Dr. Kooiker
Dr. Anthony Kooiker, a professor of piano at Hope College in Holland MI who had toured and made recordings with the violinist Albert Spalding , was my piano teacher from the winter of third grade until I went to college. From what I've gathered, Mrs. Kent made a plea to him to take me on, but instead of communicating it directly, it was made via a friend common to both of them who was a priest (I don't happen to remember which denomination). Finding a college professor to teach me was not quite as easy as landing a spot on TV had been two years earlier, but it succeeded. Holland was an eight mile commute down the two-lane highway, and piano lessons could easily be combined with shopping. Kooiker's studio had two grand pianos, not just one old upright, so he could conveniently demonstrate the music on the second piano. I finished the Mozart Sonata K. 545 started under Kent, and performed it in the spring (May of '66). The results, judging from Dad...