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Title: Misa (Oiye) Mihara Interview
Narrator: Misa (Oiye) Mihara
Interviewers: Virginia Yamada (primary); Caitlin Oiye Coon (secondary)
Location: Seattle, Washington
Date: July 26, 2024
Densho ID: ddr-densho-1000-547-30

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CC: I just have one last question with the music. Do you have a favorite memory in your own time working, or like a favorite student that you worked with?

MM: I have so many kids that I loved working with. But one that really stands out in my mind right now was this kid... well, actually at the spring concert, his mother came up to me, gave me a bunch of roses, and, "Oh, why am I getting all these roses?" She said she was really grateful because her son, the only day of the week that he actually, she didn't have to fight him about going to school was the day he had me for a teacher in violin, he was one of my violin students. But in those days, I don't know why he was the only one in my class. I was, I think, giving him private lessons, practically. And I don't know why, but I think he might have been a special-ed student. I'm not really sure because I never asked. I mean, they were just my students and I just took them as they were. But she was really pleased, and I was really pleased with myself that... not myself, but that I had that effect that it helped her to not have to fight with her son to go to school every day. So that's one of my favorite memories, and even in the south end, there's so many really good memories, you know, where they don't have the background. But for one thing, I remember at one of the schools they would have, I think, a teacher appreciation day or week or something. They had this store, and one of the kids -- you know they don't have very much money -- and I still have it, it's one of my favorite things. It's a little troll this big. You've seen it, yeah, with the pink hair, I keep it. It's one of my favorite pieces of things I've gotten from students, so that's one of the good things. And you think kids in that area wouldn't be very good, but, I mean, some people wouldn't just because they're south end. Even kids know about south end schools, right? They don't have the opportunities that the north end schools have. And I've had some really great north end students, I mean, great orchestras and stuff.

[Interruption]

VY: Actually, before we leave music, I'm just curious if there's a particular piece of music that you really just kind of go to that you either like to listen to or like to play or sing when you just want to feel better?

MM: Oh, there are so many. Yeah, somebody asked me who's my favorite composer. It changes all the time, it depends on who I last heard. [Laughs] But I can say there are several that are my favorite composers. And if I listen to KING-FM when I'm driving, there are times when I wish I were at a stop sign so I wouldn't get home too quickly, so I could hear the whole thing. But there are things in classical music that take you away from yourself. You don't have to think about your problems, it just, like, transports you to an area that you wouldn't be able to visit otherwise, and it takes you away from your problems. And I know, like this friend of my first husband's who had never heard classical music much. And because he knew I was, he knew that his friend was marrying me, who was in classical music, he went into a dark room, apparently, one time, and closed his eyes and listened to the Beethoven violin concerto. He found himself crying, he said it was so beautiful. And that's the way it is with classical music.

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