By FRANCES BRENT
Good bye dear, dear Mr. Brown! Saturday 50 of his former students, youthful again despite grey hair and receding hairlines, met at St. Mark’s Lutheran in a Memorial Choir led by Linda Gullufsen, to sing him to his rest. The church was packed with his admirers. The final Hallelujah Chorus drew dozens more singers from the pews for a musical celebration of a man who brought so much beauty and creativity to the young people of Bowling Green.
Jim Brown brought greatness to Bowling Green students as they learned to create a beauty that transcended their everyday selves. He made music matter. Bowling Green High School students that didn’t make it through auditions, or that never thought of trying, still experienced an era when music (band was terrific too,) was a source of school cultural pride. Jim Brown and his generations of student musicians were also a source of community pride and for a time almost defined Christmas and summer musical theater in BG.
To earn a place as a Madrigal Singer was to be blessed for life and to learn that all that glory of song was the result of very hard work, lots of discipline and major disruption to family life. Less well known was the wide ranging idealism and world view of a class he co-taught with English teacher Dianne Klein that inspired students outside his musical world.
Jim Brown was the heart, soul and remarkable leader and inspiration of a truly memorable 50-year song fest that blessed the Bowling Green Schools and the entire community. The Madrigals, the Yuletide Singers, the Summer Musicals were spectaculars in the “Small Town America” that is Bowling Green, Ohio. He gave a musical opportunity that allowed generations of young people to experience the joy of being part of a beauty that took them beyond their everyday selves. He also organized terrific international tours that introduced the great wide world to hundreds of students and lucky chaperones.
