By Jessica Lovell
Guelph Tribune

It just might be worth skipping your yoga class this weekend and taking in a concert instead.
Martin Anderle hopes concert goers will get that same feeling of relaxation and peace that comes from meditation when they hear his music. “I hope that by touching them with the music, they’ll feel inside of them a positive feeling of peace,” he says.
The concert, part of Dublin Street United Church’s Sundays @ 3 series, is entitled “The Essence of Peace,” and it features music, poetry and story-telling around that theme.
It seems it is just the right theme for Anderle, Dublin United’s music minister. He joined the church as music minister just over a year ago, moving to Guelph from British Columbia. Before that, he was composing music for meditation and relaxation and music therapy in his native Germany.
“When people are quiet and listen to music, they can keep their minds off all the duties they have,” says Anderle.
He hopes that’s what this weekend’s concert will provide for audience members, “that they have a time when they can just enjoy the music,” he says.
The music will be choral and piano music, one of Anderle’s specializations.
His other specializations are organ music, and orchestra and choir direction. With these specializations, work in a church was a good fit, he says.
But his music is not entirely traditional.
“I take elements from an Indian raga and then I take elements from western music,” he says, explaining that the eastern elements help to give the music its peaceful, meditative quality.
The audience can expect to hear some of that meditative element this Sunday, but Anderle promises it has been livened up, so it won’t put the audience to sleep.
There will be several music pieces, including a choral piece Anderle describes as “a prayer for peace,” which he composed himself.
He will also do some improvisation on the piano, playing more from classical style than a jazz improvisation style, he says.
While Anderle appreciates the power of the organ to convey certain moods, the pipes will be silent in this concert; he’ll stick to the subtle notes of the piano instead.
“When it’s a majestic and powerful music, the organ carries it through the power of the instrument,” he says. “The piano has more expression through the touch than the organ. It’s easier to convey the expression of a piece at the piano.”
To contrast with the music, the concert will also feature poets and readers from the Dublin community. Anderle could not give much away about that portion of the event, but he says the audience can expect a little humour in the mix, and all will be centred on the theme of peace.
Beyond that, he hopes people will just enjoy the music for what it is worth.
“When you listen to music, one just enjoys the beauty of the music,” he says. “When there is live music, with a choir or piano, it affects our feelings. It affects the heart.”
Some of the proceeds from the 3 p.m. event this Sunday will benefit Hospice Wellington. Tickets are available at the door.
Other concerts in the series take place Nov. 25, Feb. 10 and April 28. To order tickets for the entire season, contact Lane VanGeest at 519-829-2152