A Sweet Symphony

by

When Amy Glick was 8 years old, her life took a transformative turn. “My parents announced to me that I would be taking violin lessons,” she says, “and I was quite unhappy about it.” For three years, her father accompanied her to every lesson and sat with her during every practice. She hated it. Then, in the sixth grade, something changed. “I wanted to quit, and then something happened around the end of the third year where I realized this is actually pretty fun, and I feel good about the accomplishment of being able to play these pieces.” From that moment on, Glick was a violinist.

She has played with the Akron Symphony Orchestra for the past 17 years and lives in north Canton with her husband, Patrick, and their four children. “This part of the country reminds me of Europe because in Europe, every town had its own little orchestra of some degree,” she says.

Allegro // Growing up, Glick moved with her parents and three sisters frequently, as her linguist father took jobs teaching German at various Mennonite universities around the country. She was born in Indiana and lived in Minnesota, Kansas, Indiana again, and then Germany for two years. “We lived in Germany when I was in eighth and ninth grades,” she says. “The school system there was quite different, so we had a lot of adjustments, but we really enjoyed it. Every time we had a school vacation, we piled in the car and went to another city or country and really got to see a lot of Europe, which now I am immensely grateful for.”

Glick also grew musically while in Europe, studying with a German violin teacher and playing in her school’s orchestra. “Europeans have a higher regard for classical music as a culture; it’s part of their heritage.”

Adagio // The Mennonite faith was very important to Glick’s family while she grew up, and it still is today. Though for a period the religion forbade musical instruments in the church, four-part singing has always been a part of worship. Glick’s childhood and youth were steeped in music, both at home and in church. And the Mennonite community played a big role in how she met her husband.

After completing a master’s degree at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, Glick applied for an opening she had heard about at Central Christian School in Kidron, Ohio. The position was orchestra teacher, and she wasn’t sure she’d get it because she did not have a teaching degree, though she had long loved teaching. Partly due to her name filtering through the Mennonite community, Glick got the job.

After some time, Glick befriended a colleague at the school who had a cousin, Patrick, who was single. The colleague arranged a blind date between Glick and the cousin. “Patrick made a very good first impression on me when he had actually heard of the music schools I had attended,” Glick says. “He also baked cookies for me and gave them to me on our first date. I figured that made for good husband material. He still bakes cookies!”

Scherzo // At first glance, Glick gives the impression of being impossibly perfect. Her compact runner’s frame and no-nonsense hairdo fit well with her calm, friendly manner—no doubt an outcropping of her Mennonite faith, which emphasizes non-violence and the importance of community. But once in a while, her demeanor loosens up a bit, and a sweet, self-effacing sense of humor surfaces. “I don’t love to cook,” she admits. “I thought that by this age I would be a better cook, but I’m not improving.”

Along with rising at 5:00 every morning to practice the violin and go for a run before the rest of the house stirs—her “alternative to psychotherapy”—the 45-year-old home schools each of her kids for two years, enrolling them in public schools for the rest of their education. “We really see value in both going to school—the gift of being with your peers and being taught by multiple people—and also [what] you can gain one-on-one with mom to focus in on your strengths and weaknesses. We see the value in both.”

Each of Glick’s four kids started on the violin at about age 3, which she says made it a bit easier for everyone than it was for her at the fairly advanced age of 8. They can eventually choose to segue to a different instrument, but they must demonstrate the responsibility to practice and keep up with it. “It is not optional in our family,” she says. “You have to play something.”

She doesn’t force the kids, exactly; rather she employs a steady encouragement that comes from understanding first-hand both the desire to resist and the huge payoff of persistence. “I don’t always want to get up at five and practice either,” she says, “but I’ve learned that I feel good when I do it. Like anything in life, sometimes you have to do things you don’t want to do, so just do it.”

Tempering this steely discipline is a fascination with a certain type of pulp culture. “I like to watch action movies,” she says. “I loved the ‘Wonder Woman’ movie this summer.”

Sonata // The extensive Amish and Mennonite communities in Stark, Wayne and Holmes counties help Glick feel more at home in The 330 than she has most anywhere else she’s lived—with the possible exception of Germany. “It was very exciting for me to come here and see that there’s so much art and culture in the area,” she says, citing small orchestral groups from Canton, Akron, Mansfield, Ashland, Youngstown and New Philadelphia, among others. “I knew that the music scene was very happening in Ohio.”

Nor has the wanderlust of Glick’s childhood completely left her, though the scope has changed. “I would love to go to Alaska, Italy and Greece or Spain, but I have these fond memories of the [German] countryside; that’s what I love.” As each of her kids turns 10, Glick plans to take them to Germany for a visit, to share not only the music and landscape that shaped her youth, but something else that impacted her. “There’s a tragic element of Germany’s history that I really want my children to learn about—the Holocaust and World War II—and never forget. I think it’s an important place in the world.”

In the meantime, the CVNP and Hale Farm and Village make a splendid backdrop for Glick’s life and the unfolding lives of her children. The rolling hills of Amish country ring with peaceful music and a hint of German heritage that seems like exactly the right composition for her family. Art galleries, orchestras, farmers markets and the Akron Marathon all enhance her fondness for The 330. And true to her subtle sense of humor, she even embraces some area attractions that aren’t exactly her tune: “I’m not much of a sports person, but there’s a lot of great sports events too. I couldn’t really tell you what they are, but there’s a lot of great stuff going on.”