JAVS Fall 2003

detachment during the lightheart ed Cinderella and ironically do so at a time when the tormented clown in Ruggero Leoncavallo's I Pagliacci was more appropriate to their frame of mind. In the end, children giggled at the antics of the wicked step-mother and the awkward step-sisters and marveled at the Fairy God Mother's magic. Cinderella married the Prince and lived happily ever after, dreams came true, and people laughed and were entertained. Kerry was supposed to be sitting beside me playing the second violin part, but Fate had decreed that she would take her final bow earlier that same day. This very much in mind, it was only when the actors, singers, and dancers-par ticularly Cinderella and the Prince-came out to acknowledge the applause during the very up beat curtain music that I was able to shed the first tears of this total ly incongruous day. One perform ance down, three to go ...with curtain calls. Kerry McCay Sharer (1975-2003), a native ofColumbus, Ohio, was a graduate ofjames W. Robinson High School in Fairfax, V:/1, and of DePaul University. She earned a master's degree in music pedagogy from Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, where she studied viola with Peter Slowik. She was a member ofthe Bowling Green Chamber Orchestra, the Owensboro Symphony and Zion Lutheran Church in Franklin, Kentucky. B This was the week that ended on July 19, 2003.

rather than featuring the viola, Kerry's students were going to play and asked if I would help tune their instruments and play with them.. .I gladly agreed. When 35 or so young people between the ages of four and seventeen filed into the sanctuary with their violins and violas under their arms and took the position to play Twinkle, it was as if the purpose and sum mary of Kerry's brief but brilliant teaching career had been distilled to this one moment in time. Even the very youngest violinist rose to this special occasion as the building rang with the Suzuki arrangement ofTwinkle, Twinkle, Little Star and its first variation, "Mississippi Hot Dog," probably the most unusual hymn of praise ever performed in Christ Episcopal Church ... but that's exactly how it was played. This massed performance by her students was a beautiful and touch ing gesture, one that she would have particularly appreciated. This Ohio native was lovingly buried in her husband's home town of Franklin, Kentucky... she had more than earned her place among us. That night, the show at the Capitol Arts Center went on in the strongest tradition of show business. We instrumentalists, most of us having attended or participated in the earlier memo rial services, played through a degree of pain but put our full energies into creating a good per formance, just as Kerry's students had done earlier. It was business as usual and Kerry would have wanted it that way. Those closest to her, perhaps inevitably, would have to contend at some point with their mental and emotional

while she "suffered" through the violin score. What neither of us could know at the time was that she had less than twenty two hours to live as even then a blood clot that would prove to be fatal was forming in one leg. An astounded community reacted to the shock of Kerry's sudden passing quickly. The Bowling Green Daily News printed a trib ute to her on the front page of its Wednesday issue, her brief career was the subject of an editorial the following day, and a concert by the summer community band was performed in her memory. The Bowling Green Chamber Orchestra board of directors desig nated the principal viola position in perpetuity as the Kerry McCay Sharer Memorial Chair. In addi tion to grieving family and friends, Maestro Nicholas Palmer of the Owensboro Symphony and several members of the orchestra were present for memorial servic es. Four close friends delivered heartfelt and eloquent eulogies. Several people expressed interest in a memorial concert. Additional tributes and poems arrived, all of which are to be placed on perma nent file in the Primrose International Viola Archive.

Jeffrey Reed, director of the Bowling Green Chamber Orchestra, had been asked by

Kerry's family to handle all musical activities with regard to Thursday's memorial service. I approached Mr. Reed to offer whatever assistance he might need-recommendations for viola literature appropriate to the occasion, performance, or any other requirements. He said that,

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