Serendipity—the ability to find valuable or agreeable things not sought for—is a welcome topic for me to write about this week. The world’s morass of doom, gloom, and destruction has been pushing out the good I’m seeing lately, so I’d like to dwell on something positive today.

A visit to the Round Top Festival Institute in Round Top, Texas, over the weekend sparked this remarkable story about a remarkable life and a remarkable run of serendipity.

 SERENDIPITY OF TALENT FINDING A MENTOR

The story begins in 1940 when James Dick was born into a farming family in Hutchinson, Kansas. While working on the farm, he began piano lessons one month before he turned six. James turned out to be a piano prodigy. To further his musical education, his piano teacher, Leota Anderson, urged him to study with Dalies Frantz. Turns out, his teacher had grown up with Frantz’s family and was his older sister’s girlfriend. And, that he did, resisting pressure to study at a major conservatory such as Curtis Institute in Philadelphia or Julliard School in New York City.

According to the Texas State History Museum Foundation, “Dick received a scholarship to The University of Texas at Austin and later was a Fulbright Scholar. Dick’s early triumphs as a major prizewinner in the Tchaikovsky, Bosni and Leventritt International Competitions were a prelude to an eminent career highlighted by acclaimed recitals and concerto performances in the world’s premier concert halls.”

James graduated from the University of Texas in 1963 and, as a Fulbright scholar, studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London for two years.

 SERENDIPITY OF FINDING A PATRON

By this time, James was a world-renowned artist, but that was not enough for him. He wanted to teach piano during the summers when concert musicians generally do not tour. He had considered Fredericksburg, Texas, or Lindborg, Kansas, but the idea was still a pipe dream.

Then, the magic of serendipity kicked in. After James returned from Europe in 1965, his mentor, Frantz, invited him to dinner in Houston with Frantz’s dear friend, Ima Hogg, at her Bayou Bend mansion.

Let me digress a bit and tell you Ima’s story. If you’re a Texan, you probably know the old wives’ tale that Ima had a sister named Ura. She did not. Why her father, Stephen Hogg, a governor of Texas, named her Ima is a story for another day.

Anyhow, Miss Ima went to the University of Texas for two years (1899-1901), then went off to New York to study music. Later she studied in Berlin and Vienna. Back in Houston, she gave piano lessons and helped found the Houston Symphony Orchestra.

After oil was found on the family property, she spent the rest of her life on charitable pursuits. One of her pet projects in the 1960s was restoring the Winedale Inn, a 19th-century stagecoach stop in Round Top, Texas. And, naturally, she turned it over to the University of Texas.

So, the story goes, the three were dining, and Miss Ima questioned James about his dreams. When he mentioned other locations, she suggested Round Top for its strategic location between Austin and Houston.

 THE FRUITS OF SERENDIPITY

Festival Hill began operating in borrowed space in people’s homes in 1971. Today, the internationally renowned institute sits on 210 acres with numerous restored buildings and a jaw-dropping concert hall that took twenty-seven years to complete. And yes, Miss Ima and other patrons helped James grow his dream into the masterpiece it is today.

 LAST THOUGHTS ON SERENDIPITY

The world is full of wonder. We just need to look for it.

I’d love it if you’d join me!

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