The Main Event
March 28, 2008

On a recent Sunday morning I found myself home alone, doing what I often do – simultaneously drinking coffee, reading through the New York Times, listening to some new (to me) CDs, and chatting on the phone with friends and family.  But something was different this time.  A CD that I had playing as background to everything else compelled me to stop, and listen. That CD was a live recording of the pianist Keith Jarrett’s concert in Cologne, Germany from 1975.  I had heard excerpts of this before, even transcribed for other instruments, but hearing the original as it unfolded was transfixing.  Jarrett’s totally improvised solo concert was simply and complexly beautiful, experimental as he tried out a theme and worked it out, and sometimes downright gnarly.  I couldn’t do anything else – I had to pay attention and experience the music as I heard it. I was reminded of why live performance is so powerful.  That sounds contradictory, since I was listening to a recording of a live performance, but it isn’t really.  Listening and experiencing the music in the moment, without other distractions, is an entirely different activity from using music as aural wallpaper.   Sometimes we want and need that background wash of sound, but I’m convinced that full attention is required in order for us to truly hear music.   I think it’s terribly important to find ways to teach children the skills of focus and total concentration.  This is something they seem to be losing in their busy lives of home, school and so many other activities.  The music education program at SFGC teaches girls about focus and concentration from their first breath of singing.  It’s a lesson we hope will stay with them for a lifetime. So, this year we’ve changed the format for our annual fundraising gala.  Instead of having our girls perform in the midst of a busy ballroom with waiters serving and clearing, and guests chatting and eating, we’re asking everyone to sit still, watch and listen to the highly skilled singers of our top group, Chorissima, in a gorgeous concert setting.  They aren’t a background for the event – they ARE the event, and I can't wait to hear them.