Jamilyn captured a lot of my sentiments concerning the Orchestra tour that we went on, so I'm sorry Jamilyn, but I'm quoting you! Those of you who know her blog should go and read the whole thing.

"Yesterday, the Western Michigan University Symphony Orchestra went "on tour." We filled two tour busses and drove north for 2.5-ish hours to a little place called...

Hart, Michigan. A place that some native Michiganders haven't even heard of...

Not exactly the most exciting place for an Orchestra Tour. I gotta admit, I was having kind of a negative attitude about it. We'd be gone from 9 am to midnight, in the middle of nowhere, doing dumb kiddie concerts and losing good practice time."

As for me, that week was super rough because of the composition project I had been working on all week, an exam in Physics the day before, and, then the day after the tour, I had a big exam in Dr. Steel's Non-Western Music Class that I was sure I was going to fail due to the whole day being taken up in Hart. Let's just say that even though I knew we needed the practice, my attitude wasn't the best either.

"But before we played the first educational concert of the day, the principal explained to us a little bit about Hart. There is a 20% unemployment rate. These kids go to a school where most of the art and music programs have been cut completely. Only one student in the entire school studies a string instrument. Most of them have never seen a live orchestra performance before, and might not ever get the chance again. Talk about humbling!

And then the students started pouring into the auditorium. Adorable little 1-4 graders, excited and curious. The looks on their faces as they learned and listened about how a symphony is put together were priceless. They were completely captivated by Shostakovich! They clapped, they laughed, and one lucky kid even got to come up and conduct us.

We gave a concert for the middle schoolers too. And again for the adults who fund the educational music series. They loved us. They fed us well."

They gave us a standing ovation at the end, far more than what our audience today gave us. And the kids, they were so cute!! And Uch and Brian Mast kept them entertained and they just ate it up. During the reception the funders were asking us questions about music, and about ourselves. They appreciated us! It felt like we were doing service for them by coming and playing. Essentially we were. We were getting funding for it, but at the same time, it took a lot of sacrifice to go there and play for them and miss sleep and homework and practice time. The rewards were worth it.

"Moral of the story: It's not where you serve, but HOW that makes the biggest difference. We brightened the day of a downtrodden community, just by bringing them our music.

And that's good for the heart."

Thanks for sharing that on your blog, Jami!