We are in the midst of a worldwide pandemic; the government has taken actions to prevent the spread of COVID-19, and we are seeing a radical shift in our society’s function (or lack thereof) that is totally unprecedented. Nobody alive has seen anything like what is occurring now in their entire lifetime. I, of course, didn’t need to tell you that, because if you are anything like the majority of the world’s population, it was the first thing you thought about when you woke up this morning. Furthermore, it will probably be the last thing you think about before you fall asleep this evening. Now that I have gotten the obvious out of the way, let’s ask ourselves – what is this pandemic doing to music?
I can only assume that the last sentence you read elicited a chuckle from some who are not as biased towards music as I am – people who don’t understand how vital music is in times of hopelessness. But for the large but still close-knit music communities in every area of the country, this is the first thing on our minds. From the Philadelphia Orchestra’s performance to an audience of none in early March to the Kennedy Center’s attempted furlough of all its musicians, the classical music world is in dire straits.
College music departments across the country are learning via telecommunication, and orchestras and opera and ballet companies have cancelled the remainder of their respective seasons. My own organization, the Kentucky Chamber Orchestra, was forced to cancel the remainder of our season. This was an especially hard blow for me; as principal cellist, founder, and executive director, our May performance was to be my final one with the orchestra. When I leave to begin my studies at Miami University in Oxford, OH this coming fall, the orchestra’s operations will be entirely out of my hands. Whatever the sacrifices being made, the direct effect of the virus has been felt by American musicians across the country.
The odd thing about this situation is: musicians aren’t giving up. Kennedy Center musicians fought tooth and nail to protect their contracts. The massive furlough their employer attempted to instigate was blocked by lawmakers and the musicians’ union. They will continue to receive a paycheck, albeit with a 35% pay cut, but a seemingly impossible and unprecedented situation failed to dash the hopes of these dedicated and world-renowned professionals. Music educators are taking the situation in strides, continuing to teach remotely from their homes. Music students are taking the opportunity to find more practice time than they ever could have dreamed of. The Philadelphia Orchestra, despite being unable to perform live, played Beethoven’s 5th and 6th symphonies for a virtual audience last month. Musicians are making the best of a worst-case scenario during a time when it seems like positivity is impossible to conjure.
Allow me to make one thing perfectly clear – by no means am I suggesting that this is an easy time for musicians. This is a devastating blow for our industry, and artists from every corner of the nation are struggling financially and mentally. I am not making claims like Joshua Barone’s infuriating New York Times article, “The Coronavirus Hasn’t Slowed Classical Music.” Barone, a classical music critic for the Times, makes a critical mistake in his headline alone – insinuating that classical music is thriving. Not only does he not address the hardships musicians are currently enduring, but he writes an entire article on how access to recordings and streaming of performances has expanded. Issues like this are exactly what cause the public to take the arts for granted; Barone’s article does not outline how the pandemic hasn’t slowed classical music. His article outlines how the pandemic hasn’t slowed his consumption of classical music.
However we choose to look at it, we must acknowledge the strength and resilience of artists. In a time when hope is a commodity arguably more valuable than toilet paper, musicians are producing it in record amounts. As I always tell my colleagues, music’s primary purpose (in my opinion) is to tangibly display the deepest, most sensitive and delicate parts of our humanity. Creating music is an act that defies the modern world’s impulse to strip us of what makes us human. During a pandemic, when all hope is lost for many, music has the potential to restore hope. Times like these are exactly what music is for, and musicians have refused to stop because we know that we cannot.
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