Colleagues
used to call Dustin a Metronome. There is a story behind
this nickname. Due to the budget cuts the administrative
personnel of the Philharmonic had been made smaller. Musicians serve
in numerous committees. They consider committee meetings a worrying
duty; some even call it a waste of their time. Dustin never
complains. He dutifully attends all the meetings. He is never late
and never leaves a meeting room before the expected time. However,
people noticed peculiar way in which Dustin responds
to the progression in a meeting Agenda. He knocks his shoes repeatedly
against the floor, makes short rhythmical movements of his neck, and
at the same time takes notes diligently in a big notebook. Many
times, a chair of the meeting reacts to the pace indicated by Dustin’s
movements and involuntary makes her speech quicker (and shorter) to
great satisfaction of the committee members. One day Celia (Egyptian
harp player) watched Dustin carefully then suddenly
made a comment on something she noticed, “Metronome
is composing a new piece of music!” All eyes turned toward Dustin’s
notebook only to find out that it was a staff on which notes of
music were written. Compositions created by Dustin were
titled according to the meeting Agenda items and his music was inspired
with the thoughts of the speakers. Everybody was delighted, except
for the chair who was infuriated. After that, Dustin came
to a committee meeting carrying a laptop. Again, while taking notes
of the meeting, he made recurring movements with his head and
producing a rhythm by tapping. The chair guessed at once that Dustin had
installed software on his PowerBook allowing for writing scores and
composing music. This time, Dustin’s
place on the committee was filled in by someone else.
