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Here is the story of Anthony and John's friendship:In the summer of 1972, I had just finished my freshman year at Allegheny College, and joined PEER, a student run summer day camp for 7-12 year olds referred by local teachers. Each day our station wagons collected and dopped off the kids. Anthony was one of my five 9-year-old boys. That was the age I had started piano, and at 19, I considered myself a pretty serious classical piano student. So when the door to the side porch of Anthony's house swung open to reveal an old upright piano, I noticed. When I asked him about it the next day, he said he wanted lessons, but his foster mother couldn't afford them.Anthony was a kid ripe with an uncanny creativity, sensitivity, and desire to learn. We started meeting on his side porch at 10 am every Saturday morning for piano lessons. His piano was troubled: several of the piano keys around middle C didn't work, so we had to transpose his songs higher up on the keyboard. When he eventually performed in his grade school talent show, he was amazed at how nice the pieces actually sounded in their proper register. It snowed in winter, and it was cold on the unheated side porch, but Anthony practiced regularly and rendered his lesson wearing old gloves with open fingertips.He loved concerts, so I took him to programs at the college, to my home in Erie, PA, and even to the big amphitheater in Chautaugua, NY. I left Allegheny College in 1975, losing myself in nine years of graduate studies and losing contact with Anthony.Thirty-two years passed. Then, one December day, after returning from lunch, I found a phone message waiting from Italy - it was Anthony - he'd been looking for me, and asked me to e-mail him. I locked the door to my office, waited for the emotion to subside, and began to type. We exchanged voluminous emails, and then finally came together when he visited the states for a business meeting. When he was 19 years old, he had struck out on his own, moving to Washington, DC, and eventually joined the Air Force, in pursuit of learning languages. He became fluent in French, German, Italian, Russian, and American Sign Language. He spent most of his adult life in Europe where he used his language skills to interpret for Arms Control Treaty negotiatons and inspections in Eastern and Western Europe. He lived 10 years in Germany, where he acquired a grand piano, and shuttled back and forth to Moscow, attending concerts at the Moscow Conservatory. He now lives in Italy, near Venice, where art and music remain an important part of his life.Anthony's successes were accompanied by many hard times. He told me that his love of music carried him through those hard times, and that he wanted to thank me again for fostering that love as a child. When I eventually get to Europe, we will again attend concerts together - perhaps at La Fenice Opera House or even the Moscow Conservatory - the gift of gratitude that survived 3 decades. And I want to bring music to him - I want to bring my chamber musician friends to Italy to play for him and his people there. Music glues us together, over time, and over continents. I think Pablo Casals had it right when he said, "Perhaps it is music that will save the world."--John Holter
John Holter
Monica Martin
Elizabeth Devereux
Gayane Grigoryan
Julie Lee
Seth Woods
Alessandra Commisso
Elizabeth Etter
Anthony Warner
If you are interested in participating or learning more about the festival, please contact us at anthonywarner@cafesamovar.com