Just got off the phone with a favorite professor I had in college, Dr. Bob Bennet. Not only is the man a great piano teacher, but he is also a true gentleman. He is retired now and dealing with arthritis in his hands and fingers, which has taken its toll on his playing. This makes me sad. This man not only taught piano, but he also made sure he passed along all the performing tradtions that he could, either by recounting his own experiences, or bringing personal friends to our campus, such as Gaby Casadesus, for instance, who could talk to us first hand about Ravel. Some innocent and sincere questions for a certain contingent of our listers. Over the past few weeks I have gotten the feeling that some of you around here *seem* (I repeat *seem*) to distrust what goes on in the academic arena. Some of your statements have been subtle and some have not. First, you would like to hear your music performed. I am not a full-time composer, but I write when the fit takes me, and out of the 5 substantial pieces I have written, all 5 have been performed. By going to college, I know wind-ensemble/orchestra directors, choir directors, string players, brass players, etc. Sometimes my music makes it to the stage, other times it's done in the living room, (old instrumentalist friends lured over by the promise of beer and burgers afterward). How do you plan to get your music at least run through privately? Secondly, I contacted a professor at UC Davis that I didn't even know, for some orchestration tips. Not only did the professor, Dr. Richard Swift, invite me to his home, but he refused money and only asked that I move some firewood in the house for him. We spent all afternoon talking and never once did he make me feel less than human, even though our styles and tastes were totally different. (Him-Martino, me-Martinu, for example) He knew exactly what I wanted to do and helped me get there. He never asked for my pedigree. Have some of you been treated poorly by a professor? What happened? Some of you have said that you are self-taught. Aren't you afraid that you might end up unveiling the musical equivalent of a Tandy 64 at a Pentium III convention? (Of course, Schoenberg was largely self taught....) Couldn't those old academic types help you both cover old ground more efficiently? Just some questions as I think back to my college days.... John Smyth