Music is often a thread that binds people together, connecting us even when all the barriers of modern society work together to keep us apart. However, it is apparent now that even with all the good intention in the world, our May concert cannot go on as scheduled, and at this time, we have canceled the performance.

It seems somehow fitting that we were set to perform a concert around the color blue, in all its shades and hues. Fitting that blue is also the color of sadness, in a time when there is so much strife and chaos around us, and it never seems to abate.

Gershwin was asked to compose a jazz concerto, and originally declined, saying he didn’t have enough time to complete the piece. Through much convincing and threats of a rival set to compose a similar piece, he finally agreed. He had five weeks to write it, an icon to look to when we find ourselves procrastinating.

In his own words, the piece came to him “on the train, with its steely rhythms, its rattle-ty bang, that is so often so stimulating to a composer – I frequently hear music in the very heart of the noise. … And there I suddenly heard, and even saw on paper – the complete construction of the rhapsody, from beginning to end.”

Let us help and support each other, in this time of the rattle-ty bang, with the train that is carrying us all rushing past. Let us find the music in the heart of the noise.