Reflection | Two

I attended a choral concert the other weekend given by The Singers in St. Paul. I was blown away by their spirit, artistry, phrasing, musicality, intonation, and presentation. As an audience member hearing this beautiful music, I felt a large range of emotions like calm, joyous, peaceful, excited, and even nostalgic, too. I left the concert not necessarily remembering every note that was sung, but I do keenly remember how wonderful I felt during that experience, and this is the lasting imprint.

Our music touches people more than we ever may know. In the hustle and bustle of life when we are practicing, moving our harps, performing, or interacting with our colleagues or audiences, this may be hard to remember. It may be challenging to really remember why it is that we are musicians when we are so busy and fatigued—and for many of us—this time of the year is indeed the most challenging because we not only are making a lot of music, we may also be teaching, tending to our families, or interacting within our work or church communities.

But we do make a difference. We do change lives with our music. We do enrich our corner of the world in a positive and loving way when we share music or when we are audience members gathered in a concert community. We must remember this when times are tough because we always come out on the other side of the season, hopefully grateful to share our gifts with others, and hopefully thankful that others share theirs with us.

Season’s Greetings, with warmest wishes to you and yours now and in the New Year. —December, 2024