When a small group of professional classical musicians first walked through what is now Mount Vernon Music Hall, they saw — and heard — a space with the potential to once again become a gathering spot for community inspiration. Back then, in 2005, the one-time Central Christian Church of Mount Vernon was in serious disrepair. But two decades later, that same building, lovingly maintained, has been the performance venue for close to 200 concerts.
In its 20th season, Mount Vernon Music (MVM) developed a reputation for the kind of programming that prompted one recent listener to exclaim “Where else would we hear this?” MVM President Mark Miller confirms it is a point of pride for the organization to showcase music from what he calls “unjustly little-known” sources alongside more traditional masterworks.
“Music is such an extraordinary human activity,” he says. “All societies make music. And when we limit ourselves to things that we’ve always heard, shutting out music that’s unfamiliar, sometimes we really miss out. Sometimes, things can be unfamiliar because of historical and social biases, like say, when the music was created by a woman, or a person of color, so it never got a fair hearing before. But the full wealth of our own American musical heritage is so much more than European pieces.”
Miller rejects the idea of any “reverse bias,” too. He and his cohort at MVM insist that the same standards of excellence be applied across the board when music is selected for programming. “Just as in other fields, quality is not a given, and lots of things we check out don’t make it onto programs. So, we are confident that what MVM presents is good enough that failing to include it would leave us all poorer.”
This approach has met with enthusiastic approval from MVM’s loyal following of listeners, both in MVM Hall and various venues for “encore performances” in the DFW area. It has also served the organization well in the many youth engagement services they bring to schools and libraries across East Texas.
The repertory of pieces in MVM’s “Music Tells a Story” concerts for young people includes four commissions of new music created for young audiences. After consulting MVM’s database, Miller shakes his head in wonder. “These nearly 200 performances have reached over 45,000 kids. And that’s not counting all the educational clinics we do each year to help provide coaching for band students.”
MVM continues to be at capacity for its “Musical Lifelines” concerts in long-term care facilities, again, serving communities in a vast swath of Texas from Jacksonville to Paris, between Hughes Springs and Greenville. And they continue to offer scholarship help to aspiring young East Texas musicians, providing performance opportunities and financial assistance that to date exceeds $38,000.
Now midway through the current Imagining ‘What If?’ season, the volunteers, donors and trustees who are powering MVM into its third decade are doing just that.
As Miller says, “It was imagination that brought music into this beautiful space in this beautiful community. And imagination will see us into the future.”
Visit www.MountVernonMusic.org to get the full performance schedule and learn more about the organization.
