I read this horrific, incomprehensible article from the Guardian newspaper this afternoon, and it made me immeasurably, profoundly sad. Truly, my soul wanted to curl itself up in a corner and find a blanket to lay over itself, simply to disappear and escape the pure insanity and foolishness of it.

How can we, those of us who are lucky enough to have the freedom to choose to listen to Ella, or Elvis, or Maria, begin to comprehend a life without music? A life without the opportunity to express yourself, whether listening, dancing, playing or singing, via MUSIC? I can’t profess to know that much about the history of Islamic music, but I do know that it is rich and varied and deep. With all due respect to this culture that I do not comprehend well at all, (which should, perhaps, preclude me from passing any kind of judgment, but alas, I cannot help myself on this point) I mourn for the people who have had this life-affirming necessity taken from them, and can only hope that they are resilient enough to find the ways to feed their souls in a meaningful, truthful way.

In a desperate search for the counter-balance to the poison above, I propose a concise, perfectly illustrated demonstration of how invaluable music education is. It’s only an audio sampling, but what an effecive one it is: a band teacher uses his band members to demonstrate the amount of skill and it takes to make music.

Please feel FREE to pass this around and remind people how valuable the study of music is, not to mention a life overflowing with the beauty of music!

Another sublime musical experience today, as I rehearsed Norma with the really superb Camerata Salzburg accompanying us. Watching Ms. Gruberova inhabit the character of Norma so completely inspires me to great heights, and makes me overflow with gratitude that I am surrounded by glorious music, sublime artists and beautiful human beings. It only makes reading the first article all the more painful, thinking that not everyone has this luxury at their fingertips.