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Music Leads the Way for Norwood Couple

By JAMES FERGUSSON

Scott Rimm-Hewitt, 29, and his fiancée, Amanda Peterson, 23, have much in common. For starters, they are both talented musicians – Rimm-Hewitt plays the tuba and Peterson the trombone – and both teach music at city public schools. They also share a passion for travel and the great outdoors. And in July went on the trip of a lifetime.

With many teachers enjoying a well-earned summer rest, Rimm-Hewitt and Peterson, instruments in tow, joined The New England Youth Ensemble, a group of musicians based at Columbia Union College, Maryland, on a fascinating month-long tour of England, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana, and Lesotho, a small enclave nation surrounded by South Africa.

The ensemble performed in each of the countries they visited and, and through audience donations, raised money for children orphaned by AIDS in Harare, Zimbabwe.

Between performances and many arduous bus journeys, Rimm-Hewitt and Peterson went on safaris in Zimbabwe and South Africa, saw the Cape of Good Hope and bungee-jumped 340 feet off a bridge at Victoria Falls.

“It was a very amazing experience,” said Peterson. “Not only did we get to travel all around a beautiful country [South Africa, where they spent the majority of the trip], but because we were part of a wonderful cause, we were welcomed into the homes and lives of people… everywhere we went.”

Peterson teaches at PS 7 in East Harlem and Rimm-Hewitt at PS 246 in North Fordham, a short bicycle ride from their apartment on Hull Avenue and East 207th Street.

In their spare time, the couple performs with various musical groups and practice their instruments for hours upon hours each week.

They also enjoy hiking, and regularly escape the city for a weekend hike. Rimm-Hewitt relishes adventure, the more challenging and grueling, the better.

In 2000, he trekked the entire Appalachian Trail. The A.T., as it’s known, is, at 2,175 miles, the nation’s longest marked footpath and winds its way through 14 states from Maine to Georgia.

More recently, he has run the Boston marathon and cycled across America – more than 4,000 miles from Portland, Oregon to Portland, Maine.

Takes tuba everywhere

What makes these feats even more impressive is that on each occasion, whether hiking, running, or cycling, his trusty 30-pound tuba has come along for the ride. “I can’t leave home without my instrument,” said Rimm-Hewitt, only half-jokingly.

The sight of Rimm-Hewitt lugging a huge musical instrument in a rucksack, led other hikers on the A.T. trail to dub him, “Super Scott, the Tuba Man.”

The tuba — which he affectionately calls “Charisma” — may be heavy and cumbersome, but Rimm-Hewitt credits it with saving his life on the A.T.

“September 20th, 2000, I was hiking with my buddy down a steep trail and I fell over a cliff head-first 25 feet,” said Rimm-Hewitt. “I thought I was going to die. My life flashed before my eyes. I heard a crunch and realized I was still alive. It was the tuba bell hitting a rock. It would have been my head.”

Rimm-Hewitt escaped with a gash to the leg, and Charisma, while badly dented, was easily repaired, and today shows little sign of the traumatic experience.

The couple is from North Carolina. They moved to Norwood in August 2004, shortly after completing their studies at The University of Greensboro, N.C., where Rimm-Hewitt did a PhD in Tuba Performance, and Peterson, an undergraduate degree in Music Education.

Finding Norwood

They looked at a number of apartments in other Bronx neighborhoods before a friendly stranger, seeing what they were doing, said he knew somewhere they’d like. “He put us in his van, drove us to Norwood, and said you need to try up here,” said Peterson.

“We fell in love with the neighborhood when we saw the Oval Park [Williamsbridge Oval] and we said we needed to stay,” said Rimm-Hewitt, who, weather permitting, practices the tuba in the 19-acre park (to the joy and amusement of local kids who kindly hold his sheet music in blustery conditions).

Peterson prefers to practice her instrument inside — the trombone is far more fragile than the tuba, she explains — but she too enjoys the surrounding parks and green spaces, and takes the couple’s dog, Dacoda, for a three-mile run every morning.

With the days getting colder and the nights longer, next summer may seem like a long way off for a couple who loves the great outdoors. But for the ever-busy Rimm-Hewitt and Peterson, however, there’s much to plan. They’re getting married in July and are considering joining the New England Youth Ensemble on another summer tour, this time of Argentina.

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