DENVER — Sometimes your passion doesn’t fall between 9 and 5.
Every Thursday evening, Heather Smyth opens the historic Grant Avenue Community Center and helps set up for a big group.
They take a deep breath and let all the stresses of life out. It just so happens that those exhales funnel through clarinets, French horns, and tubas.
It’s like a repair shop for the soul.
They call themselves the Mile High Freedom Band, and this is band practice.
Derek Hebert has been leading this group for 12 years. He said they have geneticists, scientists, doctors, city workers, teachers, artists — even people who helped put the Curiosity Mars rover on Mars.
They are all there doing the same thing for two hours: making music.
The biggest thing about this rehearsal, though, is that it’s not about the music. It’s about belonging to a community.
Hebert said being able to connect with so many different people is essential and healing.
Smyth said she’d been away from music for 15 years. Then she attended the Mile High Freedom Band’s Spooktacular concert and hasn’t missed a Thursday rehearsal since. She just became president of the group.
Miranda Carlson said music saved her life.
That’s what these Thursdays are all about — little miracles dressed up as band practice.
