I was listening to the mythologist Joseph Campbell give a speech, and he mentioned that one of his role models was Errol Flynn. That made me think about my own role models, and what they meant to me.
When I was studying the piano I was serious about classical music. I was 10 or 11 years old. I loved listening to Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue; lying on the floor in our living room, I read the album cover notes, over and over.
At this time, I saw a televised concert where Leonard Bernstein was conducting the New York
Philharmonic, playing Rhapsody in Blue; while conducting he was also playing the piano part--without sheet music in front of him! Here was this handsome man with a gorgeous head of wavy hair, wearing a tuxedo and white tie, doing three things at once in front of a camera. Sublime, tender, furious--his facial expressions changed as the music flowed and I could only dream of being able to play the piano part of Rhapsody in Blue--without the sheet music.