I read a fabulous piece in the New York Times today by Alexander McCall Smith about his Really Terrible Orchestra.

“WHY should real musicians — the ones who can actually play their instruments — have all the fun?” he writes.

I couldn’t agree more. Years ago in college, my roomate Margo and I listened to the Portsmouth Sinfonia’s, um, interpretation of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. It was truly, really, awful. So awful that I couldn’t stop laughing. But I wasn’t laughing at them, but with them. And I was moved by how deep the calling is to play music, regardless of what you sound like. Beauty takes on many forms and one of them is the compulsion of the human soul to reach for and be swept away by music.

Whether you sound like Beethoven, or the Really Terrible Orchestra.