Just got back from a concert that featured an excellent teenage flutist. A few minutes ago I received an email from a friend saying “Someone said that the girl has only been playing flute for three years.” Nope. She’s been playing and studying classical flute since she was a small child. For some reason, rumors like this take off from out of nowhere for talented kids all too often. It’s not enough that they play well. No, what’s needed is to blow their talent up to mythic proportions by grossly exaggerating some aspect of their persona. Fortunately, there’s search engines like Google to help cut through the BS to find out what the true story is. Too bad so few people ever bother to check.