On April 15, the Lexington High School Wind Ensemble will perform at the Kennedy Center for the Arts as part of the Washington, D.C. International Music Festival. Students will perform three pieces of music that dive into social justice themes, including the “Into the Silent Land,” that was written to honor those who perished at the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT. in 2012.
The ensemble’s exploration of social justice through music was reinforced three years ago during the pandemic. Students were working on the piece, “Of Our New Day Begun,” by Black composer, Omar Thomas, that honored the nine victims of the 2015 mass shooting at the Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston. They felt that the message of that piece echoed what was happening in the country at the time — the death of George Flyod, the January 6 Capitol insurrection, and the surge of anti-Asian hate crimes.
That realization sparked vigorous discussions on Zoom as the ensemble couldn’t play music together, and led to the creation of an ensemble equity statement that the students collaboratively developed, expressing their thoughts on identity, community, and diversity issues within the realm of music.
LexObserver spoke with the conductor, Jared Cassedy, who is also the K-12 Performing Arts Coordinator for LPS, about the wind ensemble’s performance, how they explore social justice themes through music, and what music-making means to them.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Fan Chen: Could you tell us about the piece “Into the Silent Land?”
Jared Cassedy: This piece was written by Sandy Hook Elementary School alum Steve Danyew. He wrote this piece 5 years after the shooting happened at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, C.T. in 2012.
The piece is written in honor of those who passed away in that shooting. While it has moments of grief and anger for those families; and a community who lost those children, it still offers a tremendous amount of hope and optimism for the future.
What Danyew wanted to do was focus on understanding; remembering that these events happened, and encouraging dialogue and conversation around how we can stop such violence from happening. It’s not a political piece. It’s entrenched in the awareness of what continues to repeat itself.
FC: For the audience who hasn’t listened to the piece, what can they expect from it?
JC: The piece is about 9 minutes long. The first half of it is a funeral dirge wrought with emotion. Then that tension breaks and opens up with beautiful woodwind solos played by our oboist and our flautist. There’s a lightness at the end, but it’s bittersweet.
Each note is like a send-off and focused on embracing and understanding compassion. For the listener and the performer, it’s one of those pieces that draws those worlds together in a singular, collective, and introspective musical experience.
FC: How are students grasping these heavy themes that seem outside of their experience?
JC: There are two aspects of this. First of all, during the pandemic, our students were very adamant about performing music by underrepresented composers, composers from a myriad of different identities, and music about social justice themes. They came up with their own equity statement, which is amazing. From there the music that we program enables us to consider things outside of just a musical technique and performance focus. We take time to talk about how music contextualizes this for us, our identities, our beliefs, and our core values.
For me, I try my best to provide a platform for students to speak and to provide their own reflections. I use a lot of inquiry to open up dialogue.
I would share small snippets of news articles and interviews. One of the parents who lost their child in the shooting did an interview with NPR. We listened to it in class and it provided further context for the students. The father who is speaking is also a musician himself and talked about his child and how they used to always love making music together.
Students are hungry to have conversations around everything from these kinds of heavy topics about identity, to thinking of core values that are focused on this idea that we all belong. It’s amazing how much more naturally and organically the conversations will evolve when space is provided to have them.
FC: Why and how does music work as a way to explore social justice themes? And what kind of power does it have?
JC: Music is so personal yet so connecting. I talk about this all the time. It’s not just music. It’s through music that we are able to connect to each other. It’s through music that we’re able to collaborate and be creative. It’s through music that we’re able to open up conversations and dialogue. It’s through music that students and we as musicians can feel so grounded and settled and also express things that words can’t express. It’s such a complex aesthetic art form that enables us to hear things in ways that open up even broader perspectives of our lives, of people, and of humanity.
At the high school level, specifically here in Lexington, I’m so fortunate to work with students who are sophisticated, very mature, and very thoughtful and mindful — whether it is the way that they approach conversations or the way they approach their relationships with each other and their teachers. I think for us, like music for me, it’s an on-ramp to providing that platform to have these conversations and to also enjoy making something so beautiful and meaningful together.
FC: What is the difference between directing students and adults?
JC: I think that these students have so much excitement for what the future holds. As adults, we get to a point where we have our vocations and our families and time goes by so fast. The students have enabled me as a teacher to remember to get back to the basics of what I love doing.
FC: What are the challenges the wind ensemble faces with this piece?
JC: I think it’s the mental and physical stamina. For every piece of music that we will be performing, every single note means something. With Into the Silent Land, you are holding the souls of these people; the community in your hands. Simple music is not easy music. It’s more challenging because it’s so much more exposed.
For these students who are 14 to 18 years old to really, really encapsulate that within that short amount of time, holds a very big amount of physical weight.
FC: What does music-making mean to you and the students?
JC: It’s not just about being able to play advanced repertoire. Music-making opens up a dialogue. It’s part of who we are just as human beings. It speaks to us on so many levels. It’s personal. It provides an outlet. It is therapeutic. And then in Wind Ensemble, it enables us to connect with each other.