01/19/2024
A beautiful article written for the Fairbanks Daily Newsminer by Kris Capps:
Peggy Swartzâs cello students never forgot her, or her husband Jerry Swartz.
When Jerry died back in November, some of her former students asked Peggy if they could perform a concert at Raven Landing and dedicate it to her late husband. Peggy agreed and the concert took place on Sunday, Dec. 17.
Those young cello students are now all adult cello players. In a tribute to the Swartzes, Rebecca Levey, mother of two of the cellists, described the grown musicians as âyoung men who are airplane pilots, boat captains, mechanics, guides, managers, birders, naturalists, and yes â cellists.â
When those cellists were little boys, they took their first lessons from Peggy Swartz or as Levey explained, the Swartzes âadopted our family into their A-frame Music Studio on Yankovich.â
A big draw for those feisty boys was the airplane that Jerry was building in the basement.
âMy then four-year-old son was sold on the spot with music lessons, if every week it involved a tour with Jerry, of progress on the plane,â Levey said.
Jerry and Peggy Swartz were both pilots, After every cello lesson, the young boys would help pound rivets on the fuselage, in places adult hands couldnât reach.
Jerry was a biology professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and knew all about birds and animals â including the âfalcons that lived in the houseâ and the quail that lived in the basement.
âWhen our younger cellist son began catching voles as pets, Jerry, forever the researcher and faculty, saw an opportunity and gave us two glass terrariums so we could âstudyâ these creatures more easily,â Levey said. âOnce, we found a dead redpoll and Jerry helped us with bird taxidermy. It was our first time stuffing an animal and granted, it looked like it had been through a very bad hurricane.â
He also encouraged the boys to obtain a grouse carcass, boil the meat off and then rebuild the skeleton,
âAgain,â Levey said. âThank you Jerry. Yes, we totally did it. Do you have any idea how many pieces there are to a grouse skeleton and there are no numbers on them. You cannot look at the back of the box to find all of the border pieces and work in from there.â
It was clear, she said, that her own boys Mac and Van, benefitted from time with both Peggy and Jerry.
But back to cello lessons.
âThey may look like fine musicians now, but they were pretty busy little boys,â Peggy Swartz said.
Levey offered this example: âBecause a bathroom break is half the length of a cello lesson for a five-year-old, and because music lessons require stillness to a degree, my boys piled out of the car on Yankovich at the head of the drive, ran into the woods and peed, and then ran like heck to beat the car to Peggyâs porch â an attempt at expending excess energy and preparing, if at all possible, for success.â
She usually found them in Jerryâs office, waiting for their lesson, and fascinated by his typewriter and everything else Jerry shared with them.
It wasnât always easy keeping those boys focused on practicing. At one point, Peggy told the frustrated mother: âWe donât know that these boys will be cellists. We canât know that. But we can know one thing â they are and will always be boys. You are teaching boys. Cello is just the content.â
Mac and Van Levey both graduated from universities where they majored in music and they are both talented cellists. Itâs clear from this concert that the other boys continued playing cello as well. All five of these cellists went on to become part of the core group of the Alaska Cello Intensive.
âI never intended that all my students be professional musicians,â said Peggy, who taught music for about 60 years. âSome did, but many more did not.â
One thing that did appear to stick, however, was their appreciation for music.
âSuzuki students learn some discipline and I think that serves them well in other endeavors,â she said.
After all those students and all those years âI gained as much as they did, I think,â she said.
That special concert on Dec. 17 made her feel like she did something useful with her life, she said, adding, âI thought it was very nice.â
The concert offered a variety of classical pieces, including one Peggy requested: Requiem Op.66 for Three Cellos and Piano.
âIt was written by a famous cellist and cello teacher, as a tribute to a friend of his who had died,â Peggy said.
The first tune that all Suzuki students learn is âTwinkle Twinkle Little Star.â
âThatâs always in all the concerts and generally itâs the last tune they play,â Peggy said. âItâs something they can all do together, of all ages.â
So of course, the last song performed at the Raven Landing concert was âTwinkle Twinkle Little Star.â
The cellists included Cirdan Vonnahme, Joshua Swank, Hank Zacheis, Mac Levey and Van Levey. Pianists were visiting musicians Frank Huang and Laura Shen.
Reach columnist/community editor Kris Capps at [email protected]. Follow her at Twitter.com/FDNMKris.
