By Julia Boyle
THE ERICKSON TRIBUNE

There’s a lilt in their voices, a twinkle in their eyes, and a certain joie de vivre that’s inescapably musical. The instant you meet them, you can tell that music is their stock in trade.

In part two of our series we meet Jerry Landsman and Carol Steinborn, two musicians who chose different musical paths in life, only to end up at the same destination.

‘I wore two hats’
Jerry Landsman is a musician through and through. Not only a professional violinist, he also wore the hat of violin and orchestra professor at a laundry list of universities across the nation.

He carried his performance hat with him wherever he taught—from Chicago’s Grant Park Symphony Orchestra to other freelance gigs—and ended up in New Jersey with at job at Montclair State University.

There he stayed until he moved to Cedar Crest, where he now resides with his wife Claire. Like always, he brought his music with him. He performs with folk musician and singer Shirley Keller as well as with a trio of piano, cello, and violin.

And we can’t forget about his professor hat.

“I still teach a few private students who come from the surrounding areas and who I used to teach at my home in Montclair. Now they come to my home here at Cedar Crest,” he says.

Picking it up again
Carol Steinborn also teaches music at Cedar Crest. But her story is quite different than Landsman’s.

She grew up taking piano and dance lessons, surrounded by music. Becoming a music teacher seemed the logical step, yet after teaching for just one year, Steinborn decided that career was not for her.

“I went back to school and taught first grade until I retired. I haven’t done anything with music until I came here and started doing what I was supposed to do in the first place,” she says with a reflective chuckle.