MUSIC
PLAYING IN TIME
A chance encounter brings music from a
40
long unused violin back to life
BY GLORIA TAYLOR WEINBERG
PHOTOS BY ED DRONDOSKI
Cindy Baker rests her chin on Lorena
Bussey’s antique violin, draws the
bow across its strings and shapes the
lovely notes of Vivaldi’s Violin Concerto
in A Minor.
What takes shape in Bussey’s memory is the
image of her father lulling his children to sleep
with the dulcet tones of the instrument he bought
for $9 at a pawnshop in 1905. “Whenever we had
trouble sleeping, my father would sit on the end
of the bed and play for us,” the 90-year-old Fort
Pierce native says. “I loved the Viennese waltzes
the best. To this day, that’s my favorite music.”
Baker, 52, has come to Bussey’s home to play
the violin for a couple of guests intrigued by the
tale of how the two women met last year at the
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Fort Pierce residents Lorena Bussey, left, and Cindy Baker became fast friends after a
chance meeting at a St. Lucie Historical Society meeting during which Baker volunteered
to play the long-silent violin Bussey inherited from her father, Joseph Lee Roberts.