Singing as Community

I am one of the luckiest people on the planet.

I conduct choirs for a living. Multiple times per week, I stand in front of a group of people of a wide variety of ages and backgrounds, and make music with them. My current slate of choirs is entirely amateur, filled with people who come to a choir for the love of singing. For the love of sharing that love with a large group of other people. We laugh, we sing, and we work hard. We work hard to find the heart and message of the music. We work hard to work as a unit, a team, an ensemble. We work hard to communicate, within the ensemble, and with our audiences. We work hard to create beauty, to build connections, to share with others. What an extraordinary thing.

There is so much sad and ugly and upsetting news lately, everywhere around us. I am, as I know many of you are, exhausted by it all. And depressed by it all. And often, angry at it all.

But today, working with one of my choirs, I remembered the truth: this is what I get to do for a living. I get to be a part of the best of human experiences. When we come together to share, sing, laugh, and communicate with each other, we are all the winners, and that makes my heart soar. No one is ever diminished by making music with others.

I am so grateful to all of you who have trusted me to be a part of your music-making, who in doing so have made me one of the luckiest people on the planet.

Thank you.