Building Community Through Music and Art

Building community through music and art has been a commitment of mine since I was in my early 20's. As a 21 year old in Boston attending graduate school in organizational development at MIT, I was also deeply engaged in my first professional music career. I founded an artists-alliance group called The Boston Arts Roundtable, which met to discuss our process as musicians and artists in my living room in Arlington, MA, as well as collaborating on multi-media concerts in Eastern MA.

When I lived in Shrewsbury after graduate school, I would have informal salons at my house, where friends shared music, art and community. It was fun introducing people who circulated in different communities to others they would never had met had we not gathered in these salons. When I moved to Waltham 4 1/2 years ago, creating an intimate house concert series, the Music Salon, was a vision and motivation to get the house I actually chose to live in. Each month we build community through music and art, and my house happily stewards this spirit even in the days in between salons.

Co-founding the Women In Music Gathering, also an artist-alliance group, with Cindy D'Adamo and Colette O'Connor came from the same inspired seed. Gathering women musicians together bimonthly for a potluck lunch, sharing about our personal and professional journeys and a song share, complemented by collaborative concerts seemed like a natural and needed initiative.

All of these initiatives were and are local. The ability to gather face to face regularly over time, and present programs together in local venues is rich and meaningful. When I was fortunate enough to learn about LadyLake Music and its magical and inspired founder, Cindy D'Adamo, there was a natural fit not only professionally but also spiritually.

I have gratefully been a LadyLake Artist for about 1 1/2 years, and was amazed that primarily through social media, I could be part of a vital and growing network of people who were on a similar wavelength spiritually as well as professionally. But Cindy D'Adamo has a wonderful way of screening musicians for their values, work ethic and vibration as well as their talent. So, the people she brings together as the LadyLake community and family are warm, dedicated and really enjoyable people.

After communicating through all possible virtual platforms, but not yet in person, it was such a special experience for Cindy to come to Boston from Cape Coral, FL for our LadyLake Boston Showcase at City Winery. Texas LadyLake artist Dave Martinez also came to town, and it was no surprise what a warm and delighted human being he is in addition to being a fabulous performer.

Cindy really understands what it means to build community through music and art, but even more importantly, knows how to screen people even through social media, to find people truly on the same wavelength. Cindy seeks givers, not just takers, visionaries who are also implementers, and people who recognize that when we work together and support each other, we all fly higher and go farther.

In my coaching and body psychotherapist, an image I have used with clients for years is that of a lighthouse. The more grounded we become, the clearer we are about who we are, and why we are here (our purpose), the clearer the signal we radiate into the world from the core of our being. This signal or the frequency we transmit is like the beam of a lighthouse. And people we have not yet met are looking to see this signal or feel this beam, in order to be drawn towards to the people and experiences they need to move forward along their personal pathways.

To trust that putting out an authentic signal will bring us people on our wavelength--both people we need to meet and people who need to meet us, for the higher good of all, is at the root of this lighthouse image. After spending time with Cindy, it is wonderful watching her implement this very model at a national and global level.

The lighthouse model allows social media and our internet world to have a human touch reach through it. All possible platforms of interaction become places the lighthouse beam can shine and others can recognize the frequency in order to make meaningful connections. The connections can lead to local or regional face to face community and a larger national or global alliance which can be translated into face to face for special projects.

The LadyLake Boston Showcase was the beginning of this kind of translation, where some long distance alliances could come together to perform on the same stage in Boston. The possibility for more events of this kind, not only in Boston, but in other cities, is exciting and a natural follow on.

When community gathers, connection can happen and grow. And in the energy field of this growing community connection, all kinds of good things are possible. This kind of collaborative support community is so deeply needed and a true antidote to some of the scary, inhumane and toxic things happening in this country and our larger world.

I hope more and more people hear the call for this kind of collaborative community, and respond to this lighthouse beam. Music is the soul's language which brings us together and connects us heart to heart. These kinds of connections feel our soul, and help us stay grounded both in our vision and our humanity. I truly pray that our joint efforts "light up the love" as my friend Jerry Meunier, founder of Light Up the Love (tm) says. So many individual people and the world as a whole needs this now!