Capitol Music - A Veritable Hotbed of Diversity

Our store has customers of every gender, race, background, and creed. This morning, for example, a young man from Poland came in looking for arrangements of jazz standards for his string quartet to play aboard a cruise ship. It took some time, but together we found several good choices. He apologized for his English (which was really just fine, and certainly better than my Polish!) and left with an armload of titles to take back to the ship. Then right after, we had a group of Austrians who were living in Australia - now that was an interesting accent.

People say music is a universal language. That really is true. As long as someone can explain that they want a Haydn piano sonata, we can find it for them, whatever other language barrier there might be. And when they play it, none of Haydn's charm and grace is lost in translation.

Our staff also does quite well with "Name that Tune." If someone just plays a melody, one of us is bound to know what it is. We each have specialties. Caitlin is our flute expert; John is our authority on classical piano. And me? Well, an eclectic mix of quartet and orchestra literature, musicals, new country, and 50's and 60's pop!

We cater to the youngest budding musicians and to the most senior. I remember once a man buying sax reeds told me he'd been in the Musicians' Union for eighty years - he said he had joined when he was 13, and was now a youthful 93!

This is a good week to think about diversity, and to commune with someone whose background may be very different from yours. You might learn a new language - or even make a new friend!

Do zobaczenia - Ron