help

Not to whine, my classmate told me as she was packing up, but a lot of people who told me they would help hook me up, fell off the face of the planet. I don't have a single paying gig....

It's hard as a 45 year old to start all over. I did not know my classmate well, and had only been sporadically in touch with Facebook. It took us 4 months since her arrival to get together. But after catching up, hearing her play (I don't want to be harsh, but she's probably not winning an orchestra job in NY) and understanding what she was doing, I knew better who she should meet with. I emailed a pianist friend in the city, who plays for violinists exclusively and also called up a violinist from Juilliard who I haven't seen or played with in 15 years. He plays everywhere, with the ballet, NJ symphony, on Broadway, subs with the Phil and is just the kindest most trustworthy, productive violinist with a wide breadth of experience. Was he interested and did he have time to coach a violinist for auditions? Voila! It was done.

She was blown away by the help. It took like 10 painless minutes on my part, but before this I didn't know what she needed because we hadn't been interacting meaningfully. But more importantly, I don't think she knew what she needed either, enough to ask specifically.

The world goes round and round when we help each other.