An Educator's Stirring Coda - washingtonpost.com: More than 200 musicians came dressed in their concert black, toting trumpets, saxophones and violins that many had first picked up at age 11. Now with some in high school or college and others in their 20s and 30s, many had barely met before performing yesterday for about 1,200 people at Bethesda's Walt Whitman High School auditorium.
But they all wanted to please Frankie Ball, the tall, sharply dressed man in the front row bobbing his head to the beat.
Ball, 61, instrumental music teacher at nearby Thomas W. Pyle Middle School for 26 years, is retiring this month to focus on his cancer treatments. In a concert featuring a band, a string orchestra and two jazz ensembles, Ball's former students gathered to honor the beloved teacher credited with instilling musical appreciation in thousands of Bethesda children. Proceeds from ticket sales will benefit cancer research.
