Sometimes I am just so privileged. Tonight I got to spend a couple of hours in the company of amazing musicians, some of whom are barely teenagers.
The community band I play with did a joint concert with 150 of the county’s finest youngsters, all in 7th grade. Both of our groups had been snowed out for scheduled Christmas concerts, so we quickly pulled together some holiday generic music and …as they say…made sure the show went on.
The two 7th grade bands played before us. And as I sat in the audience it was as if I was transported back to a time when I was 12 or 13, playing in a concert band, looking out at the bright lights trying to find my parents in the audience. Tonight as I watched the kids playing it was as if I could see into the past and pick out my best friend playing trumpet, the guy always goofing off in the trombone section, the oboe player a year older than me.
It struck me that these kids looked just like we looked more than 40 years ago. Tonight, sitting there in the dark listening to the music, I thought about how very little school bands and kids have changed. Hairstyles may be different, but in their black and white outfits these kids looked just like we did in the late 60’s.
Tonight there were 150 kids up there playing their hearts out just like we did years ago. And here we were in the audience getting ready to play our own hearts out; in wrinkled clothes we’d worn all day at work, our glasses smudged, our faces showing a bit of wear, but still, playing our hearts out.
And I wonder what those 7th graders thought as they listened to us. Do they know how soon they too will be middle aged musicians playing in a community band? Could they guess that they will turn around and suddenly they’ll be watching 7th graders performing and remembering it all as if it were yesterday? Probably not. We didn’t.
On my drive home under a full moon I thought about the continuity of life. How there will always be 7th graders playing for their parents. Long after I can’t make a sound with my clarinet there will be kids picking up an instrument for the first time. And long after I’m gone there will still be auditoriums packed with people, standing room only like we had tonight, letting those kids know how truly special they are.
Music makes the magic continue. And there’s a real comfort in that.
Change Is Hard 
January 20, 2011 at 5:57 am
How fun! Music is a soul binding art.
Your post got me thinking about my many years in band. Funny, I can still picture the people who sat next to me, across from me, and the faces I’d see if I turned behind me. One of the trombone players is a music teacher at the middle school, adjacent to the high school where I teach. We cross paths every once in a blue moon, and it is the strangest feeling. I feel like I’m 16, in the hallway of my own school. Weird, huh?
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January 20, 2011 at 6:35 am
Sara, I bet that IS weird! Especially if you’re teaching (like some people do) in the same school building they grew up in.
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January 20, 2011 at 7:08 am
What a great concert experience! When I was a kid I totally worshipped my teachers and loved the side by side concerts. But I never thought I would be the teacher one day.
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January 20, 2011 at 7:16 am
Why do they all make us wear black and white. LOL Thats what we wore too! Sounds like a wonderful evening.
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January 20, 2011 at 9:19 am
This post really struck a chord with me. (Sorry!) For me, it was violin. But besides orchestra, there were school plays, and when I was a senior we took our play to contest and wound up #1 in the State of Illinois. Holy cow! So when David and I went to the high school play last Saturday night in Northport, it brought all of that back, along with my memories of these high school kids when they were little grade school kids, and it was a very full emotional experience, to put it mildly. I’m impressed that you’re still playing your clarinet.
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January 20, 2011 at 9:34 am
wow, that sounds like a really great evening for everyone. How neat to to have the memories and be able to transport back, having those sort of roots must be so comforting in a way-things change, so much is different but when you boil it all down to the basics, so many things do stay the same.
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January 20, 2011 at 11:55 am
Art is not an extra.
This is really good, Dawn. I’m saving this bit in my special notebook: “And here we were in the audience getting ready to play our own hearts out; in wrinkled clothes we’d worn all day at work, our glasses smudged, our faces showing a bit of wear, but still, playing our hearts out.”
Really good.
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January 20, 2011 at 4:21 pm
Thanks Gerry, it WAS really good.
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January 20, 2011 at 5:06 pm
You are so wise Dawn. I love your little words of wisdom, they should be made into cards or something to look back on. 🙂 You sound like you had a good time.
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January 21, 2011 at 5:49 am
Dawn, this is a wonderful post. It actually makes everyone recall those sweet old days, those days we were in high school, the ones who sat beside us, the one who always cracked some jokes during the boring lessons, the school band, the camping with friends and … those days seem so long ago but so near by too.
A friend who used to sit next to me when we were in our year 7 is visiting me tomorrow, we have known each other for more than 30 years already, how amazing!!!
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