Burnt-out violinist: Don’t worry about me

Burnt-out violinist: Don’t worry about me

main

norman lebrecht

February 11, 2016

We’ve had a message from David Wright, the former Minnesota Orchestra violinist who lost all his possessions last month in a car fire in Portland, Oregon. David would like to be left alone. Here’s what he writes:

violinist lives in car

I am David Wright, the retired violinist and the “info-taint-meat” of the Jan 20 story about my car fire.

My friends and I tried to make it clear to all inquiries from news outlets that I wanted no publicity descending on my careless, embarrassing mistake, neglecting to disconnect a resistor-controlled “auto-shutoff” electric blanket from the auxiliary battery for over a day. The internet being what it is, I’m glad there isn’t more gossip than exists about this.

Though I still fiddle a bit, I’ve no interest in more orchestral work: 30 years of the privilege performing in the back of an ensemble as fine as the Minnesota Orchestra left me tired of the relative mediocrity of my own sound.

I am now a writer, singer, and traveller, and continue to enjoy my life, very thankful to have escaped the fire just in time. I don’t need anyone’s help. I am not homeless. I prefer a mobile life and the personally customized little creation of my lovely home on wheels. We “tire tramps” are a growing population and are neither degenerates nor criminals.

I was preparing for an extended road-trip, so I’d pulled extra possessions out of storage. My storage garage nearly burned down last year due to drunken neighbors I didn’t know letting a kitchen fire rage out of control. Accidents will happen to you too. You may share this open letter as you see fit.

Comments

  • AnnaT says:

    Wishing him safe travels and good health.

  • David Wright says:

    Hello. I’m David Wright, the car-fire victim and the subject of recent posts here. I don’t want to be seen as an antisocial ingrate. I thank everyone for their kind supportive thoughts and offers of help; I guess I should have begun my brief letter to Mr. Lebrecht. If I was smarter I guess I could have worked the publicity machine of modern Amerika using this debacle to generate attention towards my book, “Out on Alleged Sanity,” under my pen name of Reverend Watt deFalk. It’s not yet available, and I keep minimal internet presence, only because I find it far too easy to waste too much time on it.

  • MOST READ TODAY: