Dear Mr Painter,
You’ve left us.
The day before you died, I told friends I wanted to write you an open letter of thanks. Now it has become a farewell.
You were the voice of modern music education in this country.
You showed us that music was larger than rules, institutions, or fashion.
You were oblivious to passing trends, not out of arrogance, but because you simply had no time for distraction. You showed us that the heart of music is what matters. You worked us hard, but never by fear or threat. Your strength was of a different order: a kind that lifted people.
You gave us a strain of ancient, Antisthenian cynicism: to value what is true above what is fashionable, to see through hollow convention, to choose the human over the superficial. You made me believe that studying an instrument is one of the most worthwhile things a person can ever do.
And yes, you are the ACO’s founding father. You handed the keys to us with humility. Part of you still lives in ANAM too, another institution you helped save and shape.
And I promise: we will not let your values be destroyed. We will fight for music and for education, in the trenches if we must, with treble clefs, violins and drums blazing. The future of students, and the future of this country’s music, is too important to abandon.
With gratitude and resolve,
Richard Tognetti
