Grant, at four you’re a picture of the best of humankind. Your half-bashful smile and twinkling eyes, and the way you sometimes flirtatiously wrinkle your brows when speaking is disarming. You have the heartiest laugh I’ve ever heard and, regardless of what you find funny, others can’t resist joining with you in a chorus of laughter. But that’s merely window dressing for the soul and, while perhaps you are a bit unusual, that’s not enough to...

At our recent festival of community bands I recognized again, as if for the first time, bands’ roles in building senses of community. In its nineteen years, the Red Cedar Festival of Community Bands has brought together nearly 50 community ensembles for a day-long splurge of music-making that is free and open to the public. Bands pay registration fees and receive direct feedback from music clinicians. Musicians receive free master’s classes....