The rainbow of robes just before the concert

Making music together is as natural as talking together. It’s one of the many ways we bond as a species. I had the good fortune of being part of a wonderful choral experience in Central Pennsylvania this past weekend – the District IV Chorus, hosted by my new friends, Peg Boozel and Nanette Thomas. Mount Union High School, Peg’s home base, hosted the event. over 180 high school students from several counties took part in this multifaceted event.

The audience sees a polished performance and a smiling guest conductor. What they don’t see…

• Countless hours of practice time by the students.
• Countless hours of practice time led by the educators of the District.
• Volunteers organizing housing for well over 160 students from schools too far away for the students to go home.
• Volunteers and cafeteria workers mobilized to feed an EXTRA 180 plus people during regular school days.
• The local folks who housed all of these students.
• Countless hours of planning and organizing and adjusting and sacrificing by the educators of the District.
• The teamwork among these professionals – and not just choral educators! The band director at Mount Union was right there looking out for his colleague’s back.
• Meeting upon meeting upon meeting at the event to insure a seamless flow and plan future events!
• The willingness of the host school’s students to help their teacher with any task.

It was amazing to watch this well-oiled machine work. And with all the challenges that mother nature threw at the District IV teachers – it was AMAZING how quickly they adjusted their collective batting stance without losing a beat (see what I did there? Mixed music and sports jargon!). This festival was scheduled to run from Wednesday night until Saturday morning. Due to weather, it became Thursday morning until Friday night. Phone calls were made to keep everyone informed of the changes. These teachers work together to benefit their students – and many of them do it at a personal cost (some have to pay for their own subs back at their home schools!).

Despite the curve balls and the reduced rehearsal time, the students offered their music with selfless hearts and unbound joy. They gave honestly, honoring the composers (two of which were present!), each other, and the audience. It was my pleasure to be part of their journey.

Rehearsing away!

Weather couldn’t stop the choral art in District IV. And those in attendance left transformed by the students’s collective gift. They saw the very tip of a huge iceberg, an iceberg made of selfless hard work by a group of people I am proud to call my colleagues.

Many thanks to Joseph Gregorio for Frog went a courtin’, Peter de Mets for Blessings, Ethan Sperry for Desh, Paul Basler for “Psalm 23“, Gwyneth Walker for The Dreamers of Dreams, Susie Gardner for Oh What a Pretty Little Baby, Brad Holmes for Noel, Marty Sedek for He Wishes for the Clothes of Heaven, and of course – Mozart, Jack Halloran, and Randall Thompson for their beautiful music!

If you don’t know these folks, get to know them now!

Marty Sedek

Paul Basler

Brad Holmes

Joseph Gregorio

Gwyneth Walker

Susie Gardner

Ethan Sperry

Peter de Mets

WCDA All State Conductors: Mark A. Boyle – Seton Hill University, Jennaya Robison, and Andrew Last, both of the famed Luther College (missing is Elaine Quilichini – she had to get back to Canada!)

I teach my students that it’s the conductors job to make others musically powerful. This concept was crystalized for me by Ben Zander in his TED Talk. If you haven’t watched it, you should! As conductors, we develop a vision and inspire others to realize that vision.

When I work with choirs, I tell it like it is. I tell them what I expect – and to paraphrase my friend and fraternity brother, Karl Paulnack, from his Welcome Address to the parents of incoming Boston Conservatory students – I expect them to save lives with their music.

The Wisconsin Middle Level All State Choir was no different. They sang! They gave away their collective voice, honoring the composers, each other, and the audience. I told them – you never know whose life you might change with your music. I believe that. I believe that there could be someone in that audience whose life is at the crossroads – and honest and selfless art given freely by a group of emotionally connected middle schoolers has the power to pull them down the road that leads to life.

We sang! But we also talked about the music. We talked about the historical context of McCartney’s “Blackbird” – so relevant today. Not about a blackbird, friends. Sir Paul wrote this in response to the riots occurring in ’68 after Dr. King was assassinated. And the middle school musicians ate up this information. You could have heard a pin drop when I talked to them about this.

I have started taking a moment at festivals to ask students why they sing – particularly in choir. One young woman, Scedra (pronounced Say-dra – her name was a combination of the initials of grandmothers and great grandmothers) particularly touched me. Scedra was born 2 months premature. She fit in the palm of your hand. Her father’s wedding ring could slide up her arm to her shoulder with room to spare. Scedra is in a wheel chair. She put her hand up to share why she sang….

“I sing because it makes me feel like flying. I don’t feel like I’m in my chair. It’s like I’m not disabled anymore.”

I wept. I’m weeping now typing this. 149 of her new friends instantly applauded her. The smile on her face eclipsed her chair. Scedra is often (at first sight) defined by her wheelchair, but in that moment, she was simply and beautifully a young woman overjoyed to be making music with her new friends.

Scedra and a host of her colleagues shared from their hearts in a room full of people they had just met. Music did this. Music created this place that allowed these people to be who they were (are!) without fear of judgment.

And that is music’s power.

These young men and women changed my life and for that I will be forever grateful.

Thank God, the universe, and all good things for music.