AMHERST, N.Y. (WKBW) — With the one year anniversary of the Top's Mass Shooting just days away, Husband and Wife Lamont and Dorinda Glover said they still find themselves trying to put the pieces of their lives back together.
"It's taken us out of our norm trying to make progress, trying to make better community," Lamont Glover said. "Its just changed a lot of peoples lives."
However, the University at Buffalo's Department of Music hopes to bring the community together in a way that only music can.
"Oh we need music," Glover said. "It's apart of God."
The Gift of Music Concert featured UB faculty, students, alumni and musicians from the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. Several musicians from different African American Churches around Buffalo joined as well.
"I brought the best of the best," Pianists and Director of Composite Ensemble Marucs Lolo said. "We have Rod Boner in the house on keyboard, Timothy Dowdell on organ, Preston Brown on drums, we have Anthony "Tone" Cummings on bass, Oscar Woodrich on guitar and yours truly Marcus Lolo on guitar."
Respected member of the Buffalo music community Karen Saxon said the variety is intentional from the gospel to the classical, the diversity of it all is what gives this sound its power.
"Well what's unique about music is, it's a language that doesn't change from culture to culture," Saxon said. "Now how it's expressed changes from culture to culture but the vehicle itself is what allows everyone access."
"It allows us to strip ourselves of our personal identities and join in together in song and making music to rally around a common cause which is to show support and solidarity to people who have been affected by tragedy," Lolo said.
"There are victims who are still walking around carrying the trauma of this tragedy," Saxon said. "I would imagine some still haven't been to the grocery store. I would imagine that some still can't take hearing random noises, you know what I mean. We should honor the fact that the work of healing is just beginning and it's going to take some time."
But Lolo said when music is used to deliver a unifying message, it can heal.
"It is one of the most powerful weapons that we have against destruction and anything that might seek to divide," Lolo said.
