Ellen Kushner Appearances
Live in the Community!
by Ellen Kushner
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| Ellen Kushner with Indian classical dancers |
A Saturday night, February 26, 2005, in Tulsa, OK. The hall is packed with more than 800 people representing the diverse Tulsa community, listening intently to a sweeping range of live music — from Woody Guthrie to Native American flute and beyond, all under the heading "Sound & Spirit: Voices of Oklahoma."
And there I am onstage with them, moving the show from act to act with a narration that sounded just like the weekly radio show Tulsans enjoy on KWGS — only improvised on the spot, to catch the "vibe" of the musicians and, more important, of the audience who had come out to hear them.
I should have been more nervous. But it was my third time doing this marvelous, miraculous live Sound & Spirit program in Tulsa, and I knew it would work. In the past five years, we've done live community Sound & Spirit shows all over the country ... but it all started in Tulsa.
It began six years ago, when I got a call from a congregation in Tulsa. "We love Sound & Spirit!" they said. "Is there any chance you could do a live performance of the show here?" They explained that, with Tulsa's troubled history (most notably the race riots of 1921), they were eager to inaugurate their new synagogue building with a community-wide concert celebrating diversity, community, and meaningful music from new and old traditions — all the things, in short, that S&S presents on air each week.
It's true that WUWF in Pensacola had celebrated their station's anniversary by producing a concert version of S&S's "Walking the Path" with a live musician recently, but I explained to the Tulsans that trying to get 6–7 different music groups each to learn a new song for a tightly-programmed show might be a little challenging for their first time out. Why not just think of a Sound & Spirit-style theme that would show off the strengths of all the musical groups with pieces they already knew and enjoyed performing? We came up with the theme of "Love." Surely every group in Tulsa, from the African American gospel choir to the local Sweet Adelines, could come up with a song on such a broad theme.
They did — and it was magic. Armed with their broad-ranging theme, the Tulsa committee hunted the length and breadth of their community for the most excellent musicians they could find, from a sweeping array of religious and ethnic musical traditions. (My prep was a short questionnaire I gave them, asking about the music and what it meant to them.) In January 2001, "Sacred Love: Sound & Spirit of Tulsa," an Interfaith Musical Celebration, became an reality.
Hundreds of people assembled in the synagogue — Baptists and Unitarians, Native Americans and Jews — all under one roof for what was surely the first time (and, the committee members told me, they were also at lunch together for the first time to rough out the program). People laughed and even cried, moved by the event and the music. KWGS was there to record the program and put it on the air later in the year for all to enjoy. But the real magic was in the moment — the coming together of this vast community to appreciate, maybe for the first time, its brilliance and diversity together.
Two years later, Congregation B'nai Emunah was ready to produce and host the show again. This time, performers included a Greek Orthodox male choir and a group of the world's most adorable little girls studying Hindu traditional Indian classical dance. They brought down the house ... though the screams got even louder when the surprise musical guests turned up: the Tulsa natives of the pop band Hanson presented their latest songs!
And so we come to 2005. By now, the event has grown to be a fundraiser for the Tulsa school system's musical instrument program. Brightly-wrapped horns and clarinets had pride of place on a table in the hall. And at the end of the program, Tulsa's Teacher of the Year — who had also been the program's lead gospel singer and choir director — was given the surprise gift of a piano for his school.
I can't tell you what a huge thrill it is to be invited back to Tulsa every two years to be part of this event. And I love the fact that the Tulsa show has become the template for similar Sound & Spirit live community shows all over the country: people in Knoxville, TN; Kalamazoo, MI; and Springfield, IL ... all have taken on the great task of producing them with local talent. They are a lot of work for the community, but the rewards for all of us are beyond measure.
I do a lot of public performance and lecturing throughout the year, but these are my hands-down favorites. The sound is good, but the spirit is even better.
Ellen Kushner, Host
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