Hey, all, it's Rima. Hope everyone had a great New Year's. We're still on breakover here, but I am back in your feed to bring you another favorite episode from our first season. It is one of the wildest stories I've ever heard. At the heart of it, it's about a lost opportunity and what it's like to put a monetary value on that.

All right, here it is.

When Eric Abramovitz was 18,

he played in this concert that to anyone else would feel pretty insignificant.

We were playing this amazing symphony by Mahler, his third symphony.

Eric was a clarinet player in a university symphony.

And in the last movement at the great climax of this piece, I just, I was like overtaken by these like shivers and like unbelievable feelings of joy.

It's just like an upward scale, but like within the context of all the instruments, it's just like, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun.

But I mean, it's just, it's huge, you know?

I'm not doing it justice here.

Yeah. But I mean, it's just, it's huge. You know, I'm not doing it justice here. The music completely overwhelmed him to the point where he felt like crying.

Just from feeling that, I knew that music was exactly what I had to do with my life.

I'm Erie McRaece, and welcome to This Is Uncomfortable, a podcast from Marketplace about life and how money messes with it.

This week, a crazy story about one guy's dreams and an unexpected price tag.

For as long as Eric could remember, he'd been around music. His mom played in a klezmer band,

and as he grew up watching them perform, he felt mesmerized by the clarinet.

When he was seven, he convinced his parents to let him take lessons.

By high school, he was winning awards and playing in local orchestras.

And once he entered college at McGill University in Montreal, music became his entire life.

Even when it came to dating, like, he had this crush on a flute player.

So I asked her if she wanted to join my chamber group.

So was that your way of, like, flirting with her?

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