The Cello Girls; Joolen

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All materials on this site are protected; Copyright © 2025 by the author, Bernadette Joolen; All Rights Reserved. Which includes all text; design; and photographs. Greetings; and thank you!❤🌹

Updated 21 January 2026.❤🌹

Foto. Here is an earnest young cello girl; fourth grade. And two even younger reluctant brothers; gently nudged into the frame; by our ever-determined director; Oma. She loved to take fotos! With so many shy young subjects around. And she took many surprisingly good ones!❤🌹

I GREW UP a cello girl. It was the most rich beautiful absorbing informing; and delicious thing to do. I will never forget that. In my senior year i sat first chair; and so; i had an inner-circle view; of all of the things that could happen in an orchestra. I could see the first-chair violins. 

I could see the first-chair violas and flutes. And i could see a front-facing view of everyone else! The bassoons; trumpets; and various other; and sometimes; very loud horns. And when there was a problem in any section; usually the horns; i had a quite privileged view; of the problem; and the solution firsthand! Sitting just beneath the conductor; as i did. 

It was a glorious way to discover; and to play; an integral part in a musical world. The only people i couldn't see at all; were the basses! But i could surely feel; their steady low rhythms and rumblings; that would often echo our own.-In the cello section; i mean. Though we also had the delicious privilege; of a frequent joyous melody and counterpoint all our own.❤🌹

AS I WAS growing up; there was a famous young woman cellist; just  emerging onto the national; or likely even; international scene; who looked almost exactly like me! (Well; mostly just the hair.) Which i did not know at the time. Though i am sure it wouldn't have escaped the notice of others. Though she was out-of-this-world plain brilliant! 

While i was just pretty darned good. (Though she died; quite tragically and too young; of multiple sclerosis. Which was a shock to everyone.) Here is a gorgeous cello concerto she once performed; that is so passionate it kills me. And her performance is absolutely jaw-droppingly brilliant. 

There is a great passion; and there is a great anger; that i have been feeling too; as our democracy has begun; and quite tragically, unbelievably; continues to crumble. Music can enrich; absorb; reflect; inform a world.❤🌹

BUT HERE IS A LIGHTER; funny story about that. We both also had sisters who played the flute! And their mother taught both of them now to play; while she would play the piano. And she taught her daughters to move while they played. She taught her daughters to dance while they played. 

I learned that in a beautiful film of her life. But when the flute sister; in her later life; would do that; people would tell her to stop! Though it was always celebrated and encouraged with Jacqueline. (Well; that is the sad part.) 

The funny part of the story is of my flute sister; who gave up music just past junior high; which was perhaps a good thing. Because when we tried to play duets together; she was like a runaway horse! If her part had a rest; which meant that she should wait and not play; my sister would skip the rest and play anyway! And continue the song ahead of me without me!-I don't have time for that! she would say. 

Which would; of course; turn that piece into something quite; well; to put it gently; avant garde. But i just like those gentle parallels in our lives. And of course; the amazing performance; above; of Jacqueline Dupre. ❤🌹

Copyright and Permissions.
All materials on this site are protected; Copyright © 2025 by the author, Bernadette Joolen; All Rights Reserved. Which includes all text; design; and photographs.

THE AUTHOR can be reached
at contactbjoolen@gmail.com.

And more arts notes here.❤🌹