The Unauthorized Biography of James Sherman

I just got back from dinner at the house of Dr. Sherman, the pediatric pulmonologist with whom I worked in the Newborn Nursery.  At some point last week, the topic of music came up, and we discovered that we had a similar interest in it.  He invited me over to meet his family, and true to his word, after we finished dinner, he invited me to join his family in singing choral pieces in six-part harmonies.  When we tired of that, we moved on to sight reading barbershop music together.  His daughter and I also played several four-hand piano pieces together while the rest of the family listened.  Okay, that's not a euphemism for anything dirty, so get your mind out of the gutter.

As it turns out, music runs deep in Dr. Sherman's family.  During college, he took lessons in singing and dancing, and he met his future wife when she first accompanied him on the piano.  After they married, they spent over a year on the road as part of a touring Vaudeville act.  He left to become a medic and ran a hospital for the indigenous people during the Vietnam War, which inspired him to go to medical school and become a doctor when he came back to the States.  He and his wife have eight children, all of whom are musically talented themselves.  A few years ago, they formed the Family Chorale with 30 members of their extended family.  The group toured up and down the mid-Atlantic and even recorded a CD together.  So basically, in addition to being a real-life Captain von Trapp, Dr. Sherman is also my new personal hero.

But now I'm suddenly worried again that I'll have kids who are tone-deaf.  Augh, what would I do!?

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