The Power of Music to Unite Us
Experiencing live music together would help the world right now
If you’re like me right now, you’re feeling alone and cut off from what was once a freely spontaneous and social life where we connected daily with people who empowered us and brightened our days. But the pandemic has cut us off from each other and with the US election right now on top of it, all I can think about is —
What will bring us together again?
I’m a orchestra conductor and I miss being on stage regularly sharing music with an orchestra and especially an audience.
Just this past week I recorded an online concert with the Victoria Symphony in Canada. It was a beautiful concert of incredibly moving music — Copland’s Appalachian Spring and Barber’s Adagio was part of it. Performing such expressive music with the Victoria Symphony was inspiring, especially at this time when making music together is rare, challenging to organize, and with great potential to be cancelled at any moment.
But the impact of having no audience was a deeper silence than I expected. It reminded me about how much we all interact with each other and experience emotion together in a live concert.
