My grandfather Reinout Kroon emigrated to Pennsylvania from Holland. He was an engineer and taught for many years at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania. He was also an avid pianist. Many years of his adult life were dedicated to caring for my Grandmother who was diagnosed with MS at a fairly young age. They lived in an assisted living community where she could get care. For many years he would give concerts for the community and thankfully someone recorded some of them. I didn’t spend much time with him or that side of the family in general but have so many shared passions- music being one of them. I was first introduced to classical music by my father and when I had access to a piano at his apt. on occasional visits I taught myself how to play parts of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata. In a beautifully synergistic moment when I was in graduate school, taking the only audio class I would ever take, my Uncle Pete was given many recordings of my grandfather playing concerts for the assisted living community he so loved. I spoke to my father about it and our memories of his love of piano.
