Copyright RachDminor

I had a good Twitter friend pass away last week.  It was quite sudden and a shock to our music Twitter community.  @RachDminor was a pianist, a foodie, an animal and arts lover, and a creative thinker.  Her tweets were mostly conversational with fun pictures and links to interesting articles.  She had a passion for spreading the joy about what was important to her.

We had a bunch of conversations about audience development for classical music.  Although we didn’t always see eye to eye, she was a believer that the joy of classical music will live on if we cater to all audiences (not simply the token youth, which I did agree on).

@RachDminor was a very caring Twitter friend.  She replied to people’s tweets, a way of tweeting that is becoming more rare.  She had a passion for people!  She wanted to know how we were doing, and she thoughtfully responded if something out of the ordinary or challenging was happening in our lives.  There were times I felt like the world is not listening, and then @RachDminor would tweet at me with a caring response.

I know there are a few people that disagreed with her brash comments at times. She would consider another viewpoint if you discussed in an open manner, however, if she wasn’t swayed, she would let you know.  She told it exactly as she felt it, which I think counts as a positive living authentically attitude.  This living authentically mentality is needed today!  I admired her for being who she was at all times.

One of my favorite memories with @RachDminor was when we watched the Cliburn Competition together online.  Technology is amazing in allowing us to do this now.  She lived in California, I was in Colorado, and we were able to watch something we both loved together.  It was fun trading our thoughts about the different competitors.  Again, we didn’t always agree, but we sure had a good time commenting and participating on Twitter!

@RachDminor was also one of my friends that chimed in on most of my twitter chats.  She took the time to discuss audience development since it was important to her.  She took the time!

I will miss her and there will be a void on Twitter where she used to be.  She lived with passion, she lived authentically, and she lived with Twitter.  We can all learn a thing or two from the example she left us.

Shoshana