{"id":464,"date":"2011-09-08T17:11:32","date_gmt":"2011-09-08T17:11:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/index.php\/2011\/09\/08\/otp02\/"},"modified":"2011-09-08T17:11:32","modified_gmt":"2011-09-08T17:11:32","slug":"otp02","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/otp02\/","title":{"rendered":"Off Topic Post-Influences"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"music_stand_in_empty_hall_42-16937056\"I\u2019ve been thinking a lot lately about \u201cinfluences.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

When I was younger, there were people I looked up to– just like we all did when we were kids.<\/span><\/p>\n

Even to this very day, there are people who influence and mold the direction my life takes.<\/span><\/p>\n

But today, I wanted to talk about one of the biggest influences in my life from my High School days.<\/span><\/p>\n

Music had been a constant for my brother, sister and I since we\u2019d been very young. Not just instrumental, but choral groups as well.<\/span><\/p>\n

When I arrived to tenth grade at Huntington High School back in 1979, I continued to participate in the various music programs available at the time.<\/span><\/p>\n

Concert band, marching band. The wind ensemble.<\/span><\/p>\n

One day, at the appointed time, I arrived in the choral room at HHS as a newbie freshman. It was a large room with permanent wooden rises located at the ass-end of the school close to the auditorium.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sitting at the piano was a man of average height with white hair. I won\u2019t lie to you; he initially scared the living crap out of me.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNo, no, no! It\u2019s IN-EGGSHELL-SEE DEO! Take it again from measure 25!\u201d he\u2019d scream while pounding on the piano.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Andy\"This man was Andrew Housholder.<\/span><\/p>\n

The fear lasted, maybe a couple of weeks. Respect followed. Then, adoration.<\/span><\/p>\n

This man took almost anybody into the choir. And by the first concert, had built a group of hormonally challenged, apathetic high school students into a cohesive singing phenomena.<\/span><\/p>\n

We would often perform college or professional level pieces. \u201cUncle Andy\u201d is one of the reasons I received music scholarships for college (where I meet another amazing director and choral master\u2014Lex Dashnaw. But that\u2019s another posting).<\/span><\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve never seen it, go watch \u201cMr. Holland\u2019s Opus.\u201d That closing scene, with decades of students returning to pay tribute to Mr. Holland, a band teacher played by Richard Dreyfuss. It\u2019s like that.<\/span><\/p>\n

Only better.<\/span><\/p>\n

I bring this up today, because at 7:30 this morning, Andrew Housholder passed away, surrounded by his family.<\/span><\/p>\n

For the last couple of weeks I\u2019ve watched kudos, prayers and anecdotes come in from all over the United States on a Facebook page setup by Ellen Housholder Rife, Uncle Andy\u2019s daughter.<\/span><\/p>\n

The impact that this one man had on my life, and on the life of hundreds, perhaps thousands of my fellow HHS Alumni was profound.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure this man has made his way to heaven and has taken over running the choirs of the Heavenly Host by now.<\/span><\/p>\n

I can almost hear it now.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIN-EGGSHELL-SEE DEO, Saint Michael!! Tenors and Archangels, take it from the ‘Halleluiah’ in measure 31…\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Thank you Andy.  You will be missed.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Peace<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve been thinking a lot lately about \u201cinfluences.\u201d When I was younger, there were people I looked up to– just like we all did when we were kids. Even to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":462,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c40-myblog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}