The World Choir Games

I once thought people sang because they were afraid of being alone.

And that by singing they'd hear themselves, and hearing themselves they'd hear someone listening to them singing who they never knew existed, so their fear of being alone would disappear.

I sing most often when I'm alone and don't know where I am.

When I sing this way I'm no longer alone. And the more I sing the less it matters where I am.

Yesterday, for instance, I was in Riga, Latvia. Music was all around me--in the parks, the hotel lobby, on the streetcars, restaurants, shops, the square beside the Dome Church, inside the Opera house-music was everywhere in Riga.

When everyone's singing no one's alone I thought, while listening to the Russian Youth Choir perform at noon.