I believe that music has the power to reach us all and unite us on common ground. Music cuts through ethnicity, age, and socioeconomic background and creates a language of its own; one that moves each of us in our own way. Whether it be hip hop or country, the Wizard of Oz or a Beethoven symphony, there's a genre of music that hits home for everybody, and there is something about intertwining a story with music; with differing rhythms, melodies, and harmonies, that makes everything more relatable. The beauty of classical music, specifically, is that the lack of words leaves you free to make up your own story and to interpret the music in relation to your own life.

I experienced this power of classical music firsthand on my trip to Europe to play with the Kansas Ambassadors of music. We had just finished our performance one night in a cathedral in Seefeld , Austria , when a stooped over, gray-haired couple approached me, smiling from ear to ear and clutching each other's wrinkled hands. The old woman squeezed my shoulder as they each thanked me for playing in heavily accented voices and struggled to tell me how much they appreciated young people bringing such joy to their lives through music. It didn't matter that we were just a group of English speaking teenagers from Kansas and that I could barely understand the words that were coming out of their mouths; the music of Georges Bizet's Farandole resonating off the ancient, wood-paneled walls of the church spoke for us and made us appreciate the unspoken message that hit at each of our hearts.

I spent three weeks of the next summer at a chamber music camp in Illinois , where I was coached for the last few days by a short and squat Bulgarian cellist, Seta, who spoke four languages: Russian, Italian, Bulgarian, and French. Because my five years of elementary school French was the most experience any of the three of us had with these languages and Seta's translator had already gone home, I was designated as the new translator. Over the course of those few days of Seta's coaching, we developed a system of communication in which Seta would respond with “good” or “no,” and then play on her instrument how she wanted us to play. At the end of our few days together, I attempted to apologize to Seta about how basic my French speaking was, and she interrupted me with a sentence that I have not forgotten to this day: “La musique… C'est une langue… C'est tout ce que nous devons besoin;” The music is a language; that is all we need.

Seta summed up perfectly that day the beauty of classical music. It is not specific to one country or to one group of people; classical music is timeless and it brings people together from all over the world. It doesn't matter what language we speak; music communicates for us. For these reasons, I believe music has a power unlike anything else to connect all people at their cores and show them the beauty in life.