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Notable with Bob Morrison
Mary Catherine Walker wore rimless glasses and had a square jaw, which befitted her no-nonsense demeanor. She was my first piano teacher at my age of 7, trained at Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore, and a most loyal alumna of that institution. As it happened, she became executive secretary at Peabody so, while I was a student there, I saw her in the office each day.
When my graduation came, she asked me, "What are you going to do now?" and I said, "I'm pursuing a Master's degree at Westminster Choir College in Princeton NJ." Her eyes flashed, and she said, "Well, I can see why someone would come from Westminster to Peabody. I fail to see why anyone would go from Peabody to Westminster!"
The Choir College was founded by native son of Canton, OH, John Finley Williamson, who established such a fine choir program at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Dayton OH, that the US State Department financed a goodwill tour of this choir in the 1920s to Russia. Dr. Williamson wanted the Choir College to supply choristers for both the NY Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestras, hence its location midway between the cities in Princeton.
And there I spent the two happiest years of my scholastic life. There was a spiritual atmosphere about the place. Williamson did not want to establish a school of music. His goal was to supply churches with musical leaders who would use their congregations to make music rather than hire, for example, a professional paid quartet.
One of my teachers at Westminster was Alexander McCurdy, who also taught at Curtis in Philadelphia. He was a sought-after recitalist and a columnist for the Etude Music Magazine who often performed with his harpist wife, Flora Greenwood.
At one of my lessons, I remarked, "Dr. McCurdy, someday I'd love to have a nice Aeolian-Skinner pipe organ to play."
The rest of that lesson didn't go well.
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