Once upon a time, far from here,
in the green and freshly scythed
prairie of music education,
there was a girl named
Noble-and-Incomparable-Champion-whose-Originality-is-Legendary-and-Extraordinary.

Her name, being a bit long,
was hence abbreviated to her initials, i.e.

N.I.C.O.L.E.

Very soon,
she discovered the joys and pleasures of Music,
and it wasn’t long before she decided
to pursue a career in music education.

This proved to entail years of relentless toil and hard labor.

Then one day, one sunny summer morning, she had the opportunity to open her own music school (Un, Deux, Trois, Musiques..." ), beginning with the one simple goal of instructing her daughter and her son. So she commenced with this modest, but we have to admit, nevertheless daring beginning. In no way did she ever dream of creating a school that would become indispensable to a wide and varied public of those seeking musical instruction. So it was, she lived a simple life, full of joy and without a care in the world.

But alas! Soon she fell prey to a seed of folly,

a terrible and incurable ailment that began taking hold, and as it was it grew worse over the years, a folly which did not delay in comfortably making itself at home in the mind and heart of its chosen victim. So it should come as no surprise that less than three months after opening the school, (which was intended to be, if you recall, a family affair…) we now find 250 children, divided into their appropriate instrumental registers, on stage, doing a Christmas performance. Before them is an audience completely won over verging on hysteria to their cause. Parents, brothers, hardcore fans, plumbers, grandparents, presidents, toothpaste-tube-cap-tighteners, warthogs, lawyers, javelin throwers, deans, pneumologists, everyone sporting tattoos in the colors of the local team, wildly lending support in full throated belting out of songs that have so often shaken the walls of this mythic arena, climaxing in a great and worthy “ola”, while in the background sounds the gentle drone of a fog horn.

Let us now direct our attention to a remarkable and poignant declaration made by the personage that all of this centers around, who not long after the resounding tumultuous success of the Christmas performance, confided in me the following remark:

“When I turned to see so many people packed into the auditorium like sardines, I thought:
‘Okay girl, nothing to do but to take it on…’”

And she did.

Nevertheless that quixotic folly like some kind or malignant tumor did not find its haven within our good adventuress, upholder and protector of the law, “Nicole” for those who are close to her, until that very first “Musical Hour”, now the first out of 150 to date.

 Let me profit from this moment to remind our esteemed reader that
“Un, Deux, Trois, Musiques…” company strongly recommends using the term “Musical Hours” instead of “Audition”, regardless of some who are as yet spared from “onetwothreemusicous fever”, known academically as: “fiebrus follius rones musa undostres”.
This will keep our noble readers from useless stay in the hospital.
Thank you for your understanding.

.

To truly understand the personality of someone so incomprehensible to a-person-for-whom-nothing-is-crazier-than-not-being-crazy for those who are close to her, (for everyone else, she is quite simply: Superwoman.) Let’s check out some more of her accomplishments to get closer to this nature of this folly. If the tree is touched, then how can its fruit be healthy ? …And after all, the folly of the originator is reflected in her undertakings.

.So let us look at two of these innumerable feats: first of all, the Children Jury. 

The Children Jury is something that falls between what can be described as a unique experience and a great responsibility. It’s a project that grew out of a meeting of two geniuses: N.I.C.O.L.E. and Master Shlomo Mintz, the violinist who needs no introductions, and he is none other than the President of the International Violin Competition of Sion-Valais. The Children Jury was created in a world premier in 2003, it's comprised of 9 youngsters of varying ages, selected by a criterion that to this day is still kept secret. They are then trained for months through listening to the pieces to be played during the competition. There’s a mix of concentration, of work, including laughs and friendship, which combine to contribute to making the Children Jury a renowned feature of the International Violin Competition of Sion-Valais.

For others the Children Jury is all in all an unforgettable experience, discoveries that reach beyond the horizon, memories that are indelible. There’s more to it than the technical aspect, there’s the realm of the intuitive and authentic that give the jury its unique aspect: an indescribable realm but indispensible one, without which the adventure would no doubt not be what it actually is. This is the realm, a world which she imagined and conceived of with her habitual energy and drive. Throughout the preparations, she develops within the jury an atmosphere that proves the 2007 competition's winner's playing worthy, an environment where one can always find something new to learn or discover. As she says so well: in music, nobody's wrong.

