THELEAVEN.ORG | VOL. 39, NO. 22 | JANUARY 19, 2018
LEAVEN PHOTO BY MARC ANDERSON
Michael Flax, a member of Christ the King Parish in Topeka, plays the same piano he’s had since he was 9 years old. Despite an accident during his adolescence that cost him most of the fingers on his right hand, Flax continues to serve as an accompanist at Mass.
Topeka pianist doesn’t let injury define him
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By Marc and Julie Anderson mjanderson@theleaven.org
T
OPEKA — It’s just one chapter in the book of his life. That’s how Michael Flax, a member of Christ the King Parish in Topeka, recalls an accident that almost cost him the one pleasure he cherishes most — playing the piano. At 56, Flax has been playing the piano for 51 years. “I begged my parents [for lessons]. They made me wait until I was five,” Flax said. He was thrilled when his parents finally allowed him to give the piano a try. “Some people had a restaurant — a café kind of thing — and they had an
“I HAD A GOOD SUPPORT SYSTEM TO GET THROUGH SCHOOL. AND I ALREADY MADE UP MY MIND [THE INJURY] WASN’T GOING TO DOMINATE MY LIFE.” old piano. They sold the café and they were moving,” he said, “and asked my dad to store their piano. “It was this big, beautiful piano which I still have in my house.” Netta Curry was his first teacher.
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Flax admits at first he found her approach unusual. “I didn’t get to play the piano for a very long time,” recalled Flax. “She taught me to read music and music theory first, which was a really strange approach, I thought at first. “But when I was ready to sit down and play, it was easy. I learned to read music before I learned to read words.” Flax took piano lessons from Curry on a regular basis, sometimes five times a week. “When I was 15, she moved away,” he said. Flax and his parents hired another teacher who sponsored him for a musical competition and worked with him for the next two years. But on July 31, 1978, just before his senior year in high school, an event changed his life forever.
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Feb. 9.
Jan. 26.
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“I worked in a grocery store, and I was working in the meat market,” he said, “and I was just grinding hamburger. “I wasn’t careful enough. My hand got stuck in the machine, and by the time I got it shut off, it was too late. So, my hand was stuck.” A doctor came from down the street and extricated Flax’s hand from the machine as carefully as possible. Later that day, Flax underwent surgery to suture what remained of the fingers on his right hand. Although he had the presence of mind, even in the moment, to ask someone to call his piano teacher and cancel his lesson, it didn’t really register that his lessons might be over for good. “‘Oh, Michael,” he remembers the
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