How a kiss on the hand birthed a family musical heritage
In the year 1972, on or about, in the tiny town of Brookings, South Dakota, a simple kiss on the hand of a high school girl led indirectly to the birth of a quite prolific musical family.
The great Rafael Mendez, one of the most accomplished and stunningly virtuosic trumpeters of the 20th century was in town to give a master class and a concert. As the story goes, Rafael finished his performance, and during the ovation that followed, he took the hand of one of the students in the band and gave it a gentle kiss.
He was a gentleman to the core, and loved sharing his great talents with young people. We don’t know what exactly led to this simple and harmless exchange, yet this simple kiss on the hand made the young girl want to take her music lessons much more seriously.
In time this girl moved out of the house, got married, and had children of her own. She passed on this love of music to her own children, one of whom went on to study music quite seriously there in South Dakota, and then later under the great David Hickman at Arizona State University.
The individual that I am referring to is a fellow by the name of Del Lyren, who has achieved a thing or two in his time on this earth. Notably hosting an International Trumpet Guild conference, and teaching trumpet at the university level – which happens to be at my grandfather’s alma mater!
Pretty cool story about how one simple kiss on the hand led to a musical family as this did. Del and I spoke about this among many other things in the most recent episode of the Trumpet Dynamics podcast. We were able to record it all hanging out on his back porch while I was visiting Minnesota recently, so it has an added layer of nuance that you just can’t get over zoom or Squadcast.
I think you’ll enjoy it if you give it a chance 🙂