What sort of music was played in your house when you were growing up? What effect, (if any) did it have on your musical tastes?
I remember very vividly waking up every Saturday and Sunday morning to the sound of classical music. It might have been Tchaikowsky, Chopin, Beethoven, Mozart or an opera. If it was to be an opera, Luciano Pavorotti was his favorite and thus was mine too. To this day hearing classical music gives me great solace, it brings me back to those days we lived in our apartment on 24th Street with wonderful landlords, sharing my room with my little sister, we were both in elementary school and I would makechocolate toast for my sister and I after school.
I also remember going to see the movie Fantasia with my parents and my little sister, the entire movie set to Tchaikowsky, if that movie marvel didn’t cement an appreciation for classical music in a child, then I don’t know if anything else could.
On the whole, I am pretty sure Beethoven was one of my father’s favorites, he seemed to play him the most and he most certainly is my favorite. I could listen to Ode to Joie on a loop for hours, it speaks to me like no other piece by any other composer.
laurieanichols 