James M. Stephenson

And then luckily, uh, it turned out our coffee break in the morning was the same time, and other people's were not.

And so I had, you know, a, a week of [laughs]- Of every day having a chat with Bob Reynolds for an hour and, uh, discovering who he was, and that started the friendship.

Then I had him come to Richardson, to the Pierce High School, where I was teaching several times, and he would spend two or three days there.

And so not only did I see him as a, uh, as a pedagogue and importantly as an artist, but that, that was the beginning of a friendship that continued to grow deeper and deeper, uh, as time went on and expanded to some other folks as well.

But it was, um, it was his, uh, vision and commitment to the artistry of what we did that was-- I, I think inspired me most.

It was a-- He was a, a tremendous human being, a, a great p- person.

And, um, and of course, on stage, we often, in America, talk to our audience.

So just that ad hoc sto- storytelling about usually the composer or your own process, that's a normal part of being a violinist or a musician.

Um, when I moved to Germany to join the Artemis String Quartet, um, I guess...

I mean, I guess I was partially naive in, in the realization of my place in history, being at that moment the only American violinist in a top European string quartet, the fact that I was a mother to two small children, the fact that I was a woman.

And so it's a story.

It's a new piece written by James Stephenson.

And, uh, so that's about a 45-minute work, and it's geared towards fourth to sixth graders.

Then the, what we're doing this week is Trip to the Phil, and this is a classical program, and we tie it in with the botanical gardens.