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Recently my wife and I attended the final performance in a series of six concerts presented by the Indian River Symphonic Association, now in its 10th year. It's been quite a season. The visiting orchestras included Philharmonia of the Nations, Moscow State Radio Symphony & Chorus, Cincinatti Symphony Orchestra. The other three concerts were performed by the Brevard Symphony Orchestra, now in its 50th season. For those of you not up on your Florida geography, Brevard County includes the Kennedy Space Center, Cocoa Beach and Melbourne. Indian River County lies immediately south of Brevard County. Neither area is densely populated. Where we live, there are way more grapefruit trees than people. So it’s kind of amazing that this area has its own excellent symphony orchestra. In this final concert the Brevard Symphony performed only one composition: Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. The last time I heard this symphony live was in London, July 4, 1976. In honor of the American Bicentennial, The London Philharmonic presented a special outdoor concert at St. Paul’s Cathedral. It was a magnificent experience. I recall arriving by subway and being disoriented. I went to a nearby newsstand and asked the vendor for directions to St. Paul’s. He was a very large old man, seemingly a permanent fixture, seated behind his magazines and newspapers. He studied me for a few seconds. “Are you American?” “Yessir,” I replied, hoping he wouldn’t hold it against me. “Happy birthday,” he said. I’ve heard many of the great orchestras of the world, and to be honest, the Brevard Symphony is not quite on that level. But the quality of their performances is very high, much higher than anyone might reasonably expect. My wife and I have been attending these concerts now for five years, and this had to be the Brevard Symphony’s finest moment. This night in 2004, they were joined by the Brevard Community Chorus, the Brevard Community College Concert Choir and the Vero Beach Choral Society, along with four guest soloists. I think of Beethoven as the Shakespeare of classical music. His Ninth is an amazing composition, perhaps the greatest ever written. My favorite part is the fourth movement, “Ode to Joy.” The power of so many voices filled the hall and filled our hearts. I’ve never been able to listen to this movement with a dry eye. To me, it’s a powerful, emotionally positive statement, the ultimate affirmation of humanity. It was glorious. And to think that Beethoven, who was deaf, never heard his masterpiece played. Unbelievable.
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Dennis E. Coates is CEO of Performance Support Systems, author of MindFrames, a brain-based personality assessment system (www.initforlife.com) and co-founder of the Train-to-Ingrain alliance (www.train-to-ingrain.com, info@train-to-ingrain.com, 800-488-6463), which delivers a reinforcement-centered approach to learning and development that achieves permanent, measurable improvements in workplace behavior and positive impacts on business results.
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