Submitted by Manuel Sanchez, JD, M.Ed.
Post pandemic healing begins with attending a performance of the Newburgh Symphony Orchestra under the stewardship of music Maestro Russell Ger.
The Newburgh Symphony Orchestra (NSO) is a national treasure. On Saturday may 7, 2022, the Orchestra took the audience on a mystical journey which began with a horizontal flight of manifestation with the music of Liadov, reminding us that the simple things in our lives makes possible the big things.
Next, the audience was treated to a piece of music that fell from the heavens: The Majestic Bach-Stokowski: Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor. The audience was allowed to transcend the world in this effervescent piece and to encounter what it means to be fully human.
Every piece is adroitly introduced by Maestro Ger giving context and meaning to the music the audience is about to encounter. Since no human being can totally sever themselves from the Divine Essence, the music enters the soul and connects with the uncreated reality of man. Dante Alighieri, states that there are 4 levels of meanings one can discern from literature or a work of art: the literal, the allegorical, the moral and the anagogical. In these four levels of meaning there is something for everyone. The wider audience of greater Newburgh needs to embrace this cultural treasure that speaks to everyone in our community. I have some suggestions:
- Attendance of at least one performance with a written essay should be a requirement for high school graduation
- Senior citizens participating in day programs have to be somehow given a way to gain access to the live performance of GNSO
- Perhaps some of the concerts can be collaborated with the Newburgh free library with discussions on composers and perhaps a once a year lecture by Maestro Ger on a theme of classical Music
- Access by members of vulnerable communities. The recovering community, frontline workers communities impacted by Covid-19, and returning citizens trying to reinvent their lives should be strategically reached out to for attendance at GNSO performances.
