Can Music Unite A Divided People?

Last week, we shared thoughts from Yo-Yo Ma; he said in a recent Harvard interview that he plans to spend the rest of his career thinking about the social impact of music.

This week, let’s consider if music can help bridge the sharp political divide of 21st century America. As Michael Alan Anderson points out in this Washington Post op-ed, music has mingled with politics in various ways for generations. Anderson tells the story of the 1869 National Peace Jubilee, a five-day music festival that took place in Boston after the civil war. The Jubilee aimed to unite a divided nation, and regardless of how successful it may have been, one wonders if music can help unite our country today. Perhaps there is room for innovative ideas here – ways to bring people together through the shared experience of music.  As Anderson notes at the end of the article, “Social media, instant communication and virtual reality present exciting possibilities for connecting us through passionate performance. In a global landscape splintered in so many ways, music remains a path to recovering our shared humanity and shedding our national divides.”

“Our Shared Humanity” is a powerful phrase that stands out to me, and it’s an idea that I think Yo-Yo Ma would fully support. As musicians, what can we do to create music, performances, events, education, tools, and resources that help our communities connect with each other and find humanity in the art?