PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
KU RT-A L EXAN DER ZEL L ER, IN T ERN ATI O N A L P R E S I D E N T, M U C H I , AT L A N TA A LU M N I P R ESI D EN T@ M U P H I E P S I LO N .O R G
Leontura
MUSIC BUILDS A BRIDGE OF UNDERSTANDING ur current theme of “Building Bridges” may not seem terribly musical (despite the presence of bridges on many of our stringed instruments or in the compositional form of our songs). Yet there are few more effective ways to build a bridge of understanding or empathy between humans, to speak from heart to heart, than music. Music can span deep divisions of culture, class and creed; people who think they have few, if any, experiences or values in common can find themselves connected in music. Music even links people across the chasms of time and death — we still can be moved today to exaltation, to pity, to laughter, by music created centuries ago by people we otherwise might believe were nothing like us. Can there be any doubt that our fractious world desperately needs this bridge-building capacity of musicians? Each of you, as individuals and as chapters, has the ability to use the barrierspanning quality of music to bridge a gap in our society — to form a connection where there has been disconnection. Your SERV projects bring music, along with enjoyment, achievement and dignity, to individuals and groups sometimes denied all of them. Your performances may bring people who normally would go out of their way to avoid or even vilify each other together under one roof to share an experience — and your programming can connect audiences and performers alike with the creations and cultures of those to whom they previously had felt no connection. As you begin to plan your spring semester activities, I encourage you to consider how you can use music to build bridges between people in your communities. And I encourage you to be intentional about using your activities to build a bridge between your chapter and some other part of Mu Phi Epsilon. Reach out to unaffiliated members in your region. Use technology to connect to a chapter in another city — maybe share an online program. Contact alumni chapters where your graduates may be moving and make a bridge for them to cross over easily. One of my favorite poems is Arthur O’Shaughnessy’s “Ode,” which begins with the famous line, “We are the music makers,
and we are the dreamers of dreams.” With apologies to O’Shaughnessy, however, we music makers are not mere dreamers of dreams — we are builders of bridges, the brawny construction workers who forge the links between human hearts. Let’s get to work!
WINTER 2022
I the triangle
1
