Webster City High School music teacher Greta Nelson puts her performers through a rehearsal for next week's first annual Prem Sahai Concert. The theme is Healing Harmonies.

“Healing Harmonies” will be the theme Tuesday evening, May 6, when seven Webster City choirs, three from Webster City Middle School and four from Webster City High School, present their spring choral concert in Prem Sahai Auditorium.

This concert begins at 7p.m.

In recognition of the generous financial support Prem Sahai historically made to renovate the auditorium that now bears his name, Greta Nelson, WCHS vocal music instructor, has officially titled the concert, “The Prem Sahai Concert — Healing Harmonies.”

Although she is leaving for a new position in Waverly at the end of the school year, Nelson hopes all future spring concerts will be dedicated to the memory of Prem Sahai. She also hopes the music will create, for concert-goers, “moments of peace, serenity and healing, and a chance to give those gifts to those who truly need it.”

That last idea requires further explanation.

Nelson, who is aware that Central Iowa Recovery is consolidating its services at a single Webster City location — the former Lawn Hill School which is also the former Webster City Schools Administration center — will ask those at Tuesday’s concert to “provide some serenity, healing and normalcy for others” in the form of a small cash donation.

All money collected will help CIR raise an estimated $400,000 to pay for a “serenity garden,” a new entrance and more parking.

The serenity garden, according to Tim Bedford, CIR executive director, “will be a place anyone can visit to interact with peers and do things most of us take for granted.”

That might be as simple as playing ping-pong, using a computer or just hanging out, in what Bedford calls, “a safe place to meet people.”

If that sounds easy for you, try and imagine how difficult it might be for someone struggling with a mental health crisis.

Bedford, with over 30 years in psychiatric work, said the aim of psychiatry is “to find ways to relate with other people.”

In the Midwest, Bedford observes, “We isolate those with mental health issues from their families and communities. The result is that they suffer. They suffer loss of employment, loss of their home, and loss of a sense of what’s possible in their lives.”

CIR will decrease that isolation by creating what Bedford calls a sense of normalcy.

That’s where the new serenity garden comes in. The garden will provide picnic tables, a horseshoe pit and a giant chess set. The center will also have showers and washers and dryers with the intention to provide normalcy for those who don’t have it.

In a challenge to anyone reading this, Bedford said, “If you know how to play chess and are willing to teach it to others, come to our serenity garden and give it a go. The gift of your time and talent will mean more than you can know.”

For her part, Nelson said the serenity garden, and the services provided by CIR in general, “are close to my heart.”

“It’s hard to talk about these things, but we have to keep trying,” she said.

On the program for Tuesday’s concert are songs selected to provide true healing harmonies for attendees.

“Ad Astra” by Jacob Narverud, will be sung by The Lynx Singers in Latin, Nelson said. Translated, it means, “… move forward, look upward, leave all cares behind.”

The Treble Singers will perform Kyle Pederson’s, “Does the World Say?”

Nelson explained, “This is about the pressures and stresses that can affect all of us — are we good enough? Strong enough? Ultimately, this piece affirms the importance of being there for others and to embrace our growing and learning.”

The Varsity Singers will present “Do Not Leave Your Cares at the Door” by Elizabeth Alexander. Asked about its meaning, Nelson said, “I think the message of this piece ties in beautifully with the purpose and mission of an organization like Central Iowa Recovery and their new wellness center. We sing about being open to forgiveness and transformation — “come on in, you are welcome here. This is a place of grace. Every story is welcomed here.”

If you could find a concert of seven choirs anywhere else in a single, hour-long program, you’d expect to pay handsomely for a seat. As with all WCMS/WCHS vocal concerts, this one is free.

But if, in return for the precious gifts of harmony, peace and serenity you take home that evening, you’d care to make a freewill donation to CIR, you’ll be paying forward that gift to people leading really difficult lives right here in Webster City.