Christie Sowby

Congratulations to Christie Sowby. Not only did she get married this past year, but she is one of the four recipients of the Reid Nibley Award for Piano. Christie is in her junior year as a piano performance major. Way to go!

School is rapidly approaching and I want to welcome all of you back to campus. If this is your first semester, welcome to the School of Music and please accept my sympathy for all of the hassles you go through getting started. I hope all of you had a wonderful summer and fall semester will be all you hope it to be.

During the summer, we spent a week in St. George with most of our family. We were able to rent a condo at Green Valley Resort and we spent lots of time with the grandkids swimming, golfing, relaxing, playing Wii , and seeing the sites. For me, this was the first summer in a long time where I didn't have a project to finish so I actually had a month or so to do what I wanted to do. And of course, what Susan wanted me to do. That's what husbands are for, right? We were able to get a lot of painting done and putting up new base boards. We de-junked the house and made a big contribution to Deseret Industries. I did get in some good golf and a couple of good movies. One fun thing was doing genealogy. Since I'm the first member of the church in my family, except for an aunt and a cousin, my Anderson line needs lots of work and we've been able to find new sources and distant relatives to help us and have found lots of names and ordinances to do.

Another fun thing was doing some book signings for my book that came out last spring. I wanted to write something to commemorate 40th anniversary in the church this year. One funny thing happened when I was doing signings in the BYU Bookstore. A lady came up and picked up one of my books and said, "Oh, you have a new one. I'm so excited." Then she took a closer look and said with a lot of disappointment, "Oh, Richard Paul Anderson, I thought it said Richard Paul Evans." Needless to say, she put my book back. I felt bad to have let her down. Maybe I need to write something titled "The Music Note Book."

Over all, it was a wonderful summer, but I'm excited to see you and get the semester started.

I hope you will write your comments on what you did this past summer and what you hope for this fall. It will be a way for me and the other students in the class to get to know you a bit better. I'll also be doing some things to highlight each of my students.

I also want you to write your comments, suggestions and requests regarding the class you're in. Don't hesitate to be critical, you can add something using anonymous if you don't want anyone to know who wrote it. Just be nice about my hair or lack of, and my age. Seriously, what you say will generate other thoughts and help us all to have a great semester.

I'm excited for the semester and the opportunity to work with you.