MONTY CARTER, Baroque Violin and Viola
Back in 1973, a six-year-old child in a nearby town was stung by an insect that had
been piercing countless humans for fifteen years. This “sweet honeybee” flew straight
out of his parents’ phonographic hive: it started in his ears, crept up to his head, and
flew to his heart till he was stung dead ~ mm yeh, mm yeh. He got STUNG!
Did the child recover? Yes. And, joyfully, NO! Decades later, basking in notated sound
vibrations of past and present, the kid is still with us, buzzing in multiple musical hives,
including the Saint Joseph Symphony!
This child’s journey began with Elvis songs! (You recognized our opening reference,
yes?) And just like the King of Rock and Roll, he also had (and still has) hot Gospel in
his bones! This little kid also purred to tapestries of Carole King, came into the garden
of Carly Simon, wore many Neil Diamonds, and let any & every Rod Stewart picture tell
the story!
In his single-digit years, this kid was fascinated with science and classic literature,
whether or not he fully grasped them! He got a kick out of drawing spirally mazes and
silly diagrams, and he loved writing little narratives, poems and plays. He enjoyed
everything in grade school including, artistically speaking, melodic/harmonic Ping-Pong
(elementary music class) and Scripted Pickleball (theater camp).
Fifth grade featured a new element: Beginning Strings class. (Those were weird
instruments. Cool!!) This kid was initially drawn to the cello. But when he told his mom,
who was a full-time nurse, she let him know that unfortunately she wouldn’t be able to
cart the instrument to and from school each day, and suggested he choose violin for at
least the first term. But you know what? No student had chosen to play the "shoulder
cellO" (viola), so this kid WENT for it!
As you might guess, bowed strings don’t sing as naturally as vocal cords; not at first,
anyway! But that very thing actually appealed to this kid: unlike video games, no pal of
his could come up to him out of the blue, ask to give it a try, and play it better than him.
No way!
He liked the activity, both in ensemble and at home alone. But if you were to ask him
what was the most mysterious aspect of that whole experience, he would answer in a
heartbeat that although music constantly flowed within him before he ever touched a
musical instrument, there was at first no conscious connection between the music within
him and that present activity.
Ask him when that changed, and he can instantly tell you that as well! It was a day in
string class, when the teacher placed a new piece of music on everyone’s stands, and
when this kid saw the title of the piece, his JAW DROPPED:
“Love Me Tender ??
That’s an ELVIS SONG!!!”
Although the notes on the page were new to his eyes and fingers, the music itself was a
part of his soul. That experience helped foster a sweet, forward connection with
unfamiliar works which far more quickly became buddies!
And more and more and more, this kid learned and lived and breathed classical music.
In middle school, his favorite things to do were playing the viola and reading about
composers. He loved going on a walk along a long creek, pretending to be 20-year-old
Johann Sebastian Bach on his nearly 280-mile trek from Arnstadt to Lubeck to hear an
work with organist Dietrich Buxtehude. He liked wandering in the woods, imagining
Beethoven or Brahms conceptualizing a new masterpiece (or Henry David Thoreau
writing Walden).
While Big Daddy Bach was definitely his composer hero, this kid's instructor hero was
James Hammond, with whom he took weekly private lessons on viola (and, once in a
while, violin) from middle school through high school. He was a tall, low-voiced man
whose frequent, gruff laugh often made this kid wonder if Mr. Hammond started
smoking cigars when he was a kid! If you played an assigned piece for him and it either
went fantastically or was a complete disaster, you got exactly the same response: a
slightly raised eyebrow and a low-voiced "Wow". And if you came to your lesson
passionately prepared, or were completely out of it and raised his concern, you were
bestowed with chocolates!
Jim gave this kid, and so many others, SO much guidance and inspiration. He loved
introducing master works, which this kid SO loved receiving: never felt intimidated by
daunting repertoire; only FLATTERED! And exposure to many favorite performance
artists was thanks to mix cassettes Jim kindly made for him, including violists Lionel
Tertis, William Primrose and Rebecca Clarke; violinists Jascha Heifetz, Itzhak Perlman
and Stéphane Grappelli; and historic hysteric Peter Schickele, the creator of P.D.Q.
Bach.
Upon Jim's passing in 2009, this older kid was given the honor of writing and delivering
his eulogy. Among his many grateful tributes were these words:"Each day that you
make a lasting, one-on-one connection to that awkward, earnest kid, you are
having a Glory Day, just as surely as when you bring your own bow to the strings
in an unforgettable performance of a masterpiece." Jim had such glory days
throughout his life.
This kid was and is a busy bee. In high school, he and his viola friend Tim loved playing
in the pit orchestra for the school musicals. They each loved both the challenge of
performing Broadway music, and goofing around down there in the pit between rests.
The only annoying thing about it was when there wasn't a viola part! The musical
Annie has Violin I, Violin II, and Violin III. No viola. Oh well. The two did what VIOLA
players do the best: they winged it. ;-) In their senior year, they were very excited to
hear which musical would be performed: Fiddler on the Roof! YAAAY, great viola
parts! But darn, neither Tim nor the other guy were available to do it. As it turned out,
Tim played the fiddler! And what about the other guy? Oh, right: he was Tevye!
This kid loved the musical so much, he just couldn't help trying out for the part. He
hadn't been in theater or choir since grade school, though, which actually made him feel
less nervous, less pressure, since it took expectations away. He was on Cloud 9 to be
given the role, and had SO much fun through all the rehearsals. He actually goofed
around a bit, sometimes saying silly lines on purpose, and the director would get after
him. But that changed on opening night! Suddenly there he was onstage, waiting for the
curtain to go up, and he felt so much anxiety, he really wasn't sure whether he could go
through with it. In the next moment, when the curtain went up, was the kid still nervous? If you ask him,
he wouldn't know. For he wasn't himself. He was Tevye! This gave him insight, courage and joy
regardless of natural fear, wrong turns, unwise decisions, bumps, blips, flops, or flips! When actors
step into a role, they are not being a phony: they are drawing the character from
within. That's what this kid learned from the experience, will always hold to, and share
with others.
This kid's winding path includes two degrees in viola performance, full-ride, from
scholarship and graduate assistantship, in Kansas City (UMKC) and Baton Rouge
(LSU). The path included personal hurdles unrelated to degree work, but this kid stayed
sustainably stung by artful purpose and passion. To this day, he loves the variety of
instructing, giving clinics, forming and creating music for small ensembles, participating
in the Kansas City Baroque Consortium, and performing professionally in spirited,
giving, fun orchestras like the Saint Joseph Symphony, woo-HOOOO!!
He's had wonderful teachers over the years: Jim Hammond, Hugh Brown, Steve Kruse,
Jerzy Kosmala, his pastor Lloyd Gentry, his parents Eddie and Sandra Carter, his wife
Trilla Ray-Carter, and the cats who've owned him over the years. But he likes to think
none of them would mind him saying that the greatest teacher of all is the act of
teaching.
This kid doesn't mind students knowing that the reason he started teaching violin and
viola lessons, thirty years ago, was simply because his freelance gigs at the time
weren't paying all the bills. But it INSTANTLY became, and remains to this day, a
greater purpose, pleasure, inspiration and artistic impetus to him than mere words can
describe.
This insect is so honored to buzz around in collaborative swarms for the benefit of our
community, joyfully assisting growing musicians, and celebrating sweet honeybees
