Live music feeds us in different ways. When we make music with our own hands and our own breath, something nourishing happens. Experienced live — at home or at school, in a park or bar or concert hall or hospital room — harmonies elevate us and rhythms get into our bones in ways that can’t be replicated digitally.

When I sing a Mozart aria buoyed by a cushion of live orchestral sound, or listen to a kids’ chorus read through a gospel tune for the first time, I feel alive to what’s best in myself and in others.

I’m all for the occasional moment of subway iPod ear-bud escapism, but I also need live listening, collaboration and performance.