Around the congregation

Aaron Markovitz doesn’t normally get nervous before a performance. 

As a professional musician and Temple’s Burton A. and Sandra D. Zipser Foundation Artist-in-Residence, he’s used to taking the stage, and in big moment to. 

But on Feb. 15, when performing at a vigil after the tragic mass shooting at Michigan State, Markovitz was nervous when debuting a new song, Seeds Yet to Be Sown, that he wrote in the aftermath of the event for a grieving community.

“I was terribly nervous to perform it,” Markovitz said. “It had a different energy about it, and I’m stepping up to sing after some MSU students spoke beautifully and powerfully about what they saw and heard on their campus. You can hear my voice kind of shakes, it’s one of the heavier moments of performance for me ever, that’s for sure.”

Markovitz said the song’s message was to help provide an outlet, that answers after tragedy are hard to come by, but together we can work to heal as a community.