Executive Director Mark Turner is away in Rotterdam at Classical:NEXT. In between meeting, collaborating, and learning with his counterparts from across the globe he took a moment to reflect on Share in the Future.
I’ve always been fascinated with the wonderment we experience when hearing live music. A magic spell that’s cast by artisans and captures the hearts and souls of an audience. We all sit together, and no matter what our day has held or how much we know about what we’re hearing, in-spite of our differences and because of our ears, we can all fall under the spell.
Even more fascinating is that being spellbound can happen on music you’ve heard 100 times or something you’ve never played before. It is the truest way that we can all be understood and understand – and because of that live music needs to be fostered and protected and worked at.
As Glenn Gould used to say, music is not a momentary inspiration but rather a life long pursuit of hard work and serenity. It takes thousands of hours for each concert to come to life so to that the audience can feel the magic. It’s a labor of practice, research, planning, rehearsing, decision making, perseverance, and a drive to do it. It takes a lot of time, and a lot of money, and nerves of steal.
But truly, it all comes down to one thing: passion. The passion of a soloist to suggest a concerto, the passion of our musicians who sacrifice their time for more practice, the passion of producers to take risks and give of their energy, and the passion and audacity of a concert goer who could have stayed home and streamed something. It takes passion to move us all to the hall for each and every concert – and that is why we can feel the magic.
This year we’re again asking you to make a donation to the SSO before our year end. The economy is hurting, which means tickets sales are down – it also means that your money is more precious than ever. So I ask with the knowledge that we are doing everything we can to ensure that your donation to the SSO is put to the best possible use.; whether that’s through investing in our musicians, creating more opportunities for you to come to concerts, or giving our region’s young people a chance for their imagination to collide with live music.
Running an orchestra is difficult work, and while I love my job, it takes a remarkable amount of work from many people – and with four seasons under my belt I can honestly say that some days i feel like I might give up.
But like a musician who is finding one small run of notes nearly impossible, there’s something that keeps us all working towards a remarkable goal – passion. Eric’s passion for beautiful music, my team’s passion for their work and their orchestra, our musicians’ passion that causes them to need to make music not just listen to it, a subscriber who cannot wait for our next concert. It defies logic and economics that orchestras still exist and still play music live, but I guarantee you it’s the passion that keeps feeding us to make magic.
So please support your orchestra this May. Be part of that magic. And if you’re reading this thinking you that it’s been too long since you’ve been to the symphony, then you need to stir up the bravery to leave the house and be part of magical concert moments. Trust me, your life is so much deeper when you live passionately.