How do modern practicing musicians use art to benefit the world? Aside from the benefits of the music itself, here are ideas to seed that collection.
Senior citizens are, of course, an appreciative audience. Consider the following way seniors and music can be brought together. When a department store closes to the public one evening during the Christmas season so that seniors can shop in peace, the store asks musical groups from several area schools to entertain the seniors and their companions as they wait for assistance. In addition to happy public relations on all sides, an indirect benefit is to the performers themselves: they have a story to tell their friends of “the time we sang in the jeans department.”
Charitable donors enjoy being thanked musically. Buildings – especially auditoriums – under construction have been the site of “hard-hat concerts.” As music fills and demonstrates the newly constructed space, donors are made aware of what they are paying for. Music adds elegance and glamour to the situation. Less-than-ideal acoustics add to the singers’ sense of adventure.
Another adventurous aspect of charity performances outside a choir’s regular schedule is that not everyone in a group may be available to sing. Call the reduced forces a “committee” -of, say, two to four singers per part out of a choir that is normally forty strong. A choir of twelve is exciting to listen to, and exhilarating to sing in. The full choir becomes stronger because it contains people who have had the experience of singing in a tighter ensemble. While you might not want to expose the tiny group to the professional expectations of the concert hall, singing “committees” suit situations where the full group literally would not fit, such as stairwells and corridors. They can also cluster around a few microphones for an outdoor event. Twelve singers can gather discreetly outside a dining room to surprise donors with madrigals or seasonal songs.
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