Humans have a boundless capacity to pull together. A crisis can bring out the worst in some people, but most of us become more vulnerable and loving with an enhanced desire to help. It seems the coronavirus is the biggest challenge the world has faced since the risks posed by climate change. Every day we hear stories of how people are trying to lift each other’s spirits. Students at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee and Berklee College of Music created a virtual performance of “What the World Needs Now Is Love” as an example of how a simple song can inspire us to stay strong.
Bringing Community Together
When social distancing found Boston Conservatory student Shelbie Rassler back at home in South Florida, she longed to remain connected to fellow students. She decided to use a vocal arrangement of “What the World Needs Now Is Love” that she prepared for a cabaret event to create a virtual performance to share online. Shelbie enlisted student musicians across the country, took their individual submissions, and arranged them to create a single, unified performance. The results were magical, providing a source of inspiration during these trying times.
Facebook Call To Action
Shelbie posted the orchestra idea on her Facebook page saying “your job is to just take a video of yourself singing (literally pick any part/the whole song/just 10 seconds/riff to the gods/up to you!!), playing your instrument along to the track, choreograph a dance to the music, anything your heart desires, and I’ll cut everything up create an arrangement from what y’all send me, and share it with you all because WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS NOW IS LOVE SWEET LOVE Y’ALL LETS MAKE IT HAPPEN.”
Unexpected Ideas
She immediately had fellow musicians expressing their interest in participating. Shelbie’s friend and pianist Eli Schildkraut surprised her as the first to respond saying, “Sounds great. I’ll play accordion.” Shelbie found his desire to go for a less obvious instrument “awesome.” Percussionist Fausto Cape was without instruments at all, so he came up with another unexpected contribution. “He sent me a few videos of him playing some pots and pans and just creative things he found around the house,” she says. He ended up playing a saltshaker filled with rice.
Beyond Expectation
“My favorite part about all of this, though, is the people asking how it’s done, because they want to do something like this,” she says. “While we’re in quarantine or whatever everyone is dealing with during these kind of scary and uncertain times, it’s the fact that we can still do the things that we love from our home. We can still collaborate and reach out to our friends and be in touch with our friends and create art together.”
Burt Bacharach Honored
Composer of the song Burt Bacharach says he was proud and honored by the performance. “It’s great seeing them find ways to be creative and stay connected to each other while maintaining social distance,” he says.
While social distancing might be keeping us apart physically, we are becoming emotionally closer every day.
