Symphonic tonic
Jan. 16—Stigma free is what these musicians living with mental health conditions want to be.
Friends, family and other advocates want it for them, too.
On a snowy afternoon Andover musician Joseph McConaughy stands by the piano in his family's music room and claps out complex rhythms from a composition called "Freedom."
The song, written by Afghan refugee Milad Yousufi, rides waves of mounting tension. On its orchestral wings come trepidation, longing, sadness and beauty.
It's one of McConaughy's favorites in a line-up of classical selections that he and his mother, JoAnne McConaughy, and 90 other musicians in the combined, one-of-a-kind Me2/ orchestra will play on Jan. 23 in Boston at world-famous Symphony Hall.
On the podium will be Me2/ conductor Ronald Braunstein, 66. Once a young rising star in the world of classical music, his trajectory toward becoming a renowned international maestro was thwarted by his bipolar disorder.
The Me2/ concept — conceived by Braunstein in 2011 after erratic behavior led to his being fired as conductor of the Vermont Youth Orchestra — advocates for people living with mental illness.
Half of the members in the four Me2/ orchestras have been diagnosed with conditions including bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, OCD, depression, trauma, addiction and anxiety.
The other half of the orchestras are made up of supporters.
The McConaughys, who belong to the Boston Me2/ contingent, are in the string section. Joseph plays viola and JoAnne plays violin.
JoAnne, a retired Haverhill physical education teacher, says the orchestra includes doctors and tradespeople and others from all walks of life united by a desire to continue making music.
Some orchestra members speak to audiences about their mental health journeys.
But many more members choose to play music and, even among themselves, not exchange information about who has what diagnoses, says McConaughy.
"You don't ask, you don't tell, you just play music," she says.
For his part, Joseph attends Me2/ for the therapeutic value music offers.
"I'm just looking for therapy for myself and to build community," he says.
Joseph, a 2008 graduate of Andover High School and a 2012 music education graduate of Keene State University in New Hampshire has been enamored of music since childhood.
He also plays piano and violin, and he and his father, Jim McConaughy, a musicologist, sing bass in their church choir.
The "Stigma-Free at Symphony Hall" concert will be Me2/'s first performance at the stately music venue, a National Historic Landmark and home to the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
Most often the Me2/ orchestras play in non-traditional settings including prisons, hospitals and urban encampments and parks.
"Where people are hungry for connection," says Caroline Whiddon, Me2/'s executive director.
The orchestras' schedules have been curtailed during the pandemic, scaled back from the usual 15 or so annual concerts.
But last August they set up a strings only ensemble at Fields Corner in Dorchester and anyone who walked by was welcome to take the podium and lead the players in Mozart's little serenade "Eine kleine Nachtmusik."
Did the people get into it?
Oh yes. The people were moving and grooving.
In a pre-pandemic concert at Bridgewater State Prison, Whiddon and other Me2 players gasped with surprise to hear an inmate in the audience request music by 20th century composer Dmitri Shostakovich.
It turns out the orchestra needed to shed a few preconceptions themselves. Being in prison doesn't preclude impeccable taste in classical music.
Me2/'s mission has been to give people living with mental illness a safe and accepting place to continue making music and feel connected to each other, Whiddon said.
This musical endeavor is especially timely during the pandemic when isolation and stress have placed mental health on the front burner of American consciousness.
As many as 30% of American adults have reported anxiety or depression symptoms, and overdose deaths have risen more than 20%, according to the Kaiser Family Fund.
"We all need music right now and we need communal experiences," said Whiddon. "When we can do it as safely as possible, we need to be together and share experiences."
The Stigma-Free concert is adhering to vaccination, booster, mask and testing protocols. The public is welcome but the target audience will be people with mental illness and their supporters.
Ushers, volunteers and service staff will be on hand to assist anyone with any help they may need.
Classical music is often thought to be out of reach of common folks. To many people it's intimidating. But Me2 is aiming to make hooey of that high-browed attitude.
Whiddon's own professional music aspirations eluded her 20 years ago when the pressure that accompanies performance brought on panic, anxiety and depression.
She stayed with music in an administrative role for orchestras.
Me2/'s real genesis was with its conductor, Braunstein. As a young man he was the first American to win the First Prize Gold Medal in the prestigious Herbert von Karajan International Conducting Competition in Berlin
He conducted orchestras internationally including the Berlin Philharmonic.
The depression he experienced, however, dogged his efforts.
Whiddon said Braunstein worked brilliantly with the Vermont orchestra, getting the group of 100 players to soar musically.
She also noted that he was struggling emotionally, and the powers that be cut him loose, an action he challenged and settled out of court.
Whiddon quit her job with the orchestra and went to work helping Braunstein realize his dream of creating an orchestra for people like him and those who are in their corner.
The two of them fell in love and married. Together they advocate, through music, for people with mental illness.
The Me2/ organization relies on fundraising. Membership is free as is admission to the concerts.
There are four Me2/ orchestras, all in New England — Burlington, Boston, Manchester, New Hampshire and Portland, Maine — and now a Boston Flute Choir.
The groups have been rehearsing for the combined Me2/ concert in their home cities and will rehearse as a group the day before their Jan. 23, performance.
Braunstein says he can't wait for the first note to sound in Symphony Hall.
The orchestra will play selections by composers including Beethoven, Berlioz, Rossini and Yousufi.
The concert will mark a milestone, said Braunstein, the beginning of the next chapter to free individuals living with mental illness of stigma.
And to do so through the healing art of music.
Meanwhile, at the McConaughy house, Joseph plays a moving jazz piece on the piano.
A pair of cardinals land on the snow-covered railing just outside the music room.
The male, in brilliant red, and the female, in understated olive green pose in perfect profile before Joseph picks up his viola and plays a J. S. Bach suite.
