Letter to the editor: Music has always mattered at Falk School

I was a student at Falk School in its early days in the 1940s, during a time when it only went up to the sixth grade. The article that you wrote about Maria Sassani brought back all sorts of wonderful memories.

Our annual music programs (“Peter and the Wolf” and “Pier Gynt” come to mind), in which all of the students participated, are quite firmly etched in my memory banks. 

It would appear that the role of music at Falk has remained as it was back in my day, by which I mean that learning to read music was considered every bit as important as learning to read English. When I got into the public school system (seventh grade), I was astonished to find that my classmates were not able to read music. “Didn’t you go to school,” I would ask. 

That skill has served me lo these many years. I worked my way through school singing in churches and synagogues (cantorial soloist), where my ability to read music meant that I was comfortable sight reading at a service when I had no time to rehearse. To this day, I play chamber music (violin and viola earlier, now mandolin and mandola) weekly, sight reading whatever is in front of me.

Thus, I applaud this aspect of today's Falk School, knowing that the education therein provided will maintain the graduates in excellent stead.

Mark M. Rubenstein
Bachelor of science (1957) and M.D. (1961) from Pitt