Last summer, I was with my husband in the elevator of the Worthington Hotel in Fort Worth, Texas, headed down to the first floor, on our way to attend the finals of the Cliburn Amateur Piano Competition. Since I hadn't made the cut for the final six, I hadn't had to rehearse with the Fort Worth Symphony the day before. So we spent that day doing other things in the area.
The elevator stopped and a man and woman got in. The man turned to me and said, "I really enjoyed your performances." I thanked him and then asked, "Are you going to the finals tonight?"
His reply was, "I'm conducting the concert."
😳
Of course, I had seen his bio and photo in the Cliburn competition booklet, but I guess I hadn't committed it to memory. I was so embarrassed! I think I covered pretty well, saying, "Oh my gosh, of COURSE you are. I can't believe I didn't recognize you!" He was very gracious and we chatted all the way to the concert hall, where my husband took my picture with him.
Then a few months later, I was surfing randomly on the Internet, and who should pop up in an entertainment story but this man. Oh my gosh, not only is he a Julliard-trained conductor... but he's a Julliard-trained actor and has been on a bunch of TV shows, including Criminal Minds, where he plays the character "Steven Walker." He was also "Harry" in the movie La La Land.
Am I uninformed regarding the entertainment world or what? I laughed at my ignorance. Not only didn't I realize he was the conductor, but I didn't know he was on TV. I had been in the presence of a pretty famous actor and I had no idea.
We've all heard it said, "They're regular people just like you and me" or "They also put their pants on one leg at a time." In that elevator, he seemed just like anybody else.
So here's my picture with the actor, Damon Gupton, although at the time I thought he was simply "the maestro."
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