Article March 5, 2007 Issue

witness to the presence of Love

KYLE WILEY PICKETT

Kyle Wiley Pickett is the music director and conductor for the Juneau Symphony in Alaska and the North State Symphony in Northern California. He studied flute with Frances Williams at Stanford University and describes how he learned much more from his teacher than just technique, control, and fluency.

I'll never forget how just before my senior recital, Frances gave me a note backstage that read, "Know that man's real employment is the effortless reflecting of Mind, and that he is divinely equipped to meet every demand made upon him to express or witness the presence of God, Love—and that the strength, wisdom, ability, joy, zeal, and the consciousness of success are rightly His."

I've carried that note around with me for years, as a reminder of what my true work is when conducting an orchestra. But Frances also taught me about many other aspects of life. We talked often about ways of appraoching study, performance, human relationships, and even raising children.

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