Free Play

In this quirky little book, it's 1980, and 21-year-old Kit Springer, is just finishing up his double major at University, where he'll graduate with a bachelor's degree in Music and English. He has no definite plans beyond moving to Boston, and finding some work and a place to live-unlike his college roommate, who is on a trajectory to someday win a Nobel Prize in physics or beat a Russian Grandmaster at chess, or both. Even with Kit's less-than-perfect jobs as a dishwasher and grocery store clerk, living in Boston will allow him some space to grow, and sort himself out, as he meets some new and exotic friends. Sandwiched in the middle of his "memoir," and with some spare time on his hands, Kit takes a leisurely historical tour of his musical heritage and genealogy as an oboist. He meanders through his "family" history, uncovering stories of the men, women, and organizations who, generations ago, nevertheless shaped his musical training. From the small city of Compigne in northern France, the birthplace of his beloved musical "father," to the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, Kit has a lot of territory to cover as tries to make sense of it all.