It was the end of a lesson, and Blount was mortified.

She left the studio and never told a soul - not her own parents, not her boyfriend, who had dropped her off for the music lesson.

She would still be haunted by the memory forty years later.

Now, Blount is one of the most in-demand, well-respected and collaborative musicians in South County. The Gilroyan also works as a nurse, administering chemotherapy treatments to cancer patients.

When Blount was told she had no aptitude for music all those years ago, her reaction was to go home and teach herself to play every song in her father's thick saxophone book, working out the violin fingerings all by herself. She had no resources available to her in terms of expensive lessons or better teachers. But she had two major things in her favor: she listened to a quiet but insistent inner voice saying, "Keep playing," and she had the willingness to work incredibly hard no matter what.

She found ways to play pieces on her own and pretended to know what she was doing even when unsure. Relying on her experience singing with her sisters at car shows, her years of performing with family, and a great ear coupled with an innate musicality, she worked her way into the Southeast Symphony in Los Angeles - the first and longest continuously performing primarily African-American orchestra in the world. In Gilroy, she rose to first chair in the violin section of South Valley Symphony, becoming concert master.

Blount has recently returned from attending Itzhak Perlman's May Master Class at The Julliard School in New York City. Both she and her good friend Lori Franke, the founder and director of South Valley Suzuki String Academy, auditioned for the class and made it. With Itzhak Perlman widely regarded as the reigning virtuoso of the violin, being accepted into his class was a major achievement.

For the past five years, Blount has been training with violin teacher Dale King every Monday, unlearning bad habits and improving her technique.

"When I first went to him, I wouldn't practice - I didn't do my homework, I had no dedication. But he patiently waited for me to come around," she said. "I was afraid to trust him. I didn't want to invest myself in practicing, only to be told I wasn't a real musician. But I could see that he truly wanted what was best for me, and I started really listening to him."

But it took the trip to New York to really hit this lesson home, Blount said.

"What I finally realized when I was with all those other musicians at Julliard is that we belonged there," she said of herself and Franke. "We weren't two small town girls being awed by the big city. We held our own and we belonged. We relaxed into that realization and just learned everything, soaking it all in.

"Itzhak demonstrated for us that there are so many different ways to play the same song. He had six of his master students play the same song for us. First it was a bold song, then shy, then silent, then angry, then joyous. Same instrument, same notes, but a completely different effect. He wanted us to see how you have to put your own print on it - you can't copy anyone else. You have to put yourself into the song."

Which is what Blount has been doing all these years.

As a chemotherapy nurse, Blount brings her music to her patients, dedicates songs to them and fundraises for them when they can't afford treatment. She soothes them when they are afraid and has them laughing so much during treatments that people can hear them all the way down the hall.

"I was led to all these wonderful people by God." Blount said. "I may be terrified when I walk out on stage, but God has had His arms around me all this time. And He says, 'Keep playing.'"

Kat Teraji Kat Teraji is communications coordinator for a large nonprofit that benefits women and children. Her column appears every Friday. You can reach her at kattoy@verizon.net.