What do you suppose it was like the very first time one of those nearly-hairless apes picked up a long, hollow bone from which all the meat had been picked, found a hole on one side of it, and blew across it? The otherworldly sound it emitted, and then, miraculously, an answering call from across the meadow as an animal replied? Someone in our congregation had something like that experience the first time she blew across the mouthpiece of a flute. She grew up in Lenoir, North Carolina, and had been playing the piano since she was three years old, with lessons starting when she was five. When she entered sixth grade, she was given the chance to learn how to play the flute. She was persistent, and her hard work paid off. She was accepted as a student at the Brevard Music Center, attended for five summers, and experienced life-changing seasons with others who came together to study music, excel at their instruments, and develop the passion for music that makes music the core of one’s being.
She shares that passion with people in the congregation who are engaged with the joy of music, including members of the choir and the Music Committee, those who organize the concert series, and all, from children to grandparents, who open themselves to that kind of musical experience. Music touches people in different ways, and this congregation supports journeys that include what cannot be expressed in words. Here, music opens a door that can take us beyond words.
Whether the music was composed by Spanish, French, Russian, or Scandinavian composers, Katherine Price’s gifts and musicianship come to the forefront as she performs the music of such Unitarian Universalist composers as Bela Bartok, Jason Shelton, Ysaye Maria Barnwell, Clif Hardin, and Mimi Bornstein-Doble. Her fiddle-playing grandfather would be delighted with her continuing the family’s musical traditions. Blessings abound!