together is our guiding principle this year, it’s what we’re calling the whole season. together is also the name of our January concert — the next step in our series of artistic explorations that began with i/we, and continued last year with dream.

We asked our Artistic Director Joseph Williams, and our Education Director Travis Marcum, to share their thoughts about together, and this is what they said:

One of the greatest challenges of our time is isolation. Whether we are cut off from one another by technology, addiction, health, or dogma, this separateness can make it difficult to see beyond the moment, beyond ourselves. 

As a theme for our season, together is about disrupting the pattern of isolation and fostering belonging. 

It is about meeting people where they are, and exercising the power of music to create a space for shared experience and beauty. It is a movement – a call to action to notice the distance between us, to dissolve social borders and build community.

together is a year long community effort spanning our upcoming season, and it is a new concert project that will be premiered January 2020.  Like our community-centered concert projects dream and i/we, we are asking people to share their experiences in their words so that we can all listen, bear witness, contribute our own voice, and learn.

Travis and I have been talking with people across the Austin community in hospitals, senior living facilities, shelters, and in homes. We have asked the questions: How are you alone? How do you belong? What are the times in your life that have pulled you to the fringes, resulting in isolation? What brings you closer to others? What are your experiences of unambiguous love and support that have made you feel one with your community, your world? 

The ACG Youth Orchestra.

Last Spring, Travis had the opportunity to work with a young woman at Dell Children’s Hospital through ACG’s Music & Healing Program as she was preparing for the latest of many major surgeries.  You can read about a very special day with her here.

When asked, how do you belong? She said: 

“There is life in this (hospital) room. I can see colors. I can hear my mom say I love you. I can taste, and I can hear laughter. I can hear the guitar. Even if I am stuck between these four walls and I can’t move, there is life in this room. And I belong because I have a purpose. That purpose is gratitude. My purpose is to help people like they have helped me. As a person with a disability, I am an outcast. But I believe I can help people love themselves.”

One of the songs from the Music & Healing program:

together is a collective celebration of our differences and an opportunity to marvel at our sameness.

Do you have thoughts you might like to share about how you are alone, or how you belong? Join our discussion on FaceBook or email us!

Most of all, we invite you to be together with us, and we welcome your suggestions any time for how we can better include individuals in our community in meaningful ways — especially individuals experiencing isolation.