In the late Sixties and when my children were all in school, I decided to start playing the piano again after having studied for ten years. I began studying with Virginia Calmeyer, a wonderful warm piano teacher and friend and one of the first persons to start getting together a group of private musicians in Chapel Hill. After a few years she and her husband (from The Netherlands) moved abroad. She asked me to take over some of her students and that was the beginning of a new stage in my life after majoring in Zoology in college. I continued to learn as I taught. Before long The Chapel Hill Music Teachers Association was formed and several of us got together and produced a handbook. I began studying with Barbara Crittenden in the late seventies. We started out playing duets because I felt more comfortable playing next to another warm body, but soon I was playing solo pieces! I not only benefitted from a remarkable teacher but gained a lot of confidence. Among her other students were Barbara Clyde, Betsy Mann (also teachers), and Don Hartman. We became friends and in the early Eighties I talked them into trying some eight-handed music.
Not much had been written for eight hands until then, but we scoured both sides of the Atlantic and found enough music to begin performing. What fun we had. As the FourMost, we played together for over twenty years in various places in Chapel Hill (including our own student’s recitals). It certainly changed my life.
Not much had been written for eight hands until then, but we scoured both sides of the Atlantic and found enough music to begin performing. What fun we had. As the FourMost, we played together for over twenty years in various places in Chapel Hill (including our own student’s recitals). It certainly changed my life.
The FourMost - 8 hands piano quartet - Don Hartman, Dot Lineberger, Betsy Mann, Barbara Clyde. 1999
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