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Final Bow Not For Violinist

Man Reconnects With Musical Instrument And Shares Knowledge

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David Sommer

Published: January 16, 2008

ELFERS - It took a dare to get Don Cozby back to his first love.

"I gave up being a musician in 1956," the 77-year-old California native recalled last week. "I didn't have a violin, I didn't listen to music, and I didn't play."

Cozby, who in his youth performed at the Hollywood Bowl in symphony orchestras and string quartets, didn't touch an instrument for more than 40 years.

In the interim, he worked as an engineer in a succession of Southern California aircraft plants.

He blames breathing problems on all the paint fumes and metallic dust he inhaled over the years.

Eventually, Cozby found his way to Florida, where he worked another decade before retiring in the mid-1990s.

"Only about 10 years ago, on a dare, somebody got me to play," he recalled of his return to the music he loved as a child and young man.

Now, he teaches violin, viola and cello to dozens of students, most in a one-on-one setting.

On Thursday afternoons, however, Cozby shares his musical expertise with all comers at the CARES Elfers Multipurpose Senior Center.

Just as he once thought he'd never again pick up the violin, Cozby never suspected he would end up leading his informal group sessions.

"The lady who used to be the manager here was real slippery, and she talked me into doing it before I knew was doing it," he chuckled.

"It's a lot different teaching a group than teaching individuals. That's more intense," he said in reference to the easy-going, folksy manner he adopts at the $2-a-head group sessions.

"I have 19 individual students, and all of them are a great deal more advanced" than his Thursday afternoon group, Cozby said. "If I taught an intense group class, people would come one or two times and then not anymore."

Still, Cozby managed to scold his students for failing to practice their scales, known as Kreutzer after the 18th century composer RudolpheÖ Kreutzer.

"Have you guys been practicing your Kreutzer?" he asked.

One by one, his students admitted they had not. "Everything but," one woman said.

Cozby reminded his students that conductors, when auditioning new players, often ask to hear scales.

"So you gotta keep practicing and practicing and practicing," student Joan Shepherd said.

"And then you get it!" student Rosalie Bartoloma chimed in.

"The only way you can master it is to play it every day," Cozby replied.

The class tries to learn a new piece every week. Last week's selection was "Ashokan Farewell," a Scottish lament familiar to many as the theme music to Ken Burns' "The Civil War" series on PBS.

The composer was a music teacher at a vacation lodge on Ashokan Reservoir in New York's Catskill Mountains, and he felt lonely after all his students headed south for the winter.

"So he picked up his violin and composed that tear-jerker," Cozby told his students.

After they played the piece, he lavished on the praise.

"You guys are getting to be pretty good players," he told them.

The Thursday's sessions are open to anyone who is interested, and if they can't afford the $2 fee that Cozby said "keeps the lights on," well that's OK too.

"Even if you don't have an instrument, I got a bunch of cheap ones," Cozby said.

Unfortunately, this week's class is canceled because Cozby has been hospitalized with breathing problems.

Keyword: Violins to see and hear Dan Cozby teaching violin.

Reporter David Sommer can be reached at (727) 815-1087 or dsommer@tampatrib.com.

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