Ari Moves Up

Ari was playing on a nice little cello, until it got smashed.  After that, she played on a not-so-nice, littler cello, one of my shop instruments.  Mr. Marsden kept suggesting, and then flat-out demanding, that she get a new cello.  Unlike violins, cellos are not cheap, even wholesale.  I knew exactly what she should have, and even had a picture of it from my supplier, but it's not something you just buy every day.  I knew Ari would be excited about her bigger, richer sound once we got her out of her little crackerbox of a cello and playing on a full-size.  When it finally came, I took it out of the box, set up the bridge, soundpost and strings and put it back, so that she could play on it right away when she got home.  Exciting!  It was like meeting a new friend, one you know you're going to grow with and love.

I knew she would be inspired by the switch, and it was perfect timing.  With Xanthe's baptism coming up, Ari got right to work on a piece to play for the event called "Love at Home."  I can tell you, I was in love with the beautiful sounds floating around our home as Ari learned the piece and practiced it repeatedly, just to hear the gorgeous sound of the cello. 

I was reluctant to let Ari play at the baptism, with a new song and a bigger cello and only days to adjust, but we have an extra lesson scheduled with The Great Mr. Marsden, and with all of Ari's extra practicing, it's going to be fine.  I'm proud of Ari, and so grateful she has cello.  It suits her.  Ari and the new cello will spend a lot of time together during the next few years.  I can see her in a black dress, hauling it to orchestra concerts.  In pajamas, practicing before school.  Unbuckling her case at countless lessons and rehearsals.  And finally, loading it into the car when we take her to college.  This is a cello that could be in the corner of her first apartment and by her side when her baby is toddling around plucking the strings, just like Tziporah is now. 

In some ways, it's scary to have this cello, this harbinger of the future, in our house.  Wasn't Ari just playing on a big viola that I converted into the tiniest of cellos?  I mean, Suzuki Cello School Volume One itself, just the book, was practically bigger than Ari!  Through the years, playing the cello has been a constant.  Whether Ari was at peace or in a tempest, the cello was there every morning and the steadfast and inveterate Mr. Marsden was there every single week, as if to say, not even in words, "You can trust music.  It is bigger and stronger than you, and it will always be there for you."

It was the famous cellist Pablo Casals who said,  "The child must know that he is a miracle, that since the beginning of the world there hasn't been, and until the end of the world there will not be, another child like him."  I love Pablo Casals.  And he described Ari perfectly!  I'm so glad she's here, and so happy about where she's going in life.  New Cello, take care of her along the way, wouldja?