15. The Way Life Should Be

And so the adventure continued.... I had been studying, composing, playing and working in and out of the music business in New York for seven years with varying degrees of success, and now it was time to simplify. I still wanted to pursue a career in music, but if that wasn't possible I at least wanted to be able get to the beach in 20 minutes instead of spending two hours in traffic. So I arrived in Portland, Maine to see what awaited me there.

As soon as we got settled in, I put out the usual feelers for work teaching, copying or playing music. I also got to work on my latest composition, a three movement Easter Suite for Flute and Piano which I had started in NY but had not yet completed. It was my magnum opus to date with a 12 tone fugue planned for the middle of the last movement. When the Easter Suite was finished I took it to the Chairman of the USM Music Department as part of my initial inquiry into enrolling as a graduate student in composition. It was the deciding factor that swayed him in his acceptance of my application, but I was never able to enroll due to pressing financial needs which being a student would prevent me from meeting.

I had some minor success initially finding a solo piano gig at a restaurant/lounge run by a big fan of Bill Evans who I also admire. I got one piano student, had a session with a local producer and some other musicians, found a copying job for the music director of a local high school, and applied for a sales job at the local piano dealer. That was all well and good, but it still wouldn't pay the bills and now there was a baby on the way.

So, I worked at a variety of full time temporary jobs. I worked in the accounting office of a semiconductor manufacturer, in a warehouse, in construction, and in other jobs, some too painful to recount. But it was while I was working at a saw sales and service company that fortune finally shined on me.