Life has had more than its share of sadness lately.  I have found myself shaken by the death of a dear family friend back in Atlantic, Iowa – someone who at certain times in my life was almost like a second mom to me ….  the tragic and untimely death of a young man in my church, succumbing to cancer after a courageous battle – someone I did not know very well at all but whose death, nonetheless, hit all of us hard –  and the staggering news that another friend of ours – someone seemingly healthy as a horse –  has just received a very serious cancer diagnosis.  And on top of all that (although it might seem strange to mention this in the same breath as these others) is the worry that Kathy and I have had about our younger Golden Retriever, Bobbi, who early last week began hobbling around on three legs.   Stir in the disturbing news headlines of the day plus the mounting aches and pains of growing older and challenges at work …  and it is really easy to feel overwhelmed by all of the losses.  I am certain that you know exactly what I’m talking about, even if the particular losses you are experiencing are not the same as mine.

I think that backdrop of loss and discouragement actually helped me to cherish and appreciate the joys of this past weekend when I got to experience and share, time and time again,  the extraordinary and miraculous way that music can lift us up from whatever threatens to lay us low.   The first of several chapters happened Friday afternoon when the Carthage Choir met in Siebert Chapel to record a short piece I was asked to compose for the theater department’s upcoming world premiere of a brand new play called “Breath of Stars.”  Dr. Eduardo Garcia-Novelli was out of town both Thursday and Friday, so it was decided that I would take the choir those two days and teach them this piece and then help oversee its recording with the production’s director,  Neil Scharnick.  I went into this with some butterflies, in part because this was a very tricky piece of music compared to the kind of music I typically write- and I was far from certain that it work as well sung as it did just playing it on the piano…. or that the students would take to it.  But fortunately,  they seemed to like it a lot- and they mastered it with almost bewildering ease.   Most important of all, they sang it beautifully- expressively- musically.  And Friday,  everyone was there- decked out in their gowns and tuxes- absolute professionals.   In fact, the biggest worry of the moment was that we had ferocious winds of 30-40 mph with gusts of 50 mph and more, which caused the steeple of the chapel – and the skylight just below it – to creak very ominously.  But by the time we were to begin recording, the winds eased off.   (It almost felt like the classic case of Music Soothing The Savage Beast.)   And by the time that recording session was over,  I felt like the hole in my heart had already been healed.

That night I was back in Siebert,  this time collaborating with my faculty colleague Jane Livingston for a program of luscious music either composed for or prominently used in great films of the 1940’s and 50’s.  Jane is retiring after this year, and it has been on her “bucket list” for quite some time to play a program like this in which the music would be combined with screened excerpts from the films in question.  It was a monumental task to put it all together logistically, but Jane did it –  and the audience seemed to really enjoy our performance of the Warsaw Concerto (Addinsell,)  the Cornish Rhapsody (Bath), the Spellbound Concerto (Rozsa),  Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun (Debussy) and An American in Paris (Gershwin.)  Jane and I became officially full time faculty the same year-  1995-  so we sort of feel like classmates.  Moreover, we have had a pleasure of collaborating quite a number of times over the years-  but this was an especially poignant and joyous occasion because we knew this was likely to be the last at least major collaboration for us.   I’m just so glad that Jane got to cross this off of her “bucket list” – what can feel better than that – and I’m also glad that we somehow managed to deliver the goods on a very challenging program.  That’s the sort of satisfaction that makes life really worth living.

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I would have dearly loved to sleep in Saturday morning after such a long and demanding day,  but at 8:10 a.m. I was actually at Bradford High School, playing piano for one of my sister-in-law’s choirs at Tremper High School – in preparation for that night’s Choral Festival.  It might have been a bummer, except that there is something really invigorating about seeing risers full of bustling, energetic young people – and their  just-as-energetic director on the podium.   I was actually there to rehearse with three of Polly’s choirs –  which is something I do every year – but it was the end of that morning rehearsal where things took an amazing turn.  This was the moment when I went to the piano to accompany the mass choir of 1100+ singers in the piece I had been commissioned to write for this 50th Choral Fest.    I had actually first encountered this throng – or at least a good portion of them – in a musical rehearsal that had occurred two nights earlier in the Tremper auditorium – but that was scarcely more than a run-through and I feel like I experienced that moment in a shellshocked daze.  (I had misunderstood where the rehearsal was and went to two wrong schools before finally showing up at the right place- just in the nick of time. Classic Greg Berg.)   Saturday morning’s rehearsal was when I first got to really take in the scope of this experience- of such a gigantic throng of young singing my piece.   It was also really exciting to get to watch choral maestro Brad Holmes (from Millikan College)  at work on the podium.

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But all of that was just rehearsal for that evening’s Main Event …. and honestly, it is hard to put into words just how amazing and important KUSD’s Choral Fest is.   It is a massive gathering of all of the choir students of all of the high schools and middle schools in town- plus an outstanding honors elementary choir.  Individual high school choirs take turns performing,  and each age level gets its special moment in the spotlight with two mass middle school pieces and two mass high school pieces.  And the concert always begins in thunderous fashion with an amazing arrangement by Pat Black of the Star Spangled Banner.  This 50th Choral Fest ended with my piece “One More Reason To Sing” –  with Pat and me at the two pianos.  And this time around – unlike Thursday night –   I was not shellshocked in any way.  I was thrilled out of my mind to be a small part of this spectacular celebration,  and I tried to drink in every drop of the joy in that place.

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After all of that,  Sunday was a blessed Day Of Rest-  sort of.  That morning was my “O the Joy” service at church,  and after all of the excitement of the previous night,  there was something so soul-soothing about those two church services and the chance to make music with people I know so well.   And one especially poignant moment was when we sang the first verse of the hymn of the day in its original Spanish because some of the family of Mingo Chavez – the young man who had died earlier in the week and whose funeral was Friday – were there.  It was a powerful reminder of what my Choral Fest piece says about how we sing in our joys – and in our sorrows as well.

I was so grateful to be able to spend Sunday afternoon not on a piano bench but rather in the audience at Prairie School,  watching their production of “The Addams Family.”  I had a couple of voice students in the cast,  but Kathy and I were there most of all to support my former student and our friend Fletcher Paulsen, who is the choir director at Prairie, who served as vocal director for this production.  Fletcher was born to be a teacher and it’s really gratifying to see him coming into his own in such impressive fashion.   And the show, by the way,  was a hilariously good time.   It felt great to be laughing out loud at the rather twisted world view of this dark yet delightful show.

The last bit of music of the weekend – unless you want to count the Disney special we watched for a while on TV – was when Kathy, Polly, Mark, Lorelai and Bob serenaded me at my delayed birthday dinner at the Yard Arm.  That was Birthday Serenade #7, believe it or not … so I ended up being wished Happy Birthday just about as thoroughly as one can be wished it!   But even that little serenade- rather hushed so as not to disturb the other customers there-  was just one more reminder of how music moves through our lives almost like blood moves through our veins.

And I for one cannot imagine life without it.

(I’ll blog more about “One More Reason To Sing” on another occasion.)