Off topic: Music & Life

The director of St. Tim's choir sent this link to choir members: Welcome Address, by Karl Paulnack. It is a welcome address given to entering freshmen at the Boston Conservatory by Karl Paulnack, director of the music division.
It's worth the read!

The story involving Copland's Sonata is particularly haunting.

Dr. Paulnack notes that following 9/11 in NYC:

"The first organized activity that I saw in New York, that same day, was singing. People sang. People sang around fire houses, people sang “We Shall Overcome”. Lots of people sang America the Beautiful. The first organized public event that I remember was the Brahms Requiem, later that week, at Lincoln Center, with the New York Philharmonic. The first organized public expression of grief, our first communal response to that historic event, was a concert. That was the beginning of a sense that life might go on. The US Military secured the airspace, but recovery was led by the arts, and by music in particular, that very night."

For me, singing is just fun. It is challenging & rewarding on many dimensions: physically, intellectually, and emotionally.

Dr. Paulnack presents a different, much deeper meaning for music.