"When you can't come to rehearsal, your music goes here!" one of my former orchestra conductors told the ensemble in no uncertain terms. "If you can't be here, your music needs to be here, so everyone who is here has a part to play. Your music goes here. Even if you die, your music goes here!"
I could just imagine the conductor giving a eulogy in the rehearsal room for a promising music student. He would face the orchestra solemnly and say, "This young person, taken from this earth much too soon, was a talented instrumentalist, a gifted student, and most importantly, his (or her) music went here!"
Hits you right in the heart, doesn't it?
