Passion and love for music were in the air on Saturday, October 15, at Paladin and Michigan City Chamber Music Festival’s first-ever “Wooden Boxes and Pipes” concert. The two organizations teamed up to achieve a common goal: to provide growth and learning opportunities to children and people with disabilities.
The event was a heartwarming success that left everyone smiling and eager for more.
The concert was an educational music concert intended to teach kids about how sound is made and demonstrate different types of instruments and their ranges of sound. It was incredibly fun and engaging--the concert started with a bit of dancing, and throughout the event, people could raise their hands to ask and answer questions. At one point kazoos were even handed out for everyone to play with.
“We wanted it to be highly interactive and interspersed with things that they could do so that we could make a friendly connection between the music and the audience,” said Sunny Gardner Orbovich, Education Director of MCCMF.
MCCMF’s mission is to spread a passion for classical music, however, Sunny explained that oftentimes expanding people’s knowledge and love for classical music is difficult.
“We’ve been to schools, we’ve done many things in the community, and it’s a challenge to get to audiences outside of the music-loving world. To reach out and expand that boundary, that hard line between classical music lovers and the youth and people who don’t know that they like classical music can be difficult,” said Sunny.
Teaming up with Paladin for this concert gave MCCMF the perfect opportunity to get out into the community and share their love of music with others.
“It’s one thing to put on concerts and invite people to come, and it’s quite another thing to go out to where people are and be able to offer them music,” said Jennet Ingle, Oboist.
Not only did the concert help spread a passion for music in the community, but it also kicked off the new partnership between Paladin and MCCMF. Everyone from both organizations is ecstatic to be working with one another and can’t wait to change people’s lives together.
“It’s just a perfect collaboration for our education department. Having a place to come to that is so welcoming and warm is special. I’m looking forward to making connections with the kids,” said Orbovich.
The MCCMF team will have plenty of opportunities for connection and to touch people’s lives--future programs with Paladin are already in the works. There are plans to hold a similar program next year on April 10 in Niemann Elementary School. There are also plans to hold events on August 15, 17, and 19 of next year.
The “Wooden Boxes and Pipes” concert was ultimately the perfect way to instill a love of music in the community. Not only that, it celebrated a new partnership between Paladin and MCCMF that is sure to be incredibly successful. Nobody is going to want to miss out on the wonderful things these two organizations achieve together.
To learn more about Paladin and its mission to provide positive opportunities for the community, visit https://paladin.care/. Also, to learn more about the Michigan City Chamber Music Festival team and their goal to spread a love of music, visit https://www.mccmf.org/.
