{"id":60020,"date":"2021-08-18T16:56:53","date_gmt":"2021-08-18T20:56:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.themainemag.com\/?p=60020"},"modified":"2021-09-20T16:43:04","modified_gmt":"2021-09-20T20:43:04","slug":"love-letters-to-maine-emily-isaacson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themainemag.com\/love-letters-to-maine-emily-isaacson\/","title":{"rendered":"Love Letters To Maine | Emily Isaacson"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Dear Live Music,<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve missed you! I have been filling your void with Spotify and the radio, but it\u2019s just not the same. It\u2019s like eating at McDonald\u2019s when what I really want is Fore Street\u2014it fills me up, but it doesn\u2019t nourish me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You see, you make me feel alive. With you, I am not just listening, I\u2019m experiencing. If it\u2019s a single musician, their sweat and furrowed brow remind me of the years of practice, dedication, and sacrifice that they bring to this moment. If it\u2019s an ensemble, I am in awe that the unified focus and collective energy of 30, 50, 150 people are all for my ears.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For our ears, because, unlike watching YouTube, live music is a communal act. A room of 50 or maybe 5,000 people are entranced, simultaneously, so that you could hear a pin drop at Merrill Auditorium, or energized so synchronistically that the floor in the State Theatre shakes. And then there\u2019s the moment when the music ends and you can\u2019t hold back your enthusiasm any longer and burst into wild applause, and it turns out your neighbor feels the same way! The room is electric with hundreds of people on their feet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You do that, live performance. I never clap to MP3s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To be fair, you are very demanding. You require me to engage\u2014not just to turn on and listen but to go somewhere, to make a choice, to commit to this moment. I can\u2019t prepare dinner or check my email when I\u2019m with you; you demand my attention\u2014body, mind, and soul. It is exhausting, but so reinvigorating. And in this bubble of a moment that you created, I look around and see my community and realize that this is not my <\/em>experience; this is our <\/em>experience. We <\/em>are dancing to Lake Street Dive at Thompson\u2019s Point. We <\/em>are applauding the Portland Symphony Orchestra at Eastern Prom. We <\/em>are feeling the same powerful vibrations, and despite our anonymity, we will share a memory. And this reminds me that this experience is so specific, so totally here and now, and yet transcendent; that other people across the country, world, and even generations have heard these sounds and felt these emotions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Live performance, I love you because you feed my soul by bringing us together and reminding us of the endless capacity found in the human spirit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With gratitude,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Isaacson is the founder and artistic director of Classical Uprising, the performing arts organization that puts on the Portland Bach Experience.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more love letters:<\/h2>\n\n\n