By Natalie Forster, Features Assignment Editor
Alecturer of music and piano instructor Laura Peterson, has been at St. Bonaventure University since 1996. Since she came here, Peterson has been collecting books, sheet music, figures and anything else you can think of. Her positively eccentric personality shines through with each unique item placed around her room.
1) On each of her right-side windows is a sculpture: one created by Don Drumm, a sculptor from Akron, Ohio, and one by John Surra. A friend gave Peterson Drumm’s sculpture as a wedding gift. Surra, however, was a former student that she found inspiring. The sculpture, “Waning Moon,” she bought from the Bonaventure graduate.
“John was a student here and so I bought one from him,” Peterson said. “I think he’s going to be big, and I wanted to have one of his works.”
2) Some of the quirky, yet fun things in her room are the Beethoven, The Beatles and Mozart figures by her piano. The Beethoven figure she bought for herself because of her love for classic composers.
“I have sculptures. I have toys,” Peterson said. “I have a mint, in-the-package Beethoven action figure. I’m pretty sure not many people on campus have this.”
Mozart was a gift, as well as The Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine” action figures. Even though she does play and enjoy classical music, she has a love and appreciation for all genres, including classic pop songs.
3) Hidden behind Peterson’s desk is a tiny, keychain-sized Tickle-Me-Elmo that was bought for her as a gag gift. After being scared with it in Kmart, her friend bought it just to laugh at her reaction.
“I picked it up and I didn’t know it was going to make that sound. It startled me so much that my friend bought it for me,” Peterson said. “I probably have more toys than the average faculty member.”
4) Being a music teacher, Peterson’s life focuses around music. She has bookshelves placed around her room with older music books that she bought or was given.
She also has a sheet music book from 1674 that she bought at a local antique store. It is so old that she has to keep the paper safe by wrapping the book up and only wearing gloves when she uses it. She teaches out of it sometimes for her classes.
“It was 11 years before Bach was born. It’s got the 1674 on it,” Peterson said. “It has a 300-year-old doodle. Someone scribbling, seeing, ‘Does my pen work?’”
5) Along with her books comes shelves and cabinets of sheet music all around her room. Mostly consisting of classics, she has modern sheet music, as well. Her range in music varies greatly, and she respects all music.
“Many, many linear feet of music,” Peterson said, before playing the piano. “When you walk into a musician’s office, you’re gonna find interesting things.”
6) Possibly the most interesting object in her room is her miniature theremin toy that she keeps on her shelves. This toy is actually a musical instrument. By moving your hand around a wire coming out of the top, you can create sound in any rhythm you desire. Most toys also have one for volume, but her miniature toy only has one rod for pitch.
She learned about theremins a while ago, and, one day, her friend gave her the one she owned, saying she never used it and didn’t really need it.
“It’s a bizarre, 20th-century instrument,” said Peterson. “I take it into my classes. It’s random, and it’s fairly cool.”
7) Peterson also has a secret love of cars. Located on the right side of the wall right when you walk in, Peterson has pictures of some of her favorite cars.
“My friends, who gave me the theremin, are friends through this car club I’m in,” Peterson said. “My husband and I collect Jetsons, weird little 40-something-year-old, British sports cars.”
She specifically loves classic Jetson cars, her favorite being the yellow Jetson Healey car in the pictures framed on her wall, as seen above.
8) She gets laughs from fellow professors and students with her large stack of shoes located right behind her door. She said most people refer to it as “Shoe Mountain.” This is only a fraction of her shoes; she has a lot more at home, and she’s not afraid to admit it. She likes the idea of having a lot of options to go with her mood, yet she does not have a specific pair or type that she likes to play piano while wearing the most.
“It’s one of those things that anyone who knows me knows that I have shoes, and I have lots of shoes,” Peterson said. “It’s all about choice. You can’t be worse off when you have more options.”
Her piano takes up a great amount of space in her practice-room office, and she loves playing it, but the piano is not the only object that shows off her personality. Every turn in Peterson’s room shows another interesting item with a great story, and they all make her who she is.
“If I have to live in this room half my life, I want it to at least feel a little homier,” Peterson said.
