This past weekend was a busy, but educational, productive and inspiring one at the Hoverman home.\u00a0 Michael Levine, founder and trombonist of Dallas Brass, returned to Van Wert to share with some of us a dream he has been working on for the past four years.<\/p>\n
Dallas Brass performed at the Niswonger this past November and many of us were able to get a small glimpse of what his dream is all about.\u00a0 It\u2019s called Harmony Bridge.\u00a0 It\u2019s a program he is developing that incorporates music students, communities, nursing homes, veterans homes, parents, service clubs, and school music programs.<\/p>\n
Back in November when Dallas Brass performed in Van Wert, Michael shared his vision for this project with my wife and me.\u00a0It was easy to see the passion he has for this project.\u00a0When asked what it is, he simply says, \u201cIt\u2019s about changing the world!\u201d\u00a0 After a short lunch discussion, Michael could see that we shared some of his passion for changing kids\u2019 lives through music.<\/p>\n
This weekend, while staying in our home, we had many discussions about his project Harmony Bridge.\u00a0 It all came to him several years ago when he coached a few kids on some simple songs, then took them to play for some elderly nursing home residents.\u00a0What he witnessed was an epiphany of sorts to him.\u00a0He saw these residents light up with life that had left many of them as they heard these students play simple songs the residents recalled from their childhood.\u00a0He also witnessed the caring and loving interaction between the young students and the elderly residents.\u00a0It dawned on him that he may be on to something.<\/p>\n
Dallas Brass has been his passion and vocation for 30 years.\u00a0He has enjoyed performing for audiences all over the world.\u00a0However, when he saw the reactions of these people as they listened to the kids perform as simple a song as \u201cThe Muffin Man\u201d, he felt more fulfillment than any standing ovation from a Dallas Brass performance.\u00a0It is easy to see how much this project means to him as soon as you start discussing it.<\/p>\n
Michael is a Julliard trained graduate in trombone performance.\u00a0Upon graduation, he played three years in the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, then three years in the Dallas Cowboys Band (my personal favorite), before starting up Dallas Brass.\u00a0An important element of nearly every Dallas Brass concert is the interaction they have with students.\u00a0 Michael and his fellow musicians bring simple and fun arrangements that kids can play. In a short amount of time, they can make them sound good, while improving musical skills for the kids and developing more confidence as players.\u00a0 This in turn helps develop better bands.<\/p>\n
By adding the element of sharing the music with the elderly, it opens a whole new perspective to Harmony Bridge.\u00a0Michael shared video of kids he has worked with all over the country using some of the elements of Harmony Bridge.\u00a0The kids feel good about making music and sharing it with people who feel their better days are behind them.\u00a0There is so much proof that the nerves in the brain that store musical memory are the last to leave a person as they grow older.\u00a0In essence, music restores life!<\/p>\n
After nearly four days and many hours of discussion about Harmony Bridge and how it can engage a school music program and a community, Michael left us to fly to Colorado for a performance with Dallas Brass at a state music conference.\u00a0I don\u2019t think we have heard the last of Harmony Bridge.\u00a0It could change the world!<\/p>\n
FIN\u00c9.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This past weekend was a busy, but educational, productive and inspiring one at the Hoverman home.\u00a0 Michael Levine, founder and trombonist of Dallas Brass, returned to Van Wert to share with some of us a dream he has been working on for the past four years. Dallas Brass performed at the Niswonger this past November […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-31 21:31:38","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60190\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}