Missouri Classical Music News and Notes

One youngster who never needed to be forced to practice his piano lessons was Harry Truman. He used to get up at 5 o'clock in the morning to practice for two hours.

When he became a man, music remained his first passion after politics, and he often said that if he had been a good pianist he never would have become President. "I missed being a musician," he said, "and the real and only reason I missed being one is because I wasn't good enough."

His mother became his first teacher when he was about 10. She sent him for a short time to a neighborhood teacher and then to Mrs. E. C. White, a Kansas City teacher who had studied under Theodore Leschetitzky, the renowned European master.