Some of those who are reading this may be very familiar with True Contrarian, but have not previously heard about the Walden School. Others may be Walden alumni, but don't know about True Contrarian. I will attempt to explain and unite these organizations which are both such essential elements in my life.
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| The Walden School Summer Music Camp and Summer Music Festival |
In 1969, I had studied piano for two years at the Peabody Preparatory, a pre-college division of that music school in Baltimore. I was told about a new program which had been designed to teach and encourage music composition, called Musicianship. It would be directed by Grace Cushman, along with a bright young student assistant named David Hogan, whom everyone nicknamed "Hoagie". After discussing it with my parents, I decided to sign up for the course. I thought it would probably be a boring discussion of music theory and memorization, but was delighted to discover that we learned how to sight-read; how to play recorder; how to sing Gregorian chants; and most interesting and challenging of all, how to really write music. I continued with the program during its entire six-year course of study. One especially memorable moment was when Hoagie, at that time still a conservatory student himself, was asked to write a piece in Dorian mode. (For those who are musicians, this would be similar to the key of D minor, but with a B natural instead of a B flat.) We met in an ancient, poorly lit room in a house which was later torn down to build the student dorms, in order to listen to his required composition for that week. All of us were stunned by the hauntingly beautiful "Come Close the Curtains of Your Eyes". I never forgot that song even though I didn't hear it again for several more years.
While in the Musicianship program, I learned about a summer camp with many of the same faculty members, which involved a five-week session of intense musical composition where a new song had to be written each week. There would also be a lot of hiking and other more typical camp activities. I was skeptical about it at first, with my only camp experiences being limited primarily to sitting around talking about what real Boy Scouts would be doing instead, while being bitten by mosquitoes and wondering what our friends were up to. The Walden School proved to be entirely different: we were constantly busy with all kinds of creative activities, hikes, swimming, touring unusual places, and just plain fun. There was a person with the title of "secret inspector" who made sure that we kept our rooms clean; we had to deduce who it was. Naturally, we all guessed wrong. Each night before going to sleep, we would sing several songs, which is where I finally heard "Come Close the Curtains of Your Eyes" again. I instantly recognized it from that long-ago recital, and have continued to this day to sing it whenever I'm in a reflective mood. Leaving after five weeks to go back home felt like going back down to "ordinary life" from an unusually elevated plane of existence.
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| The Walden School community gathers to sing on top of Mount Monadnock |
The brief period I spent at Walden had an even bigger impact on my life than I was able to appreciate at that time, especially involving interpersonal relationships--some of which have endured to this day. I had a mentor named Jeff Cohen who helped me enormously to overcome my natural introverted nature, and to express myself through my music and conversation. I have been fortunate in being able to visit Jeff from time to time in Paris where he has been living as a full-time musician for many years. Through other Walden School alumni events, including musical forums and dinner parties, I have been able to keep in touch with many fascinating people.
I am committed to keeping the Walden School flourishing into the future by contributing financially, especially in recent years when my own business has been able to afford this luxury. If you are interested in knowing more about the school, you can click on the link near the bottom of this page. I believe the Walden School is absolutely unique in its program which develops both creativity and interpersonal relationships in a nurturing setting.
In August 1996, I began a blog for the primary purpose of finding out what this new toy called the internet was all about. I was thrilled to be able to receive e-mail from places like Australia, where people would tell me what they thought of my analysis of the global financial markets. One of my regular readers encouraged me to turn it into a full-time business, which I finally did in February 2006. I send daily updates to my subscribers each day except Saturdays. During the past five years, I have been traveling around the world to meet as many of my subscribers as possible in person. This is definitely a legacy of my Walden days, in which I learned why nothing can replace a face-to-face relationship. I also invest money in separately managed accounts for those subscribers who are qualified clients. I often apply the same kinds of creativity, thoroughness, and networking with others in the financial field which I had learned at the Walden School so many years ago.
As my workload began to exceed 70 hours per week near the end of 2010, I realized that I needed someone to be my assistant. This person would have to accomplish an unusual combination of tasks: completely redesigning the web site; traveling to numerous cities to meet potential investors; planning conferences and encouraging people to attend; using the internet to promote the company; and related activities such as setting up corporate pages on social networking sites. I was concerned about being able to find one person who could competently do all of the above. At one of Walden's alumni events, I spoke with someone who was in her first year at Northwestern University and who had attended the Walden School for four summers. I had previously chatted briefly with Danielle Kerani at a couple of the Walden musical forums where we had performed our original compositions, but December 2010 was the first time we discussed our mutual career aspirations. In my mind, I had imagined selecting someone with more extensive experience, but Danielle seemed bright and creative as Walden alumni almost always prove to be. Danielle has far exceeded all expectations; I no longer worry about whether she can accomplish all of the necessary tasks and more, but about whether I'll be able to retain her once she has graduated from college and will be able to select among an unlimited number of promising career choices available to her. In addition to her winning personality, Danielle is able to adapt quickly to a wide variety of situations and often notices important details which I have overlooked.
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| Kaplan and Kerani in Evanston, 2011 (photo credit: Jang Hyun Kim) |
LINKS TO OTHER PAGES:
The Walden School
An artist colony for young musicians and music teachers with an emphasis on original composition and interpersonal relationships.
True Contrarian
Unique outlook on the financial markets and on life. A new reminiscence is added for each update.
AK Kerani
New designer company label, featuring hand-knit T-shirts and goods.