Imagine dear readers, 4 young musicians, from the beginning brought up in music by N.I.C.O.L.E.

Promising, right? Four times as much folly, originality, creativity, audaciousness, imagination, humor, fantasy, rhythm, and music. Unique is the only appropriate adjective to describe this group. Unique in genre, unique in music scores, unique in interpretations, unique …thanks again to her.

Nicole showed these young people that in order to create successful performances, sometimes you need to risk new and different ideas, risk being crazy. And it worked. Who could have imagined that making music using the everyday knick-knacks of everyday life would result in leaving audiences breathless and fascinated for an hour and a half? Certainly not the normally constituted individual; Nicole …Yes. And she was right once again.  She motivated these four young people to express their talent with music unlike any other. And they’ve been taken in by it. In their performances there’s nothing ordinary or insignificant. This is what has made the difference and which is why we never get bored. Every performance they astound us with new ideas, ideas that mere mortals haven’t yet conceived nor could imagine…

We can certify this accomplishment by means of a simple test howewer one that’s very efficient:

Give an individual any object,
(a pencil, for example).
What’s he going to do with it?
Obviously you say he’s going to write something with it.

Give the same pencil to one of the 4Ygrecs and they will find a way to “musicalize” the object thereby making an instrument out of it. This is what happens the minute you are affected by a syndrome known as the Nicolecoppeyist syndrome. Everything has its primary usage, but we enlarge our thinking and look for more than that. (Okay, let’s not get stuck on doing any psycho-medical analyses which clearly won’t get us anywhere).

As for me I won’t presume
to pigeonhole this group.

Let’s take a look at the following letter :

Now look at Santa’s answer :

Another strong aspect of her personality
(the word strong is not very well chosen:
it predisposes that she has weaknesses…)
is revealed in her personal philosophy.

To sum it up:

never suggest something to Nicole
“just for the fun of it”.
She’ll latch on to it for sure,
and if the idea seems to be “unreachable”,
she’ll reach it with all the more conviction.

In no way should you try to propose something like:
“We could try to do an underwater concert…”
You can be sure that a few weeks later
you’ll be getting an invitation to an event titled
“aquatic concert” …
 

After some further follies, one morning full of new ideas, Nicole decided to move into a castle in the land of musical notes, in order to keep watch over her school and to continue to follow the other facets of her exceptional life. She remained oblivious to her own many unequalled exploits that none other would have dared to envision.

She proved that with her own vision of things, her head brimming with ideas and a will of iron, one could easily succeed in reaching the stars.

And so it was, surrounded by all these young and small virtuosos to whom she’s passed on her passion for Music, and Nicole lived happily until the end of time…

Eeeeww …Allow me my eminent co editor colleague to contradict your implications above. (dear reader, please excuse this small internal conflict, in no way will it affect your attentive, we hope, reading.) I do believe that I have a duty to remind you that Nicole would not be content with such a rosy sounding ending, far too passive and uneventful. As she always succinctly says: “ In life you need to spice things up”. (The editors can affirm that the life expectancy of a cruet used by our chosen heroine usually does not last for more than 3 days.)

For folly is not a defect of the insane. On the contrary! We will not give an account of what she’s done most recently neither will we give away any future follies. But let’s not forget that all this is just the past, or at best the present. And the person in question here is horrified at the prospect of looking backwards to things past. Why do so, either to complain or to be content with resting on one’s laurels, when the future has so much to offer? Are we too weak not to accomplish yet even more? How absurd to be so low in self-esteem to deem that the better part of one’s life lies in the past and one’s peak has been reached! The past is nothing more than one brick in the foundation of an infinite pyramid, while the floors above belong to the future. Do we turn toward the past out of fear to face our future? Does the expression “Music of the Future” find its origins in these questions?

For our charming protagonist the answers are clear. And perhaps we’ve done her an injustice by tracing the path of her past without granting as much attention to her future. 

Oh reader, do not forget about this account of folly.

Grant that it awakens within you a thirst for fantasy.

For though this contains not much more than one innocent tale,

Don’t fail to keep in mind, as we live in a world full of torpor,

The adage she articulates so well:

“If you don’t dream of going to the Sun, how can you hope to get as far as the moon?”

Jessie Vergères 13 years old

 Timothée Coppey 15 years old