Fox Valley Symphony Orchestra reaffirms what humanity can be
Kevin Sutterlin's proclamation of love for American was something we needed to hear. We should not allow its temporary usurpation by cynical, cruel and corrupt people to extinguish that understanding in us.
Witnessing the horror of Alex Pretti being shot 10 times by immigration agents while prone on a Minneapolis sidewalk Saturday had my wife and I thinking about cancelling our plans to attend the Fox Valley Symphony Orchestra concert that evening.
The distress of living in this country these days is enough to make leisure of any kind, be it sports or binge-watching TV, seem a little grotesque and a privilege perhaps we ought to deny ourselves. And yet the one thing we can’t let them take from us is our capacity for joy nor our right to it.
Distraction, while it shouldn’t eclipse our obligations as citizens to speak up and work for justice in whatever way we choose, is necessary just to get through a week in 2026 America.
So we’re glad we went, despite our anger and heartache and despite another night of arctic temperatures in Wisconsin. We knew we’d made the right decision as soon as FVSO music director and conductor Kevin Sutterlin strode passionately into the room for the pre-concert program, flashing his ever-gracious smile.
Our hearts began to soften and warm. We discovered we were smiling ourselves.
Two of the main contributors to the evening’s program – dedicated to spring (“Perhaps I’m trying to manifest it,” Sutterlin quipped) – spoke of their passion for music and from whence it sprang. Danielle Simandl, the orchestra’s Principal Second Violin, walked us through the Vivaldi Spring Concerto, preparing us to be on the lookout for various intricacies within the piece, from birdsong to tall grasses laid back by the wind.
Vincent Rangel is a 30-year old Mexican American composer and clarinetist. His piece was commissioned by Sutterlin as a gift to the FVSO and was an homage to bluegrass and Americana, a particular love of Rangel’s.
By the time we left the pre-concert program and before a single note had been played, my wife and I were more settled, each declaring to the other how much we needed that. Listening to these dedicated young people talk about their commitment to and love for music and admiring their passion and the hard work and long years of study that went into realizing their particular talents was a reaffirmation of what humanity can be.
Then came the music itself lush and lovely at times, frenetic and challenging at others. I watched Rangel watch from his seat in the audience as his piece was performed and I thought what a thrill it must be to see your abstractions manifested on stage by the talents of our orchestra. As he was in his pre-concert talk, he was gracious and humble when Maestro Sutterlin summoned him briefly to the stage after the piece.
Then, too, I think the abstract nature of music itself brings its own satisfaction in times like these. Daily we face ever-harsher realities and words seen less equipped to comfort than to provoke further outrage.
Suttlerin, a native German, spoke during the concert of his deep love for America and his particular fondness for Copeland’s Appalachian Spring – the final piece of the evening. He loves, he said, the vastness of its land and the richness and diversity of its culture and the way that particular piece of music captures those qualities. He recently became a citizen, something of which he is clearly proud.
His proclamation of love was something we concertgoers probably all needed to hear just to reorient ourselves to what this country – at heart – still is. We should not allow its temporary usurpation by cynical, cruel and corrupt people to extinguish that understanding in us.
In as much as he spoke of the murder of Pretti, Sutterlin only made mention of dark things that are happening in the world and in our country. He told the nearly packed Performing Arts Center that the orchestra holds on to the belief that they should always listen louder than they play.
“And we should listen louder than we talk,” he concluded.
It was the perfect note during an evening in which people were probably looking to escape the ugliness of the day and, indeed, the past year. And the last thing anyone probably wanted was a polemic from this most gracious music director.
Yet I couldn’t help but think that out here in the real world, those words are insufficient. For it’s not that we are talking past each other. It is that truth and lies are engaged in a battle for our nation.
