Sophie’s Choice: Let’s make music

OUR OPINION

Sometimes I feel the stereotype associated with classical music still permeates small town culture. That it’s a genre for those in a tax bracket that turns its nose up at the more edgy, earthy kinds of music like rock n’ roll and country. That, like Shakespeare, it’s a language only the intelligentsia can comprehend, and that’s a talent you’re either born into or buy your way into, thank you very much. Since we’re a family-oriented newspaper, I won’t use the word I think best refutes that thought process. Instead, I’ll just say such notions are ridiculous and untrue. I remember the very first time I heard Mozart’s Don Giovanni finale. It was summer and I was still in grade school. My brother William was off somewhere with a friend. Dad turned on a Time Life Great Composers cassette he had gotten in the mail. I don’t recall the first few pieces we listened to, but at some point my parents went outside to do an errand or greet a visitor and I stayed inside. It’s hard to describe the feelings I had next without sounding like a pretentious boob, so I’ll put it bluntly.

I was equal parts frightened and fascinated. We were a long way from the Burl Ives I was used to, bless him. I had never heard music like Don Giovanni before. Deft and dramatic, vast yet detailed. Part of me wanted to run outside into the sunshine for the comfort of my parents’ presence; the other part of me had to hear how this opera played out. I didn’t have the vocabulary for it, and I still don’t speak Italian, but I knew something was going on in this music, something big and outside of my comprehension, but so compelling that I had to sit there in a corner of the dining room and just let it roll through me.

One of the best things you can give yourself, and children, is a love for the arts. You might’ve heard me mention before that I owe my parents for instilling me with that curiosity and passion. We were not rich, far from it. But we were wealthy in music, books, and any free performance art event or educational lecture that my parents had the time and energy to pack my brother and me off to.

Dad, who was partially deaf due to being an artilleryman in Vietnam, liked music with crisp, finite layering in its production and if there was singing, he appreciated enunciation with a clear voice. It’s one of the reasons I think he leaned towards classical music.

Thanks to him and mom, I was introduced to Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, Handel’s Water Music, Rossini’s William Tell Overture, and yes, Mozart. It’s an affinity that I take with me everywhere, even when I’m not accessing my playlist. Though if there’s anything better than listening to music, it’s listening to it live.

On that note, you may have heard (or read in last week’s newspaper) that the Newport Creative District is asking for financial pledges to help bring the Spokane Symphony to Newport in spring of 2027. The goal is to include a small group, classroom experience to Newport school students followed by an orchestral concert for the community. The concert will be scheduled once the District has reached the pledge goal of $25,000.

Yep, this is a shameless plug, but I hope you’ll find it as worthy a cause as I do. No amount is too small. The arts are intrinsic to our thriving, not just surviving. They can help knit communities together and enrich lives.

But don’t believe me. Come to the symphony next spring and see it for yourself.

For more information and/or to make a pledge, go to www.newportcreativedistrict. com.

SOPHIA MATTICE-ALDOUS IS A MURROW NEWS FELLOW WORKING DIRECTLY WITH NEWSROOMS AT THE NEWPORT MINER AND RANGE MEDIA THROUGH A PROGRAM ADMINISTERED BY WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY. HER REPORTING IS AVAILABLE FOR USE VIA CREATIVE COMMONS WITH CREDIT.