July 4, 2013

Only connect

Only connect.

I had to look up who said that after it began flitting round my head recently, nosing its way into all my affairs: Writing a long overdue email… Only connect. Reluctantly picking up a ringing phone… Only connect.

And then there is singing — the great connector of them all!
A week ago at our Cabaret, while standing before an expectant audience about to sing the sublime American standard “The Way you Look Tonight”: Only Connect, my heart was reminding my brain, otherwise occupied with the physical task at hand.

Well, eleven years ago Randi, Laura and I sat around a table, brainstorming about what to call the new song festival we were starting (Our great friend Julian Rodescu was there and I believe it was he who came up with our tag line. RIP, dear Julian). You know what we came up with that day:

Lyric Fest, connecting people through song

And you know us, so you know we chose these words really carefully.
“Lyric” because it meant both a way of singing, and was a reference to the words of a song.
“Fest” because we wanted it to be festive and fun.
“Connecting People Through Song”, because that is what we believed the power of song to be.

So, friends, here comes the author’s message, just so you don’t miss it.

Here
it
is.

Only connect.

Thank you for a great decade! Let us know how we did and what you’d like to see for our future. Take the survey! Connect your story to our story. We’d be indebted.

Suzanne

(By the way, it was E. M. Forster who wrote “Only connect.” It was the two-word epigraph to Howards End. You can also find it in Chapter 22 of Howards End (the link goes to the free Project Gutenberg version.)

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