A moment at Farragut North

Last week, while on the escalator leaving the Farragut North Metro station, I heard a trumpet-playing busker. When I got to the top of the escalator, I saw that it was a young guy, probably a junior or senior in high school. He had excellent tone, good technic, and was playing a cornet, not a trumpet. The open backpack at his feet had a sign that said "$$ for college." As I went to drop in a few dollars for him, there was a copy of Arban's Complete Conservatory Method for Trumpet. It is the trumpet player's bible. It's huge, heavy, and a lot of work to get through. I never finished it, but then nobody ever truly does. While his copy of it was red, mine was (and still is) blue. The cover colors notwithstanding, I felt an immediate kinship with this kid. He stopped playing for a second to thank me for dropping in the money, and I told him that I used the Arban book when I was a student. I asked him about the Clarke and Schlossberg studies, and he seemed to know all about them. I wasn't surprised, frankly. We chatted a little more about horn playing. He then told me that he usually didn't play cornet--his trumpet had been stolen when he left it outside the band room for 20 minutes a couple weeks ago. He had picked up the cornet for $20 at a pawn shop, and was hoping to make enough money to buy another "Strad." For the non-trumpet-playing public, this is a sad enough story as it is. But when he told me he wanted another Strad, I was quite moved. I've been lucky enough to have a Vincent Bach Stradivarius trumpet since the tenth grade, and I can't begin to imagine what it would feel like to have it stolen. If I see this kid again, I will definitely give him more than $2. He deserves another Strad.