If you’ve seen our fall 2008 fundraising piece, you’ve also read about the experiences people have had with our music.  We welcome your stories as well.

If you’re a first-time user, you’ll need to register. In the column at left, click on “register” and create a user name, and enter your email. We’ll send you a password.

Then come on back, click “Share Your Story” in the left menu, and write your own story in the “comments” there. Or comment on one of the other stories that we’ve posted.

If you’ve been here before, welcome back! We look forward to hearing from you.

—George Evano
Director of Communications

Do you have a special OBF experience to share? You can comment on any of the entries, or add your story to the comments below. We look forward to hearing from you.

—George Evano
Director of Communications

My favorite moment was the Garrison Keillor concert, when we had the opportunity to sing “All day, All night” with Mr. Keillor.  He made me feel like I was the future of music.  The Stangeland Family Youth Choral Academy has been a life changing experience for me.  I used to think that choir was the least challenging musical experience, and solo singing was the only option.  Now, I want to conduct choirs, so that I can teach the next generation what I have learned from experiences like the SFYCA.

—Stephanie Bivins

I love the OBF, and the work done by Helmuth Rilling, especially. It is a constant source of enlightened education to me, as a collegiate choral conductor. You must keep offering what you are doing in summer choral works. You fill a great need, specifically, totally unique, and endlessly inspiring.

—Ron Shirey
Fort Worth, Texas

I only wish that everyone could experience something as moving and beautiful as this.  I have made more of a family here than I ever could have at school — this is what I look forward to all year long.  I’m so sad that this was my last.  But what I will take with me is more precious than any tangible gift.  That giving the gift of music is the most fulfilling thing in the world.  That music heals, soothes and comforts the aching heart.  That the power of music will sustain all things.

—  Liz Lang, SFYCA

The essence of the experience: After I had conducted an aria in rehearsal, Rilling turned to each musician in turn, and asked if they were happy.  One by one, they replied that they were.  Rilling  acknowledged each of them, and then turned and looked at me.  He smiled, shrugged, and said : “I, of course, am happy too…I just
wonder if…”  And then we were off, exploring the music more deeply, looking for subtle ways I could better embody and evoke the mood and meaning of the moment.  Rilling’s ideas are perfectly clear and fully formed, never esoteric or indulgent, and he is always about the music: the score, the meaning, and the musicians.

—John William Trotter
Ann Arbor, Michigan