—by Wendy Kerner

A few years ago one of my chamber music ensembles: The Glorian Duo with Donna Milanovich, flutist, was asked to play a concert for a local First Night Celebration on New Year’s Eve. The concert was organized by the local arts association and sponsored by a local manufacturing company. We played a varied program and had a nice audience, and the concert went very well.

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A few days later, I received a call from a woman who identified herself as Betty, the assistant to the president of the company that had sponsored our program. I was delighted to be able to thank someone specifically and told her how much we appreciated their support.

She told me that the reason for her call was that the president of the company loved the arts and that he was an amateur photographer. He had put together a calendar with his photos and information about the company. He was very proud of it, and he wanted it given out to anyone who was associated in any way with the company. So he wanted all the people involved in our First Night concert to have a calendar, and Betty needed to get everyone’s addresses.

I told her I thought that was very lovely, and gave her my address, and I gave her my flutist’s address too. Betty then asked if she could get the rest of the addresses. I was rather puzzled, and explained to her that we were a duo, and that there were only two performers. She told me she had a whole list of names to get addresses for. I suggested that perhaps the other names were people connected with the arts association that had organized the concert. Betty told me that she had already gotten all the names and addresses from their organization, and that these were additional people.

I asked her to read me some of the names. Mr. Batch was the first name. I was still puzzled, and told Betty that I didn’t know Mr. Batch, but perhaps he had helped with setting up the venue for the concert in some way. But then I had a thought. I asked her if she had the first name for Mr. Batch. Yes, “Johann,” she told me. And then I realized that the list she had must be our program for the concert, and that the names she was reading were the composers, starting with Johann Sebastian Bach.

I verified this with her, and I explained the situation to Betty, and I told her that I thought that Johann Sebastian Bach would probably have been most delighted to receive a calendar, but that he had died over 250 years ago. Fortunately I was able to give her the address of a contemporary, living composer whose work we had played on the concert. She assured me she would send him a calendar too.

A few days later I received the calendar in the mail, and every time I looked at it, I chuckled.