Carmen Merrill’s Legacy

Among the most outstanding piano students I’ve ever taught are two brothers, Michael and Matthew Salvatierra. Michael is now a music teacher at Venable Elementary School in Charlottesville VA and has earned his certification in the Kodaly method of teaching singing. (It was a Kodaly workshop at American University in 1975 that drew me back to music as a profession). Matthew is a talented singer, pianist and guitarist, who uses his musical abilities in a variety of ways. Here is a photo of Dottie, Michael and Matthew at Michael’s senior recital on March 15, 1998.

In 2002, long after they had graduated from my studio, Michael and Matthew gave their grandmother, Carmen Merrill, a series of piano lessons with me. At the time she was about 85 and living at a nearby Methodist home. She still had her piano and loved to play hymns and pieces like Handel’s “The Harmonious Blacksmith.” It was a joy to witness her quickly recapture the skills she had once mastered. Above she is shown after playing in my 2002 spring recital. Below are the two brothers with me after Matthew performed with the Harvard Glee Club at the Kennedy Center in DC on March 23, 2002.

Carmen died in October 2012 at age 95. A service to celebrate her life was held November 12 in Chatham, NJ. Her two grandsons played excerpts from her music, sang a duet, and accompanied the hymns. She loved to hear them make music. Now Michael’s sons are learning to play on their great-grandmother’s piano.

In May 2013 I had the opportunity to visit Michael’s music class at Venable School in Charlottesville. It was easy to see that he had taught his students well during the school year. They sang beautifully and had internalized rhythm and phrasing. How proud Carmen would be!

May 2020 Update

My friend and faithful reader Dottie Salvatierra wrote that she had found her mother’s yearbook from Millburn High School in New Jersey. It included this photo and a profile of Carmen that revealed she had been captain of her school’s Archery Team. The Commencement program from June 21, 1934 lists Carmen as the valedictorian of her senior class of 75 students. She opted to play a piano solo instead of giving a speech. She played Novelette in F by Robert Schumann. I, too, was valedictorian of a similarly sized class in Phillips TX in 1962. She may not have played the Novelette like Horowitz, but I bet it was better than my valedictory speech.

Look how Carmen’s yearbook picture resonates with a photo of her grandson Matthew.

Dottie also found an entry in a later publication from a reunion of Carmen’s class at Millburn High. It said that Carmen graduated from the University of Michigan in 1939 and became a translator for the Foreign Department of Central Hanover Bank and Trust Company in New York City. In 1943 she married Frederic D. Merrill of Swampscott MA. Carmen and Fred had two daughters:  Dorothy (Dottie) and Joan, a music teacher in Massachusetts public schools.

I owe Carmen Merrill a debt of gratitude for instilling a love of music in her daughters and her grandsons. They not only inspired me to be a better teacher, but they raised the level of my entire studio. A few years ago Dottie took up cello. She and I enjoyed collaborating on musical programs for a senior center in Arlington. I bid her goodbye in the summer of 2015 when we were moving from Arlington to Boynton Beach FL and she and George, to Charlottesville. Then in August 2018 we had a happy reunion at Chautauqua in New York. Perhaps this post will prompt Michael and Matthew to comment on their current musical activities.