By Sebastian Spreng, Visual Artist and Classical Music Writer

 “Many years ago, my sole intention was to create an oasis of good music on Sunday afternoons,” said the indefatigable Doreen Marx on the stage of the University of Miami Gusman Concert Hall when she announced her decision to close the Sunday Afternoons of Music series at the end of this season, after a 33-year uninterrupted run. (The stunned audience only recovered thanks to a virtuoso performance by young violinist Ray Chen and pianist Julio Elizalde.) The petite, intrepid Marx succeeded in creating an oasis that offset and dispelled – still dispels – the lethargy of so many Miami afternoons.

The adjective “indefatigable” is invariably linked to her name. She is a survivor in every sense, a throwback to a Miami of yore who nevertheless stays relevant thanks to her steadfast mission of offering good music to everyone who crosses her path. She has plenty of reasons to say she’s tired, but seeing her climb briskly to the stage or hearing her urge the audience to call for an encore, you would never guess her age. The amazing Doreen is nearly 88, warm, self-assured, modest, elegant, unique, a born communicator and, essentially, a lovable person. For those who know her, she still is the same young girl emerging frantically from the London Tube running miles in the middle of a blitzkrieg to reach home and see if her family is still alive. She has devoted the same care and concern to her audience and her artists. Until recently, her afternoons of music would continue at her home, open and filled with patrons who would socialize well into the evening with such fine artists as Ben Heppner, Steven Isserlis, Olga Kern, Aaron Rosand, Elmar Oliveira, Jaime Laredo, Eglise Gutiérrez or the couple Wu Han and David Finckel, all the while enjoying the Chinese food diligently provided by Byron Krulewitch (almost 90), her inseparable accomplice in life and adventures.

Though her life deserves a different article, one focusing on her memories, right now we need to alert Miami’s artistic community to the danger inherent in the imminent demise of an undertaking that brought good music to everyone. Then we need to grant proper recognition to her children’s series, which testifies to her commitment to audience education over the past 28 years. Perhaps someone with a similar vision will take her place. Perhaps other alternatives, other equally dynamic young initiatives, will arise, but there’s no guarantee that her audience, developed over so many years, will merge with that of other entities, as has happened in the case of some sadly now-extinct musical organizations. The loss of that audience would constitute a similar or even greater loss.

Despite the inevitable ups and downs, for three decades Marx succeeded in combining local and international talent. In recent seasons, she presented Amit Peled, Alon Goldstein, Nadine Sierra, Jeremy Dench, Ana Maria Martínez and Joshua Roman, to name but a few. The last two concerts of the final season will be just as memorable. Make a note of it. On March 16, the revered pianist Richard Goode performs a not-to-be-missed Schubert-Debussy-Janacek program. On May 18, the meteoric Isabel Leonard, a young lyric mezzo-soprano who has taken New York by storm, is slated to close the season.

Classical music endures the stigma of being elitist, but it doesn’t have to be if we have ways to present and disseminate it. None are more generous and less elitist than artists. They are the bricks that build the house, but they desperately need patrons and sponsors to provide the roof that completes the dwelling, that refuge of the spirit where all recover vital strength. As a result of today’s welcome avalanche of technology – and the laziness it engenders – the experience of live music has become more precious than ever. Vivid and natural, it nurtures, teaches, educates and cultivates in every sense and at all ages. It is as fresh spring water compared to bottled water. It is the main reason to prevent the desert from spreading, to keep alive these indispensable oases, those that slake our essential thirst.

 Information for final concerts: http://www.sundaymusicals.org/sam.html