Rob Lawrence was born, Robert Howard Lawrence, on June 14th, 1955 at Kaiser Permanente Hospital in Walnut Creek, CA. His parents met in 1952 at University of the Pacific in Stockton, California, while both were studying to be career music teachers. [+]Rob Lawrence was born, Robert Howard Lawrence, on June 14th, 1955 at Kaiser Permanente Hospital in Walnut Creek, CA. His parents met in 1952 at University of the Pacific in Stockton, California, while both were studying to be career music teachers. They taught music in public schools all of their lives. Rob's Mom, Betty, taught Violin and Instrumental Music, and Rob's Dad, Tom, taught Choir, Drama and Math. Sports were not popular in this world of music, and Rob, at age 5 began Piano Lessons in 1960. He can't remember is first Piano teacher's name, probably because he used to cry a lot in his lessons, however, his mom heard of a wonderful teacher in Pittsburg, CA, named Madeline Caruso. She had many students and held recitals many times a year. This gave Rob his first taste of performing, all very exciting. He studied with Mrs. Caruso for about 3 years until she died of Diabetes suddenly. The greatest thing she did for Rob was to give him a sense of confidence in himself. At the last lesson he had before she died, not knowing what was going to happen of course, she listened as Rob performed a piece from memory for an up-coming recital. She sat quietly after he finished, then told him that he should never give up, and if he continued, he would do very special things with music in his life. Strange thing for her to say, not knowing it was the last lesson. He never forgot this combination of praise that was also a bit of a burden for an 8 year old.
Without much encouragement from his parents to participate in sports, Rob did the next most obvious thing; he tried his best to be popular with the other kids by becoming known as the kid in class that played piano. By the 4th Grade, he started learning Cello and playing in the school orchestra. He took lessons from Maurice Bergen (Concord, CA). This was Rob's first exposure to traditional German personalities, and a bit of an emotional challenge. He later took lessons from Ariel Whitbeck (Danville, CA), Mildred Rosner (Berkeley, CA), and Renee Sharp at SF State University. In 6th Grade, Rob began to learn Trombone from Dennis Bell. Rob enjoyed this tremendously because this allowed him to participate in Jazz Band, the coolest music group in school that actually got some respect from the
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