San Antonio Symphony News and Archive

Funeral an example of arts' importance.




by Christopher Wilkins, music director of the San Antonio Symphony

from the editorial of the San Antonio Express News 9/22/97

This month, more than 1 billion people experienced a funeral service that was extraordinarily moving, upsetting and beautiful beyond words.

Music, poetry, and the communal expression of faith in God as expressed through music and poetry, were the soul of the ceremony in Westminster Abbey for Diana, Princess of Wales. The service expressed perfectly, for all of us, the myriad and simultaneous emotions packed into that experience: prayer, tragedy, devotion, community, and grace.

Take music and poetry out of that service for a moment in your mind. To me it is unimaginable. The Verdi "Requiem," the extraordinary recessional of John Tavene and the sounds of the organ, the choir and the congragation said it all.

If ever an example were needed of what role the arts play in human experience, it was staring baldly in the face. The arts can, and do, play such a role in our community.

San Antonio's glorious cultural heritage- blending Native American, Hispanic, African American and Anglo traditions in successful and harmonious ways- make it more American than any other city in America.

The leaders who bring us into a future with a vibrant, creative, diverse and world class cultural life will be those who see that future clearly. David Robinson of the San Antonio Spurs is one such individual. I suspect there are many more people who agree with this vision than have been heard from lately.

And perhaps such a future is not in conflict with cuts in public-arts funding. But then it is up to those who are committed to such a vision - for a city that expresses itself with both passion and compassion- to set about seeing that it is accomplished.



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