William Bremmer:  

After graduation, I enrolled at Cerritos Community College Commercial Music program and landed a great job after the first year as a touring musician for 18 months. I then returned and received my Associate degree and went on to Cal State Fullerton for my BA degree. I spent my senior year in France and learned to speak both Spanish and French fluently. I turned to voice studies and also learned a fairly good command of German, Italian and Latin. While in France, I heard about Madison, Wisconsin from some other students and surprisingly, some local French. I chose the University of Wisconsin for grad school and moved there in 1976. I liked it there and opened my own business as a piano technician in 1979. I have continued that as my main pursuit ever since. My interest in voice and languages continued however. I have sung and performed on stage with Madison Opera, Madison Symphony Orchestra chorus, UW Choral Union symphony chorus and numerous other local groups. I have often performed as a soloist or played a principal role in local musical theater. When I came to Madison, I thought I would no longer hear the Spanish language again but my first job as a rooming house manager had me speaking Spanish to half of the residents. I also taught French during the day as a French Department Teaching Assistant. I hardly had time to speak English! Since grad school, my business as a piano technician has been almost entirely in English but occasionally, I have had Spanish and French speaking customers, even an occasional German. Three years ago, I received an invitation to go to Madison's sister city, Freiburg, Germany to sing in Beethoven's 9th Symphony. I tried to speak as much German as I could but everyone wanted to speak English to me! While in Madison, I use my French for little more than reading wine bottles but I do attend a weekly Wednesday dinner and Friday lunch at a residence house on campus where only French is spoken. In 1981, I met a wonderful person who became my partner in life for nearly 15 years but who died tragically shortly before 1996. I have made numerous trips to Mexico and Spain. I lived in Mexico City for a month as a musician and a few weeks in Barcelona, Spain during my student days. I returned to Valencia, Spain a couple of years ago as a piano technician. In 1990, while at a piano technician's conference in Mexico City, I also worked there as a piano technician for a high profile client. I have also made numerous trips to Quebec, Canada and Cajun French speaking Louisiana. I learned to speak or at least mimic both dialects. For about a year, I sang Cajun songs with a local Cajun band. I enjoyed many Mardi Gras celebrations in both New Orleans (with my partner) and Cajun Country where I also sang Cajun songs on a traveling bandwagon. The people were very friendly to me! In 2005, I hosted a student from Germany from whom I improved my German. In 2006, I hosted a student from France and the rule of the house was that only French was to be spoken. I can say that I speak, read and write French very nearly as well as I do my own language, especially after having spent a year hosting a student from whom I learned all the current slang. Last summer, I met up with my best friend from Cerritos College whom I had not seen in 34 years! He was a foreign student from France when I was just beginning to learn to speak fluently. He had been a pilot for Air France for 30 years and brought along an entourage of other pilots and their spouses to attend the biggest air show in the USA there is every year in Oshkosh, WI. Needless to say, they were quite impressed with how well I knew their language but also enjoyed the many products I brought to their campsite that we...Expand for more