Members of the Chorale Mission group work on their own time creating original poetry, music and art under the guidance of Mark Hierholzer. The public can witness one of the first presentations of their work during this Saturday's Dialogues and Dances. Photo by Phil Houseal

Details:
The next “Dialogues and Dances” concert, this Saturday, Oct. 28 at Zion Lutheran at 7:30, will feature the first presentations of the Mission’s work. Members will offer new instrumental and vocal music, put to music and accompanied by Hierholzer. A group of young poets will read original poetry, and artwork from the Mission group will be on display in the foyer. For information call the Chorale office at 830-997-0212. Web: www.fredericksburgchorale.com

webmaster: phil@fullhouseproductions.net

Music with a mission

by Phil Houseal
Oct 25, 2006

It is early Monday evening, when many kids are happy to escape the world of study and practice.

Yet every week, a dozen or so students get together to explore one of life's essential challenges - turning ideas into poetry, music, and art.

They make up the Mission group, a project of the Fredericksburg Chorale. Mark Hierholzer, Director, began this experiment in creativity in order to "pull great art out of the museums and put it back on the street where it belongs."

"Part of the chorale mission statement is to 'create new music,'" he said. "So we called it the Mission group because this is at the heart of what the chorale is about."

Hierholzer believes that what this group is doing is what everyone who truly yearns to be alive should be doing.

"The power of the past can sometimes be the defeat of the future," he said. "All this old stuff is done, we don't want to sit around and admire it. Unless you have a sense of the creative process, you can't fully understand those 'classic' works. You can know everything about music, but if you don't know the first thing - that it is the expression of ideas and emotions - then you don't know what music is for."

The group gathers on Mondays (in actuality, it's not just for kids - participants range from 7th graders to retirees). Students share ideas for texts, and Hierholzer helps put them to music. Members of the group sing, or play instruments ranging from cello to trumpet to mandolin.

"Some of the members just sing or play, but they feel they are part of something that is necessary," Hierholzer said. "Once they get a taste of this and see the dramatic difference between creating and the performing world, they understand this is very lively and has no connection to that. They suddenly feel the usual things they are doing in their lives are not fulfilling."

This process has spread beyond the group and "is helping people find each other."

Hierholzer heard about a young man - Hunter Winfrey - who was trying to start a poetry group. Hierholzer felt it was important that he go support that. The first night it was just Hunter and a friend. Now 15 kids and some adults meet to write and share their works, and they have a connection with the Mission group.

The concept is about more than kids writing and reading their own poetry. Hierholzer calls it courageous. Anyone who has experienced the terror of speaking in front of a group for the first time will understand that.

"Kids are getting up to read poems before a group of strangers," he pointed out. "It puts them in a vulnerable place. There is some darkness in the experience, but the act of creating something beautiful pulls them in a different direction. The point is not just to create something, but that the process has importance in the lives of the kids."

You can experience the results of that process this Saturday, Oct 28 at Zion Lutheran Church at the next "Dialogues and Dances."

"I don't want people to feel they 'ought' to go," Hierholzer said. "I want them to feel they might be missing out on something beautiful if they don't go."

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