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Importance of Mentors (By Madeline Frank)

Full Spectrum entertains, educates at Qatar Academy > Air Force ...

Throughout your life you will have remarkable mentors and teachers. How do you appreciate and thank them?

Your mentors and teachers show you how to do the work and inspire and motivate you to a higher level of achievement. They model how you should do the work and how to lead!

While I was a student at the Juilliard School, I played Principal viola at the 92nd Y Orchestra which gave me a stipend to help me pay my rent. One of the section members was an amazing and inspiring amateur violist named Herman Silver, age 75. He was passionate about playing chamber music on the weekends at his home with the best musicians in New York City. Herman would loan me the music to study for two weeks and would tell me the date of our concert. I would go to the Lincoln Center Public Library, borrow the recordings to study, and practice the music.

Herman enjoyed sharing his passion for chamber music with the next generation and had marvelous professionals join us. Herman was a marvelous and inspiring mentor. He introduced me to Toscha Samaroff, a concert violinist, who did studio work and recordings in New York City. He was a remarkable violinist, who had studied with Leopold Auer. When I met him he was 75 years old. Toscha played the very challenging first violin parts to Felix Mendelssohn Octet & Louis Spohr's Octet. Toscha was a remarkably strong leader who played with a beautiful tone and gorgeous phrasing. Herman Silver said, "Toscha Samaroff sounds just like Jascha Heifetz!"; a high compliment indeed. In these chamber works I played the first viola parts and Herman played second. It was one of the best experiences in my life playing with Toscha Samaroff. He was a magnificent musician. He led and encouraged others to play at their highest level of playing.

When Toscha came to visit his daughter, Lee, in Virginia Beach several years later, we arranged to play Handel Halvorsen's Passacaglia for violin and viola and other works. It was a beautiful chamber music experience I will long remember!

Another marvelous violinist who played with Herman Silver's Saturday night concert series was Stanley Hoffman. He studied violin with Arthur Grumiaux and studied at the Juilliard School with Mischa Mischakoff, Oscar Shumsky, and Raphael Bronstein. When I met Stanley, he was 47 years old. Herman Silver said, "Stanley plays Paganini 's Caprices brilliantly."

He was a member of the New York Philharmonic, and later the Jerusalem Radio Orchestra.

We played Tchaikovsky's Souvenir de Florence String Sextet in D minor with Stanley playing the difficult and beautiful first violin part. Stanley was a marvelous leader with his lovely phrasing and beautiful sound. When you played with Stanley you played at your highest level of playing too!

Over the 7 or 8 years we played together, we also played Brahms String Quintets, Mozart String Quintets, Beethoven String Quintets, and Dvorak String Quintets. It was an amazing experience.

Many years later I taught and played these same works with my students in concert. It's all about passing the mentorship gifts on to the next generation!

What are the three things you can do to mentor and teach others, to pass on the gifts your mentors gave to you?

1) Pass on their mentorship gifts to others! Dr. John Maxwell, number 1 leadership guru, and one of my mentors says, "Make people development your top priority and see everyone you mentor as a 10."

2) Model the way for others to follow by listening, observing, connecting, adding value to them, respecting them, empowering others, and instructing them.

Lift others up. Help the person you are mentoring by encouraging, motivating, and inspiring them to a higher level of excellence. Take them under your wing just like Herman Silver, Toscha Samaroff, and Stanley Hoffman did for me.

3) Mentors have a positive attitude and lead the way for the mentee to follow them!

Remarkable mentors and teachers make the difference! They help you to become the success you are today! Pass on their gifts to you, by mentoring the next generation to leave a lasting legacy from them.


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