One of my dearest friends arrived in Austin last night from Norway – Randy Avers.  He came with his good friend Benoit Albert, from southern France.  We’ve hired them to play ten concert for kids in our school programs this week as part of the ACGS Community Concert Series.  Apparently they did their first show this morning.  I was not able to be there (see my post below about KMFA!) but I hear it was fabulous!

Randy and I met at Oberlin.  He transferred in our sophomore year and he was, at that time, the greatest guitarist I had ever met.  He was an amazing young player (still is, of course) and I think it was one of the best parts of my education – simply being able to be around him during those formative years.  We graduated in 1996 – actually became the first guitar graduates ever from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music – and when I came to Texas he went to Paris Conservatory in France.  There he met his lovely Norwegian wife Line (Lee-nuh), and they ultimately settled in Norway where they have two lovely young children!

It was a blast seeing he and Benoit last night.  They met in Amsterdam, flew to Houston, drove to Austin and called me at 8PM last night from a pay phone near a nearby grocery store!  I went and guided them home, we had a marvelous meal that Glenda had prepared (with a little help from me) and then we shuttled them, not too terribly late, to their host’s home for a short rest before their Austin debut at Lamar Middle School this morning!  It is amazing to reconnect with friends.