The chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra reflects on coming together in harmony.

As I write this, my first ever editorial letter, we are digging out bodies in Nepal, Baltimore is burning with unrest, Sicily is trying to cope with people fleeing misery and paying with their lives, Indonesia has given a demonstration of cruel and unusual punishment, and a study from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology shows that extreme temperatures are more likely to become the norm. If you haven’t already stopped reading, you might well be wondering what this has to do with music?
We are all in this together on our little planet. Yet we carry around in our heads a private world of experience that seems to each of us entirely unique. Something that seems so right to us can be so wrong for others. Building bridges across these subjective divides is one of the essential blessings of art, gently helping us enlarge our own experience. As Beethoven wrote of his Missa Solemnis – “from the heart, may it go to the heart.” When Wagner tells of Tristan and Isolde, he puts the question of trust in the faithfulness of others front and centre. When parents engage with their children through music, habits of listening to oneself and others, personal discipline and responsibility are gained. Contemporary composers like Luciano Berio remind us that we are in this world with others, with sadness as well as joy, and we cannot and should not ignore it.
We are complex creatures on so many levels, easily frightened by what we don’t understand. John Carmody shows us through the lens of science how incredible are our senses and the amazing way that the brain creates our experience. He reminds us that we must “recognise that our brains and how they operate are the determinants of what we are.”
My day job is working with creative, passionate, dedicated and talented people. They express themselves in that most human of activities: making music. It is always inspiring to see these different instruments, with diverse backgrounds, histories, and timbres coming together in harmony. None of this incredible teamwork would take place without deep listening. Hearing others and having our horizons broadened by what their sounds communicate, is a strong, steadfast, resilient source of hope.
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