Page 6 - Muscatine Symphony Orchestra - MasterWorks II: The Grandest of Them All

The leaves are turning their gorgeous colors of orange, red, yellows and gold. New
colors and cooler temperatures tell us that we are well on our way in our new
MasterWorks season!

Being an avid outdoors lover, tonight’s focus is on one of our country’s most beautiful
and visually stunning natural parks—the Grand Canyon. One hundred years ago, this
national treasure was marked as a National Park of the United States. Since then,
countless hundreds of thousands of people visit there every year.

I remember my first time seeing this grandiose sight, and I made myself take time for
myself to sit on a ridge (or as close to the edge as I was allowed) and just be “one” with
this natural phenomenon.

While sitting there, I imagined what not only the indigenous communities felt when they
saw this their first time, but also what settlers heading West would’ve thought as they
came to the edge of this canyon. I like to look at our world through “first eyes” as much
as possible.

Today we celebrate Americana with works that are as musically iconic as they are
capable of painting pictures in our heads of the expansiveness of our great country.
With that in mind, I invite you to close your eyes, from time to time, and let these very
visions wash over your mind.