Music can soothe your soul.
I first learned this from my middle school band director, Mr. Richard Threet, at Edison Middle School, as it was known back in the last century.
Mr. Threet was a patient soul. He was smart, whimsical, disarming, and knew when to turn a tone-deaf ear towards burgeoning musicians, no easy task for a man who was a talented musician in his own right. He guided us to stop just playing our instruments as individuals and to begin forming us into a group that could play music together.
On Sunday, August 17, I was delighted to stumble upon the South Bend Symphony playing a beautiful concert at Chris Wilson Pavilion near the zoo in South Bend. The music floated through the air and brought me from my run near the river up through IUSB and to the Pavilion. The event, sponsored in part by WVPE, our local NPR station, and the Community Foundation of St. Joseph County, had hundreds of attendees and featured music for all ages.
As I listened to music from the cinema composed by John Williams, and classics like “Moon River” and more, I couldn’t help but think how good our town and region have it sometimes, and how art is so vital for a community, especially in tumultuous times. I’ve thought the same thing as gorgeous new murals pop up around town, too.
The evening’s concert, entitled “Warriors and Peacemakers,” featured music curated to help us think about these themes. All good art allows us to reflect, and the juxtaposition of these pieces of music at this time in our local and national history was truly well received.
I’m thankful for the arts in our city and the moments that our local artists give us to think and breathe in thoughtful pieces, social commentary, and bucolic pieces, all of which can provide respite in uncertain times.
I hope the sponsors and hosts of art in our community continue to work to represent multiple voices in our region.
I would love to see more of our area leaders at these kinds of events, both to help soothe their souls as they are called on for essential things and need succor too, but also so that they might be seen in public and see the public enjoying some of the fruits of their labors in our community.
The concert ended on Sunday with community members joining the South Bend Symphony to perform the 1812 Overture. I love this piece because it starts so peacefully, moves to a more militaristic and confusing set of sounds, and ends triumphantly after the dust of the cannons settles.
I've given this a lot of thought, and I hope we’re nearing the end of the second part of this overture in our society. Soon, our communities will come back triumphant, not without more work to do, but with the ability to work together.
Music Director Alastair Willis explained to the crowd that the Symphony had invited local participants to perform with them for the closing piece of this concert many summers in a row. I couldn't help but smile, thinking about the different members of our community getting this opportunity, young and old alike, and from all walks of life. This year, the citizen orchestra set a new record for community members who showed up to rehearse on Saturday and perform the closing piece with the South Bend Symphony. Willis invited the in-person audience and those listening on WVPE to dust off their old instruments and come and play in the park with the symphony next summer.
I love this idea – playing music with others in our community or just ‘playing’ anything with each other. Regardless of our political or other differences, coming together to do something for the community and with the community in common is perhaps the only thing that can make us all ‘peacemakers,’ even if only for a moment, pausing our ‘warrior’ instincts to find that common ground.
At a moment when the entire community and world are wound so very tightly, we need more people like my middle school teacher, Mr. Threet, to take us from honking and squawking on our individual instruments, to help us find familiar melodies that we might play with one another. Maybe once we do that, we can even harmonize together on occasion, and from there improvise, making room for one another as we rebuild and recreate the symphony of our society.
Music: William Tell Overture - Finale by Rossini, performed by the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra