The Southwest Voice

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    Music is very valuable to children, said Judy Rummelsburg McCall, a professional cellist who grew up in Bakersfield, graduated from Bakersfield High School,  and received a B.A. in music from UC Davis in 1990 and a Master’s degree in cello performance in 1992 from the prestigious Peabody Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. 
    “It teaches skills that require the whole brain, including physical co-ordination and mathematical reasoning,” she said.  “Music also gets to the expressive part of the personality, the soul.”
    In addition to basic performance skills, music gives kids chances to be participants as concert goers, listeners and consumers and affords a personal relationship outside the home with an adult who can be a role model. McCall said.
    The cellist, who now lives in Martinez with her husband, Greg, and two young children, will be featured in an upcoming concert with the Kern River Trio on March 30 at 4 p.m. in the sanctuary of First Congregational  Church, 5 Real Rd. 
    “I can still name all the public elementary music teachers who influenced me,” she said.
    She especially credits her first cello mentors, Bakersfield’s Carol Rogers and Beverly Lambourne, for excellence in teaching.  “Mrs. Lambourne was such a presence in my life during my formative years.  Even in college we’d have lunch together when I’d come back home.  She often gave me good advice.  I really found out in college how well I was taught,”  McCall said.
    Lambourne taught McCall for 11 years until the college freshman left for UC Davis where she intended to major in zoology and minor in music. Her goal was to become a veterinarian, but by the start of her sophomore year she knew that she really wanted the music degree.
    While at Davis, McCall repeatedly received a Bakersfield Philharmonic scholarship to assist her studies.
    After her Master’s degree, she returned to Davis to secure a teaching credential with a speciality in the elementary grades.  In addition to her current employment as a kindergarten teacher, she freelances on cello for the UC Davis Symphony, performs regularly at her church, and practices with a trio of professors from Cal Berkeley.
    Her husband plays string bass for a jazz quartet in the Bay Area and works for a library software firm. 
    The upcoming concert also features retired Cal State University Bakersfield professor Dr. Gordon Mehling on violin and music teacher Helen Rummelsburg, McCall’s mother, on piano. The concert will feature all four movements of Mendelssohn’s “Trio in D Minor,” Schostokovich’s “Trio in E Minor” and Schubert’s “Notturno.”
    “The Mendelssohn is by far the most famous of the trios,” Mehling said in a phone interview.  “The piano part is extremely difficult.  It is any pianist’s Mt. Everest.”
    Rummelsburg called the Mendelssohn piece “difficult but gorgeous.”   For many years Rummelsburg accompanied Lambourne’s students  for their recitals and still maintains an active piano studio. She graduated from Whitman College in Washington State as a piano major.  All four of her children played instruments growing up.
    Mehling, who is originally from Calgary, Alberta, Canada, received his B.A. from the University of Alberta, then a Master’s and Ph.D.  in music from Michigan State University.  After his retirement from the CSUB Music Department in 2004, he and his wife have spent time traveling in the U.S. and Canada.
    The concert is free of charge to the public, and no reservations are necessary.  This event is co-sponsored by Valley Public Radio (FM89).