I noted GUEST,Gail's post with some interest.

In 1957, when I had definitely decided that I wanted to change my college major from English to Music, I stopped into the University of Washington School of Music office to register. As the registrar and I began filling out the papers, she asked me if I wanted to be in performance (speaks for itself) or education (become a public school music teacher). Mainly, I was interested in the music theory classes and the discipline of playing and/or singing in ensembles.

I said, "Performance."
She asked, "Voice or instrument?"
Since I already had a good voice teacher (and having interviewed the four voice teachers at the U. of W. and decided that I was better off with Mrs. Bianchi), I said "Instrument."
She asked, "What instrument?"
"Classical guitar," I responded.
Her eyes glazed over. "But—we don't offer that."
"No problem," I said. "I already have a good guitar teacher."
"No," she said. "What I mean is, the guitar is not a legitimate, recognized musical instrument."
This, despite the fact that Andres Segovia had performed in Seattle less than a year before, and John Williams had done a concert at the U. of W,'s Meany Hall auditorium just a few months back.
She folded my application and dropped it into the wastebasket.

Fortunately, one of the more prominent music professors heard about it and went to bat for me. He arranged an audition for me with Dr. Stanley Chappel, the head of the Music School, and that's how I got in as the U. of W. Music School's first classic guitarist.

Now, the U. of W. Music School has a guitar department headed first by Steve Novacek, a concert and recording artist, who recently retired from teaching at the U. of W., and now by Michael Partington, another concertizer and recording artist. They've turned out a number of pretty fine guitarists, including Elizabeth Brown who, in addition to concretizing and recording, heads the new guitar department at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, thirty-some miles south of Seattle. She plays lute, baroque guitar, and modern classic guitar.

I didn't go on to teach at the U. of W., I taught privately. But I do feel like I helped to kick the door open for others to enter.

Don Firth