sailing ship Posted by Hello

Scott did a lot of cool things this year - he played a solo piece by Arvo Part on a tsunami benefit concert in February, for which he got a nice mention in a newspaper review, and he piloted a sailboat around Biscayne Bay, which I wrote about a couple weeks ago, and helped to hold together the bass section with his strong playing and conscientious musicianship. One thing for which I'll always be grateful to Scott, though it never earned him any applause, was how he made me feel welcome as a member of the orchestra.

Like Scott, I can be pretty shy sometimes, and would rather wait for someone to ask for my company than risk making a nuisance of myself. Early in the year, though I was having a great time playing, I would pretty much keep to myself and hide in my room after concerts. We played a concert of Beethoven 7th symphony in December, with MTT conducting, and it was a very exciting, cathartic performance, and as usual, I was sitting in my room afterwards, thinking vague lonely thoughts. It was Scott who called me up, told me some people were going over to the bar for a drink and to hang out, and asked me to join them.

It probably wasn't a big deal to him, but for me that made all the difference, I finally felt free to leave my room and be a more social member of the orchestra. I didn't go out and drink or hang by the pool every night after that or anything, but it was great to feel like any time I wanted to, I could. So I will always be thankful to Scott for making that gesture, and try to find ways that I can do the same for other people.

Good luck and best wishes, Scotty D.!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

dixon your mouth?