Music Brings Us Together

by John Williams

I have several relationships to The Music Settlement. I am one of the two architectural firm that’s working on this project right now, but my connections to Geri, the President and CEO of The Music Settlement, go back twenty-five-plus years, when she worked at Forest City. And I used to do a lot of work for Forest City in the architectural world.

Geri called me up a couple of years ago and said, “Hey, we have an old building on campus, and we can’t use it anymore. Do you know anybody that can help us?” I do a lot of work with nonprofits—I’ve got the nonprofit target on my back—so I said, “Listen, let me come down. Let’s have lunch, and let’s talk about it.” Well, one thing led to another, and now I’m doing this project with Prospectus Architecture.

And what’s great is that Peter Bohan—who is the principal at Prospectus that I’m working directly with, and I’m the principal of Process Creative Studios—we’re both musicians. When I called him to say, “Hey, do you have any interest in working on something with me at The Music Settlement?” There was silence. And then he said, “My daughter went there. I love that place.” The Music Settlement has impacted so many people in this community. I can’t believe how many people I’ve talked to, and they’ll say, “Oh, my daughter went there” or “I went there.” There is just a wonderful, hundred-plus-year lineage of The Music Settlement’s impact on this community. I am thrilled to be working with the organization.

But it’s also wonderful for me as a musician. I’ve been playing for fifty-plus years, and music has been a big part of my life. It has been a guiding tone throughout my life. My father and my mother were big fans of Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett, and that’s what I grew up with. And I love that music still. But for some reason I went down a path to kind of acoustical, old-timey, Irish bluegrass traditional music. And Pete Seeger was one of my major, major influences. I was eleven years old, maybe twelve years old, and I’m reading about Pete Seeger, and not only about his music, but his lifestyle and what he did for humanity and social consciousness. And that’s that impacted my life in a major, major way. It’s helped me develop into the person I am now. And that came from Pete Seeger, and that came from music and all the other musicians that I researched once I learned about Pete. But it’s always been just . . . I love it.

What does it mean? It brings people together! It’s like animals. Yes, everybody has different political beliefs or upbringings and worldwide, but even if you’re on opposite ends of the spectrum with political beliefs, you can both love dogs or cats or bluegrass music or folk music or jazz or blues. It’s one of the factors in our lives that can tie things together.

When you look back at last a hundred years, two hundred years, oftentimes it’s music that was that factor that melded people together. It’s as important now as it was in the sixties and the fifties. It’s one of those things that we could all share and love, even if we have different values and beliefs.

Share Your Music Story

We all need stories that move us. To help others recall their own stories and inspire them to share those stories. We need stories to invite others into our community of people transformed by the power of music. What is your music story? How has music changed you?

Share Your Music Story