The chorus had an outstanding time playing for the Homegrown Music Festival. Love and thanks to everyone who came out to hear us and to all of the hardworking people behind Homegrown who make that marvelous week’s worth of music happen. Oh, and did I mention that the chorus sounded ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS!!?? We have really put the time in this year and I’m feeling pretty proud.
I took in a few shows for Homegrown, and, as usual, I’m awed by the gifts our musicians bring to our community. Music is both work and pleasure, pastime and vocation. Every musician who performs in public works hard to bring their songs into being. The actual community building that happens when someone decides to make music with or for others is a quiet, but powerful force.
As a teenager I wrote a song to sing with my friends. That was my entire purpose, to make something we could sing together. As it turns out, it really rang true. I taught the song to my friends at Girl Scout camp, and wherever I went for a couple of years, and it fairly quickly spread to camps around the country. Today, I was reminded of how our songs reach beyond us and work in other people’s lives.
In my email inbox was a message from a woman who sings my song. She said that she began singing it to her daughter as soon as she learned she was pregnant, and has continued to sing it to her everyday since then. I can’t quite describe how it feels to know that my 15 year old self is singing to a child who lives today.
This connection between myself and the mother who wrote to me cannot be brushed off as small and irrelevant. The song lives in her enough to hunt me down and send me a message. I’ve been singing the song a lot myself lately as I work on some new musical skills and anticipate some future music making. In those moments we breathe the same air, even though we are half a continent apart.
Sing! A Women's Chorus 