I’ve been fortunate in having many really fine young people as bassoon students. As a rule they have all been exceptionally polite, well-mannered, and hardworking kids. One of the favorite parts of my week include the times when I’m giving private lessons: it’s always a joy to pass on the love of playing bassoon to others. Of all the things I do, nothing gives me as much pleasure than playing – whether it be one on one with a student, playing chamber music, or performing a symphony. Late yesterday afternoon, one of my students called because he had a sudden conflict with his work schedule (he’s a high school kid and just obtained his first job) that prevented him from playing Beethoven’s First Symphony last night. He called me in order to fill in for him (it’s almost hard to believe that there are kids like him that are responsible enough to do such a thing) and I agreed as I really wasn’t doing much else. Besides the fact that I basically sat through the concert cold (in other-words, I hadn’t rehearsed with the group first), it was an enjoyable experience. What was so impressive; however, is that I had other students (it was an orchestra made up of high school kids) come up to me afterwards and thanked me for playing with them. I can’t tell you what a joy it was to find such a fine group of well-mannered young musicians. In this day and age of kids into punk rock, gross disrespect for others, and other narcissistic behaviors, having a kid come up to me just to say “thank you” was a breath of fresh air!