We Need Music to Survive
Last week, I wrote about music, as a conduit for love, being an essential tool in the transformation of our world for the better. But of course, we need music for ourselves too. As Yvette and I planned this Sunday's service together, reflecting on her selection for our closing hymn—the gospel icon Hezekiah Walker's anthem "I Need You to Survive"—I began to think about how I am surviving this time of strife, danger, and uncertainty. How does my hope . . . or dare I say, optimism survive?
The music in my life is not only an emotional sanctuary but a meaningful pursuit—an action that I can take to proliferate joy and fulfillment. This week, I have the honor of conducting Hub City Opera's spring production, Culinary Crescendos, featuring the marriage of my two favorite things on earth: music and food! In this operatic double-bill, my dear Kaitlyn sings the one-woman show Bon Appetit! by the composer Lee Hoiby: a verbatim musical setting of an episode of The French Chef in which Julia Child bakes a chocolate cake. (Kaitlyn makes a hilarious Julia Child.) Second is Shawn Okpebholo's new opera, after Mark Campbell's brilliant libretto, The Cook-Off: a comedy about a cutthroat American cooking competition. (Kaitlyn plays the posh, open-minded, and somewhat inebriated adjudicator.) Beneath the gaudy veneer of the premise lie deep undertones of racism, historical revisionism, misogyny, economic inequity, allyship, and self-worth.
It is a delight when my personal survival mechanism intersects with the issues that matter most to me. Although it's about an hour and a half from MLUC, I humbly invite you to our performance this Saturday, March 29 at 7:00 p.m. or Sunday, March 30 at 3 p.m. at the Avenel Performing Arts Center in Avenel, New Jersey. Tickets are available for both performances here.
But great music this Sunday begins here at 10:00 a.m. with Liz Bligan and Jodie Brown performing in tandem with Yvette's sermon. As I will be preparing for my second performance in Avenel, it is deeply reassuring to know that our MLUC music will be in such capable hands! Karisha Longaker's "We Shall Be Known" opens the service, followed by Simon & Garfunkel's iconic "Bridge over Troubled Water" for the Offertory. Together, in addition to Walker's "I Need You to Survive," we will sing hymn #1017: "Building a New Way;" and we will recess out of the Main Meeting Room to Jodie's improvisation on the Walker tune.
I'll be with you in spirit, watching the live stream this Sunday. Hope to see you at the opera!
David
The music in my life is not only an emotional sanctuary but a meaningful pursuit—an action that I can take to proliferate joy and fulfillment. This week, I have the honor of conducting Hub City Opera's spring production, Culinary Crescendos, featuring the marriage of my two favorite things on earth: music and food! In this operatic double-bill, my dear Kaitlyn sings the one-woman show Bon Appetit! by the composer Lee Hoiby: a verbatim musical setting of an episode of The French Chef in which Julia Child bakes a chocolate cake. (Kaitlyn makes a hilarious Julia Child.) Second is Shawn Okpebholo's new opera, after Mark Campbell's brilliant libretto, The Cook-Off: a comedy about a cutthroat American cooking competition. (Kaitlyn plays the posh, open-minded, and somewhat inebriated adjudicator.) Beneath the gaudy veneer of the premise lie deep undertones of racism, historical revisionism, misogyny, economic inequity, allyship, and self-worth.
It is a delight when my personal survival mechanism intersects with the issues that matter most to me. Although it's about an hour and a half from MLUC, I humbly invite you to our performance this Saturday, March 29 at 7:00 p.m. or Sunday, March 30 at 3 p.m. at the Avenel Performing Arts Center in Avenel, New Jersey. Tickets are available for both performances here.
But great music this Sunday begins here at 10:00 a.m. with Liz Bligan and Jodie Brown performing in tandem with Yvette's sermon. As I will be preparing for my second performance in Avenel, it is deeply reassuring to know that our MLUC music will be in such capable hands! Karisha Longaker's "We Shall Be Known" opens the service, followed by Simon & Garfunkel's iconic "Bridge over Troubled Water" for the Offertory. Together, in addition to Walker's "I Need You to Survive," we will sing hymn #1017: "Building a New Way;" and we will recess out of the Main Meeting Room to Jodie's improvisation on the Walker tune.
I'll be with you in spirit, watching the live stream this Sunday. Hope to see you at the opera!
David
Posted in Music Notes