Dear Doctor:
I’m sitting in a hotel room in Rochester, N.Y., looking out the window at a snow
swept field beneath a wintry gray sky, with a smile on my face and a tear in my
eye, remembering a special weekend -- the New York State School Music
Association Winter Conference, featuring the 2007 All-State Concerts.
Some of the brightest and most talented of our youth in New York State came
together to take the next step in their musical evolution – already excelling at
their schools, they earned the right to play with the best in their class, both
to see how they compare, and also to enjoy a rare opportunity to perform more
challenging music with more competent and experienced players their own age.
It’s like having a team of all-stars at every position, only there are hundreds
of positions, each dependent on the other to make the show a success by
coordinating their unique gifts. It is, in a word, thrilling.
There were eight acts in this series of concerts, ranging from jazz to
classical, from string orchestra to wind ensemble to symphonic band to chorus –
my seventeen-year-old Dan got to sing with the All-State Mixed Chorus, one of
about three hundred young men and women to achieve a perfect score on their
qualification audition, and to garner sufficient recommendations to be accepted
into this exclusive club. Each of these groups of young prodigies is the
distillate of tens of thousands of juniors and seniors state-wide, who made it
through to this level of competition and therefore get the joy and prestige of
performing at this level, in the magnificent Eastman Theater in downtown
Rochester, to a packed house of appreciative music lovers, mostly their adoring
parents and beaming teachers.
Each performance was led by a guest conductor, the cream of the school music
elite, and I especially enjoyed the comments of Dr. Aimee Beckmann-Collier,
Director of Choral Studies at Drake University in Iowa, who was chosen to
conduct the Mixed Chorus.
In reflecting on the unusual skill, presence and maturity of these young
artists, Dr. Beckmann-Collier described them as counter-cultural – in other
words, they behaved in a paradoxical way, different from many of their peers.
Where so many teens are about “me,” she observed that these young people were
about “we” – and that while society moves so fast, with texting, microwave ovens
and video games, these brilliant kids handled this complex challenge with
patience, poise and discipline.
And the sound! The acoustically perfect auditorium provided the ultimate venue
for the crystallized passion and genius of these budding musical wonders, each
splendid in his or her own right, blossoming right before us. It was nothing
less than spectacular, from the opening number to the last strains of the
symphony orchestra. In his closing comments, President of NYSSMA James Cassara
quoted Aldous Huxley in saying, “After silence, that which comes closest to
expressing the inexpressible is music.” Proudly, I honor the efforts of my son
Dan and the next generation, who seem to grasp the importance of the arts and
humanities in developing our culture to be all it can be.
Dennis Perman DC, for The Masters Circle
PS You could buy them a fruit cake – or, you can make your gifts count for
something more this year by shopping in The Masters Circle Store! Books, CDs,
DVDs, a subscription to TMCtv – don’t settle for after shave lotion when you can
pick a present that will add something to someone’s life and practice that makes
a difference. Put knowledge, wisdom, motivation and perspective on your gift
list this year, and you’ll feel that you did more than just check someone off
your list -- to see all the options, please go to www.themasterscircle.com or
call Andy at 800-451-4514. Happy Holidays!
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