COLUMBUS, Ohio — America's largest community chorus is set to kickoff its 15th year at the Ohio Theatre Thursday evening for a one-night only performance.
The Harmony Project is an arts organization that brings people together from all different walks of life, encouraging social harmony through musical harmony and strives to make space for all voices in the central Ohio community.
“It’s not 400 great voices in the room,” explained David Brown, the group’s founder and creative director. "Some are stronger, some are a little softer and weaker. But, the idea is a not-too-subtle metaphor for our community that [stronger] voices lift [weaker] voices so that, when they’re together, all the voices have an equitable platform for their voice to be heard.”
The members of the chorus earn their place by volunteering their time in service of their community.
This can take many forms from serving meals to their neighbors, planting and maintaining community gardens, spending time at community rec centers or painting murals to volunteering with the group’s various arts programs.
The Harmony Project goes into schools and prisons, bringing art to students and incarcerated individuals; it reaches out to differently-abled adults and folks who have experienced homelessness, working to provide all people with the opportunity to express themselves creatively through song.
“Harmony doesn’t exist in music with only one note,” explained Brown. "Harmony doesn’t exist in our community with only one point of view, one way of thinking. So, our idea is to bring all of these different people together, maybe just temporarily set aside our differences, find something in common...our job isn’t to fix what’s wrong; our job is to do just a little bit of repair – one song, one voice, one service project, one student, one prison program at a time. We can’t take it all on, but we can take on our part and that’s what it’s all about.”