Prairie Fare: Music, good for body and mind

The young musical artists nodded at me, and I clicked on the stopwatch as they began playing. Each had 10 minutes to play a prepared piece of music.

My role was to stop them if they played too long. The judges were behind a curtain in the back of the room. “Thank you!” I said loudly to one participant as my stopwatch hit the 10-minute mark.

The young person stopped despite being in the middle of a v…