I was so inspired by Irina’s terrific piano rendition of Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man” that I share the orchestral version (part of a music unit in my online humanities class) with you, conducted by the composer, and featuring briefly one of my teaching / conducting inspirations, “Lennie” Bernstein asking “what is American music?” It reminds us of our unity amid diversity, as these two brilliant Jewish-Americans premiered this uplifting work written in 1942 (9 min):

And speaking of that dark time, I commend to you an inspiring true story on PBS that tells the story of 18,000+ Austrian & Polish Jews who escaped to ShangHai, finding refuge as poor foreigners among poor Chinese under Japanese occupation. It’s called “Harbor From the Holocaust” (56 min)

I have had occasion once in a while recently to think of a young man who joined our choir shortly after I arrived. He and his wife found us somehow, and he sang baritone, telling me that though he couldn’t read music, he really liked our repertoire and the Gospel-ish songs on Sunday. My roster for 2016 shows a fellow named Julian, and I think that’s him — perhaps some of our basses remember him (?) I think he wore cowboy boots. After a few weeks (and a few sermons), he thanked me for the opportunity to sing, sharing that his politics didn’t fit ours, and moved on. I only hope that I / we made them feel welcome among us. I think about such things alot where I live; we are one of two or three with Biden Harris signs. Our next door neighbors’ Trump banner is right out the TV room back sliding door view on the gate of their driveway.

I close choral music from the (diverse) next generation, 800 L.A. area high school kids singing jubilantly in Spanish, conducted by LA Master Chorale maestro Grant Gershon:

(It’s called Alma Llanera, considered the “Second Venezualan national anthem”) – translation here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alma_Llanera