In an interview conducted via Skype yesterday, I learned the real reason why Brian Shaw, trumpet player extraordinaire and professor of music at LSU, took up his instrument. His story illustrates a number of things, including what frequently happens when children begin to play in band or orchestra.

In short, the instrument Brian wanted to play was too big, at least according to his father who drove Brian’s school bus mornings and evenings. Like most kids, Brian found the idea of operating a trombone slide irresistible.

But his dad, mindful of the logistics of getting on and off of a crowded school bus with a trombone case, told him, “You’re not bringing that on the bus.” Brian’s second choice would have been saxophone, except he was scared by all of the keys. So, he found a trumpet and it would have to do.

For the first two years, his progress was painful. Anyone hearing him play (other than his dedicated bandmaster who remains a good friend) might have written Brian off as a kid who should not darken the door of a band hall. That kind of assessment is dished out all too often to kids, and all too easily.

But Brian stumbled along, and then, two years later, while he was in sixth grade, this same bandmaster took several students to see Maynard Ferguson in concert in Evansville, Indiana. The concert was packed, but inexplicably there were two empty seats on the very front row. Brian and his buddy took them. And (dare I write this?) he was blown away by the experience.

Well, duh. Who would not be blown away, sitting on the front row of an intimate hall, directly beneath the genius of Maynard Ferguson? But, in Brian’s case, this concert changed his life. Immediately, he dedicated himself to the trumpet, began practicing with passion, progressed wildly, and today finds himself recording widely and performing everywhere from Carnegie Hall to the top Baroque music festivals (yes, he’s also a specialist on the valveless 17th- and 18th-century manifestations of the trumpet).

Next week, he will play Fisher Tull’s demanding, flashy Second Trumpet Concerto in an All-Texas Composers Concert by the Dallas Winds at the Meyerson Symphony Hall. I’ll be telling this same story to the pre-concert audience there and if Brian can break away from the sound check, he may join me to tell it himself!

Conducting interviews by Skype with some of our era’s leading performers, composers, and conductors has become a frequent activity for me. Skype can be dismal in terms of video and audio quality. But it works, doggone it. Click a few buttons, and one can fly through the air and into the window of a studio, rehearsal hall, or practice room to visit with an astounding array of artists, many of whom are young and making a stir in the world of today’s new music.

As for me, I can conduct these interviews from a hotel room, a ship cabin, or even the floor of an airport which, seriously, is a ridiculous place to try to work. Still, I do it.

Whenever possible, I ask these artists how they got started in what they do. The stories are usually charming, occasionally bizarre, and always filled with serendipity. Someone visited; someone departed; someone deposited an unwanted instrument; someone reclaimed a forgotten instrument, or maybe it was just a case of seeing a poster, passing by an open window, or absorbing a random suggestion or criticism. In very few cases did the process of picking up an instrument, conducting, or beginning to compose music take a logical or predictable path.

In virtually every story, someone extended himself beyond the necessary. Someone acted selflessly to make something exceptional happen. Shaw’s band director could have said, “It’s going to be a lot of trouble, dragging these kids to the Ferguson concert.” Brian’s mom could have said, “I don’t know, honey. It’s awfully late to be out on a school night.“ Or, the appeal of something far more immediate and easier to do might have intervened (as the hypnotic lure of digital devices does so tragically with so many kids today).

But the band director persevered. His mother said “yes.” And Brian grabbed the opportunity fully, letting the power of that experience propel him into an entirely new dimension of commitment to music.

Let us not hesitate when we have a chance to foster a child’s next step, no matter what the endeavor. Try not to stand in the way of something that might be a stretch for the child or the family.

And whatever happens, do not presume that a shaky start means there is no talent or ability. Very often, precisely those youngsters who seem the most hopeless end up blazing the brightest paths of light in the sky.