The Drug

The drug I refer to has been around for centuries, but since the 1920's, its use has become increasingly rare. It is a tranquilizer, a mood stabilizer, a stimulant, a muscle relaxer, all in one. It has the ability to make your pulse pound, or it can lower your blood pressure to a much lower level. It's all that and MORE!

The drug is music. In this instance, it is orchestral music, classical music. Viewed by the majority as stuffy and boring, it is widely underrated. In this age of loud, fast music with often angry lyrics, no one is willing to try the new "drug". And yet its benefits are endless. Nothing makes my chest swell and my foot tap like a Souza March. Nothing soothes my tensions like a waltz. Classical music MOVES me. Yes, I still listen to rock, and Big Band, and even Polka. But more often, it is classical music that affects me most.

Bach (all of them), Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Wagner, Handel and many more over the years wrote fantastic music that is still wonderfully performed by orchestras around the world. But we don't have to travel around the world for them. Not even to Cleveland. Euclid has a jewel that goes widely unknown. The Euclid Symphony Orchestra turns the Cultural Center into a local Severance Hall. They bring this drug to you, to us, for as little as $8 per performance.  

Whether you are into rock music, in all its forms, polka, or any modern flare,  you owe it to yourself to spend the small price of the ticket and invest 2 hours to open your mind, and your soul, to see if the classics can take you to another level of consciousness. Take your family. It may not touch you, but there is a chance someone in your family will be.

I encourage, no, dare you to open yourself up to my drug of choice, classical music, and the wonderful Euclid Symphony Orchestra, the OTHER symphony of Greater Cleveland.