I’m the son of a piano teacher who made it her life’s work to build children’s self-image and give them the tools to have wonderful lives, using piano as the medium. Much of what makes me a popular (and effective) teacher came from my mom. Not surprisingly, I’m a strong supporter of the music program at my school. I sometimes bring my 5-string hybrid violin/viola to school and play with the kids at string ensemble rehearsals. On Thursday evening, I attended their winter concert, some of which they repeated in an assembly during school Friday morning.
The music was about what I would have expected from a city with three fourths of its students living below the poverty line. The school has some very good musicians and a lot of beginning musicians. However, for every single one of them at every level, music is a kind of transformative magic that gives them something that doesn’t exist in any other part of their lives. They played and sang their hearts out in a way that made the experience more beautiful and precious than a technically superior performance at a music conservatory could ever have been.
The audience clearly had little or no experience with concert etiquette. People in the audience shouted to the performers as they walked on and off the stage, whistled and cat-called, and broke into thunderous applause as the band or chorus was still finishing each piece. However, what made it beautiful was that as far as I could tell, every single member of the audience was appreciative and supportive, both at the evening concert and at the school assembly. They were proud and excited to see their friends on stage, and they showed it with unabashed enthusiasm.
