By KIM SMITH DEDAM
JAY — Kaleb Wisher loved his piano teacher as much as he loves playing music.
Their Wednesday afternoon lessons struck a chord that will resonate throughout his life.
Diagnosed with high-functioning autism at just over a year old, Kaleb, now 13, is also savant, born with an innate ability to pluck music out of the air and translate it on a keyboard.
His gift intrigued Keene piano teacher Jean Gallic, a music instructor and graduate of the renowned Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam.
When Jean died suddenly at the end of January, the lessons stopped, but not the music.
Sitting at the upright piano Jean helped find for Kaleb and his parents, Jim Wisher and Koleen Otis-Wisher, the young teen's fingers careened over the keys.
"This song is 'Ecossaise,'" he said.
"It's the last song they played together," Koleen explained.
Notes filled the small den that is set aside at the family's Jay home for Kaleb's music and computer pursuits.
He began to play at age 5, at first solely by ear.
Because their son was often bullied at school, Jim and Koleen moved him to a more supportive setting at Keene Central School.
From the community, they found Jean Gallic.
She, in turn, helped Kaleb find communication skills he had not had the chance to develop.
"She really understood me. She helped me focus, concentrate, even learn theory," Kaleb said, his gaze astute.
As many people are with high-functioning autism, Kaleb is articulate and incisive.
"You have to think ahead when you play music," he explained. "The more effort you put into it, the better you sound. She taught me how technique is very important in finger movements, how to play and put effort into what you play. One of her famous sayings was, 'You practice on the day you eat.'"
Which, of course, is every day.
"Exactly," Kaleb said.
LIFE LESSONS
Piano lessons with Jean also uncovered a learning stutter Kaleb had with mistakes.
"She found the mistakes," he said. "I make the same ones; I don't make new ones. So she taught me how to recognize the mistake and overcome it and fix it."
Jean's education at Crane, where she graduated Summa Cum Laude in 1975, and subsequent decades of teaching fit Kaleb's unique ability to learn.
"She set goals every week to get something accomplished and done right," Kaleb said.
Lessons on piano keys soon transcended sound and chord structure. They were life lessons, really, wrapped in music theory and practice.
"It builds reading skills and, sort of, math in that you need to get into time signatures. You need to count notes, quarter notes, half notes — things like that," Kaleb said.
Jean also introduced the young musician to Suzuki training, a learning strategy that encourages innate talent through a nurturing, supportive environment.
"She said I was a natural-born Suzuki student," he said, opening an instruction book for piano with double scores of music for duets, something Jean did often with Kaleb.
It added lessons in communication.
"If you're playing a duet, a trio or in a band, if you fall out, the other parts fall out," he said. "Then there's listening. You definitely have to be able to focus and concentrate on what you hear."
TRIBUTE IN SONG
In the very first Suzuki session, Kaleb was able to read and memorize 61 notes.
The autistic thought-process has special qualities, Koleen explained.
Jean asked him about it in the last lesson before she died.
"I described to her how I take pictures in my mind of what I'm doing, and it's not just for music," Kaleb said. "The picture stays there for as long as I need it, either as notes or just how I hear it."
When he wants the information, Kaleb simply brings up the picture.
"I try to keep it in a place where I can get to it fast. At that moment, I plan out what I'm going to do with it. I apply it; sometimes there's a trigger that starts it. I'm very sensitive to things."
Kaleb shared his admiration for Jean with a tribute performance at Café Night, held recently at Keene Central School.
The song he played, "21 Guns" by Green Day, thrummed off his piano keys again at home.
"When somebody comes into your life," he said when the music stopped, "and they have a big impact, you don't forget. There will be something new, but I will never forget her."
E-mail Kim Smith Dedam at: kdedam@pressrepublican.com
