Learning what your avenues are

- [Instructor] This is an audio course. Thank you for listening. (upbeat music) - [Interviewer] So, you know, I want to start like, way back. I want to start with, I want you to visualize little Dan. - [Dan] I can see him. - [Interviewer] Okay, little Dan. So what age you want to start? Let's say, let's say before 10. - [Dan] Cool. - [Interviewer] Where were you living at the time? - [Dan] I was in Pittsburgh. - [Interviewer] Okay. [Dan] I was in Pittsburgh. I can actually tell you my very first memory. Which, which is formative. - [Interviewer] This is awesome. All right, let's go. - [Dan] Ready? - [Interviewer] Yeah. - [Dan] So my very first memory, literally was sneaking out of bed when I, must have been three or maybe four, but we moved house when I was four, so, it was very young. It was in the first house, sneaking out of bed and sneaking after bedtime, sneaking down the stairs and sitting on the landing to peek around the corner and watch my parents play music together. - [Interviewer] Okay. I thought this was going a different direction. Oh, okay. Okay. Music. So, all right. This, this is a family show, but I mean, yeah, yeah. - [Dan] Yes. They were playing music together. - [Interviewer] Okay. - [Dan] In the living room. And I remember just sitting there and watching them do what they did. My parents were, were professional musicians though. So, I got a chance to watch my father, who was a flute player in the Pittsburgh symphony for many years. My mother, who was a very successful opera singer, make music. Not in front of thousands of people, as they would usually do, but just together in this little house and have a wonderful time doing it. So, my first memories were really of people who were excellent at what they did, but also really enjoying and loving what it was they were doing, not for any reason, other than for the work itself. And that, that had a huge role in, in where things would go. Sometimes they would have friends over, from the symphony or amateur musicians just to play, but it was always classical music. And they just loved that, they loved that genre of music. - [Interviewer] Do you play music yourself? - [Dan] I grew up playing the cello. So, I played all the way through college and then stopped playing. I actually thought about playing, and I called my called my dad at the end of my freshman year of college. And I said, "you know, I think this is what I want to do for a living." And he was thrilled. Could hear it over the phone. He was, you know, of course my son, he's going to be a musician as I always hoped. And he said, "this is wonderful. We'll do exactly for you what my parents did for me,." Which was challenging because both my parents were, were immigrant children. "We will, we will support you for a year. You come home and you practice every day in your room, from nine to five. And then when that year is over, you go, and you audition for music conservatories and off you'll go." And I thought, wow, that sounds horrible. You know? So, there's no way I'm doing this. I mean, I'm not going to sit at home, in my room alone with my parents. The next year, I knew that at college, in college I was able to play ball. I was writing for the paper. I was doing a radio show. I had a lot of friends, and there were girls. And there were definitely none of those things back in my room at home. So that wasn't happening. So, I figured I needed to find another avenue to explore my love for music. (instrumental music) I started playing the piano really young. I played, gosh, I don't know, five or six years, and just wasn't working for me. And that's when I picked up cello, which is my father's favorite instrument. Which is why it was chosen for me. It's always been a challenge for me to sit still. Maybe that was it with piano. Although, you know, you look at certain pianists, like Jerry Lee Lewis, you don't have to sit still. - [Interviewer] Right. - [Dan] But, it was a challenge. I, it's always been a challenge for me in music. And it's, it's one of the things that when I look at how people thrive, whether they're young, I mean I have a little boy, I have an eight year old boy who can't sit still. So, can he thrive while he's sitting still? I don't think so. And that's one of the many, many aspects that comes into how do people thrive in life that I think are important to consider. So, no, I tried piano. Couldn't sit still didn't work. Tried cello. I couldn't sit still long enough to really put in a lot of practice because I wanted to get up and move, which my dad didn't understand because he was the guy who sits and focuses and plays. - [Interviewer] When I think of the cello, I think the worst part of that, I think it's the most beautiful sounding instrument, but carrying that to practice every day. - [Dan] All right, so here's the deal. Yes, it is a beast to carry to practice, and you're wondering why you're doing it, especially when you're getting teased in grade school. But then you get to college, and you realize that having a cello is kind of sexy. - [Interviewer] Got the ladies? - [Dan] You got to work the cello angle. Yeah. So I carried that thing all the time, even if I wasn't about to practice. It was, "where are you going?" "I don't know. I'm going to go to football game." "Why do you have your cello?" "I, because I can." - [Interviewer] Yeah. Yeah. - [Dan] So yeah, no. It's, music's always been a huge part of my life. Listening, watching my parents, listening growing up, watching how much it meant to them. And for them, it was really about making music. Clearly, and doing what they ended up doing for a living. And for me, I think that music was certainly partly playing, a lot of hearing, listening to it, but it, it morphed into something much bigger later on. And that part of my exploration in life, I think which started with walking down the stairs, crawling down the stairs and listening, through playing then continued on to really think about, how can I help people who are interested in music, and how can I have get music out to to a broader audience and help them understand the power that it has?