And basically what we kind of like to do is kind of have a short biographical sketch, like where were you born, early childhood experiences, family. Lynne Clendenin: Oh my goodness, okay. Why don't we just go to New York? And I never got that answer from my parents. I guess they liked LA enough. But I was raised by parents who had gotten marriedβI'm an interracial woman and my father is African American, my mother's family is from Germany.
They fell in love in the forties, and they fell in love in New York and things got a little bit difficult and my mom said "you know, I'm just going to go as far away as I can from all of this," and she said she went until the ocean stopped her and that's when she ended up in LA, and then my father followed her and they got married, I came along and I was raised there. So, I was always known as West Coast Lynne, everybody else on the east coast.
Much more casual lifestyle, I think, for me than on the east coast. Some of my earliest memories, I guess, is my mom taking me to cultural events and learning about music and learning about dance, and the appreciation for it grew for me, and when there was an opportunity to play music, play an instrument, I jumped at it.
And I remember walking; they had the instruments in this classroom open in their cases and I felt like I was walking among the stars. I just felt in awe. And I was younger than the average student that started playing, but I knew my mom loved violin, and so I thought wouldn't it be great if I could come home and say "I'm going to play the violin"? So, they measured my arm and they said "well, your arm is long enough for your early age. MD: Yeah, because I know that you were quite musical, and are you still?
And I never wanted to be one of those folks to say I put it down, because I spent so many years getting to a particular expertise, but my interests led me elsewhere. And so, I do speak to her and play the instrument, because it's a very intimate relationship I have with my instruments, so. But yeah. It was during the years when there was a lotβwhere drugs were big and where there were a lot of strikes by teachers and there was a lot of disheaval, and so it felt more like they were trying to just take care and keep us safe every day, rather than feeling as though we were getting an excellent education.
