Recently, I wrote an essay about watching the Claflin Hill Symphony’s recent “Bolero”
performance and how affecting it was to watch the concentration and the teamwork in the
orchestra musicians as they built a powerful experience for themselves and the audience
around them. We received some nice comments back from our CHSO members and
their comments led me to today’s musing – a natural extension of that performance to the
energy of the community of audience around them as they played so magnificently!
One wouldn’t think we would need a government study on the cause and effect and
exercise of being in an audience, but I think for the most part, we take the whole
experience and that aspect of it for granted.

Events and happenings surround us constantly today, and all from the convenience of our
armchair in the media entertainment room of our house, or even just in our palm on our
smart device.

We experience everything that the technology oligarchies want us to see and hear and all
in a technically perfect and engineered presentation – and in a totally detached and
solitary state.

BUT, when we venture forth from our homes as we used to, and come together with
neighbors and fellow humans – all to experience the wonder of creativity being offered to
us by other neighbors and fellow humans – we now enjoy and are an integral part of a
totally different – real, physical and spiritual – experience that surrounds and envelopes
us and everyone around us.

The musicians thrive on the synergy from each other as they work together but also can
sense and feel the intensity of the audience’s quiet attention and encouragement –
cheering them on to greater heights of achievement and expression.

The result – as we have so often witnessed together at Claflin Hill – becomes an epicenter
of glowing euphoria at the end of the concert – audience members exclaiming to each
other and to the musicians as they leave the hall – “What an Amazing Night!” The BEST
One Ever!” And the musicians linger in the hall as they thank friends and neighbors for
coming and enjoying the “buzz” of a victorious effort together!

Think of the “Post Game” interviews and celebrations we love to watch after every Super
Bowl, or Stanley Cup Championship Game! We as spectators are also “elevated” as
human beings just for being a fellow member of the species that can produce such
achievement!

When we remember certain historic moments in our favorite teams’ past seasons – the
2004 Red Sox Divisional Series, the Patriots – Falcons Super Bowl, the Patriots
Seahawks Super Bowl (well, almost the whole 20 years of the Patriots Dynasty!) – we
should remember the intensity of the fans in the stadium at those moments! Their energy
drove and supported their team to that moment of triumph! Would those Olympian
Heroes have succeeded or had the will to strive against odds in a silent vacuum? Would
they have sensed the obligation thrust upon them – uninvited at that moment to fulfill the
hopes of strangers around them?

As a child, I grew up watching Captain Kangaroo and especially enjoyed the children’s
books he would read during the show. My favorite was “Mike Mulligan and His Steam
Shovel” – about a construction equipment operator and his steam shovel, MaryAnn. The
more people that gathered to watch them dig a construction site, the better and faster they
dug!

We musicians are your cultural Mike Mulligans! And we have some Mary Anns too!
We have a responsibility to perform better and better for YOU and you drive us to that
point — higher and faster with every concert! THANK YOU!

But also, what is the responsibility of the fan? The audience member? The fellow
human being??

As members of a community, or a church, a club or an audience – we must realize our
responsibility to fulfill our role as such – not to assume that someone else, a neighbor
down the street or all of those other nameless “thems” will take care of things for us.
It’s nice when someone asks me how the last concert went – “did I get a big crowd?
How’d the orchestra do? Good for you!!!” I welcome their congratulations and
appreciate their polite interest, but it’s so much better when that conversant is exclaiming
to me just how amazed they were by the last concert! Thank you and especially
THANK YOU for making the effort to be a part of it with us!!!

As our Principal Bassist Judy Yaldatel explained one night to an amazed audience
member at concert’s end, “At Claflin Hill, Concerts are Life Experiences!
Our next concert – Symphony Movie Pops Night — is on April 27, 2024 We invite you
to become a participant!!! We have room for many more screaming fans! And it WILL
BE ANOTHER Claflin Hill Life Experience!!!