It was my piano professor, Bruno Mezzena, who first encouraged me to play Schoenberg's music.
It was a cousin who first encouraged Sendak to look beyond his narrow life in Brooklyn.
It was, as so often, an inspirational teacher who first encouraged her to commit that storytelling impulse to the page.
"Nana, granddad, I did it," said Davidson, whose late grandparents first encouraged him to take up para-sport.
But on the other hand, my mother was the one who first encouraged me to go abroad.
Fritz Krenn, the Austrian bass who plays Baron Ochs, was first encouraged to sing the role by Strauss himself.
Her work came to the attention of Joseph Brodsky, who first encouraged her to leave the Soviet Union.
In fact, it was instructor Sheila Ghidini who first encouraged her to take lichen as a subject for her drawing.
Calipari, who was first encouraged by Indiana Coach Tom Crean to become active on Twitter, says social networking helps him connect with Kentucky fans, who are famously rabid.
When he offered to manufacture the De Havilland Mosquito in India, he was first encouraged and then instructed to make gliders instead.
Maṇimēkalai is torn between her passion for a princely lover and her spiritual yearnings, the first encouraged by her grandmother, the second by her mother.
