Breathlessly we heard how the plane fell to the ground with a thundering and cracking sound column Wieberen Elverdink

Wieberen Elverdink. Photo: Marcel J. de Jong

He certainly had talent, the horn master had said, and the school director, himself a skilled trombonist, had also looked at us meaningfully, nodding and with a raised lower lip: “It’s there, you know.”

It was so. Every time our youngest (10) took his cornet out of the bag, flattened the crumpled sheet of sheet music underneath on the table and put the mouthpiece to his lips, I was amazed at how much sound he got from the instrument, a bit loud, but not impure, and with what ease. He was enjoying it too, I thought I saw. Whenever he found our praising looks while playing, he proudly played the prescribed melody faster and faster. Not that that necessarily made it any better – for several minutes Old MacDonald had a Farm listening to it at a techno tempo, I’ll give you something to do – but it did illustrate his skill and enthusiasm.

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