The Violin / Die Geige

One day when Nikolas was 2, he announced completely out of the blue, "I want a violin!" We didn't even know that he knew what a violin was, and we still have no idea where his interest in violins came from. Over time it became a frequent request, sometimes weekly, sometimes daily. Earlier this spring he got a new scooter which he loved immediately, but after a quick test run he circled back around and said, "I'd still like a violin, you know."

If we had been in New Jersey this year, we could have enrolled Nikolas in the Suzuki violin program at Westminster College in Princeton. Instead we came to the city of Mozart and discovered that there is no Suzuki violin program here, or any other instrumental program for very young kids, for that matter. And Nikolas continued to keep up with his requests for a violin. "I really want a violin!" he would plead again and again. It was the first item on his Christmas list, and the only item that he has brought up multiple times.

As luck would have it, the woman from Spain who sits next to me in class is a piano teacher. I put her on the quest for a violin teacher, and before too long she spotted a flier advertising violin lessons. Sarah, his teacher, is a student at the Mozarteum and comes to our apartment for half hour lessons that include some singing, some music games, and some violin. She came two weeks ago for an introductory class where Nikolas stood still, completely captivated by her gorgeous violin, hardly able to breath his excitement was so great.

Today Nikolas finally got his hands on his own violin, rented from the Mastri company in Germany for very little money. They sent it to us in the mail this week, without us having paid a single cent or having given a credit card number, an invoice simply tucked inside the box. It was like Christmas came early.

There is something about the violin that seems to speak deeply to Nikolas, at least at this point in his life. Somehow he knows to treat it with great care and respect and somehow he understands that he does not know how to play it (yet) but it is not something that you simply play around with like a new toy. It was fascinating to watch him during his lesson, not acting like a three year old at all, a funny little smile on his face as if he was finally doing something he knew he was meant to do all along.