Enjoy a musical tour of 2014 in preparation for the New Year 2015!

Supervisor Kate Sears Offers Thanks and Gratitude
For Twelve Months of Music in 2014

In 2014, I had the honor of being President of the Board of Supervisors and the opportunity to do things a little bit differently. I was inspired to open the first Board meeting of each month with a musical performance that would showcase the incredible talent we have in Marin and create a positive context for our public policy deliberations.

The inspiration for this idea came from an impromptu appearance by virtuoso jazz saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist and composer, Richard Howell, at a contentious Housing Element hearing in September 2013. Richard opened that meeting with music and an audience sing along of an original composition, “There’s Still A Lot of Love in Marin,” dispelling discord and tension from the room.

Eager to continue the spirit of hope and optimism that Richard Howell’s performance engendered, I asked local Marin musicians to come forward to volunteer to play, sing and perform a piece of music at the first meeting of each month. True to form, local talent of all variety answered the call.

If you were present at our meetings, or if you tuned in by watching live webcasts, you heard musicians and vocalists of all ages and of a range of genres offer their unique gifts in an unplugged (“unamplified”) format. The goal was to encourage peaceful, collaborative and creative participation.

Here, for your enjoyment, is the month-by-month musical tour of 2014. We began with Tamalpais High School junior Anthony Lavezzo, an up and coming national bluegrass festival star, and finished with the fine singers of the Marin City Community Choir led by Florence Williams. In between, we had a lot of wonderful music.

All of us who had the pleasure of enjoying these performances came away with a renewed sense of pride in Marin as a cherished musical and cultural home for inspired artistry. More importantly, we invested a few minutes each meeting listening with open hearts, perhaps the greatest gift that music can bring to the realm of public service.

Month	Artist/Group	Genre
January	Anthony Lavezzo	Guitar/Bluegrass
February	Singers Marin	Choral Music/Acapella
March	Bruce Arnold	Guitar/Folk
April	Bruce Fox	Hang – Percussion
May	Kate Munger/Threshold	Choral Music/Acapella Choir
June	Jackie Holzhauer & Friends	Acoustic Blues
July	Noah Griffin	Vocalist, Cole Porter
August	Sawyer Ikeda	Guitar/Rock & Roll
September	Richard Howell	Saxophone/Vocals
October	Golden Gate Barbershop	Barbershop Quartet
		Chorus
November	Caroline Sky	Vocalist/Guitar
December	Marin City Community	Choral Music/Acapella Chorus

May we bring this good musical mojo forward into the New Year 2015 to help light our way and guide our steps. Best wishes for a wonderful year ahead for us all.