ATTENDING
THE UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI,
MAJORING IN MUSIC
Walter L. Elden, P.E. (Ret)
Start of the Korean Wan
Now, summer had arrived and it was time for me to get ready to attend
the University of Miami. By that time, I had received a scholarship to
the U of Miami, which called for me to play in the symphony orchestra.
My objective was to become a Music Conductor, by majoring in Music
Education, starting out in a high school, as Director of band,
orchestra or mixed chorus, to begin with. However, a sudden and
unexpected world event took place less than one month after graduating
from high school which would change my entire future life and career.
The North Koreans crossed the 38th parallel and had invaded South
Korea, in late June 1950. The Korean War had begun.
Upgraded to a Better Violin
Well, at first that did not have any affect upon me. I began working at
the local food store full time as a bag boy and stockman, earning good
tips, and set out to earn enough money to purchase my
own car, upgrade my violin to a better one and set money aside for
college expenses. By the time summer had ended, I had achieved each of
these objectives. Remember early on I wrote that I had been conditioned
not to want to be unemployed later and do without things, so that
motivated me to take this initiative to build a decent career by
getting a college degree in musi and try to achieve what former high
school band director J.Howard Reynolds had shown was possible to do as
a music conductor. That became my goal.
A photo of the violin I purchased in early Fall of
1950, is shown along with the original purchase receipt. I stil have
both today.
The
Violin Purchased on September 17, 1950 Purchase Receipt for $100
Student at the University of Miami and
Performing in Music Activities
As a student at U of Miami, I enrolled in a full set of Freshman
classes in the School of Music. I also played in the symphony orchestra
and sang in the mixed chorus in addition to studying violin under the
orchestra's Concertmaster, a retired professional performer from a big
orchestra in the East. At the time, the City of Miami did not have its
own symphony orchestra, so the University of Miami's served as that, by
incorporating professional performers with the students, forming a
quasi-professional organization. We would perform one concert in the
new Miami Beach Auditorium on a Sunday evening and the next night in
the Miami Senior High School auditorum. Top named professional soloists
were engaged and would peform with the orchestra.
The mixed chorus performed Handle's Messiah at Christmast time, in
downtown Miami, on a main street just outside the Burdines Department
store. It was a great performance.
On one memorable occasion, it was particularly special. The main solo
work to be performed was the "Beethoven
Violin Concerto" and the sololist
who performed it was the world renowned Jascha Heifetz . For this
performance, we rehearsed with him as a full orchestra, but for the
actual performance, the size was reduced, so I was able to sit out in
the audience and listen to it. In my opinion, that was the most perfect
musical performance I had ever heard up to then and now. Heifetz at the
time was 50 years old and he performed on a Stradivarious violin, of
great value. Following the performance, I went up to him, met him and
got his autograph on one of the programs, shown in the photo. I still
have that original autograph and had considered donating it to either
the University of Miami or the Jascha Heifetz Society, but have
not done either at this point. I have kept it for over 55 years.
