It All Started with a Trombone: The Hornman Memoirs

Bill Nemoyten has educated and entertained thousands of people all over the U.S. for over seventy years. And how did it all start? With a beat up loaner trombone and free lessons from his Cleveland public school. That one opportunity started him down a road he is still on at age eighty-four. Along the way, he spread his love of music to generations as a music teacher, arts advocate and administrator and as a performer in Ohio, Illinois and the San Francisco Bay Area.In "retirement," Bill created The Hornman Show, an educational and entertaining extravaganza involving sixteen horns from around the world, jokes, funny hats, fake noses and, of course, music. He also started writing his memoirs which became this book.Many stories like "Trombone" and "Learning to Teach" are about the experience of being a music lover and teacher back when arts programs were fully funded and valued, giving a rare historical perspective on the decline of arts education and its ramifications. But there are