Author: Mike Rush

“A little bird tweeting merrily away at the crack of dawn woke me up the other morning. In midtown Manhattan. That never happens,” writes Karissa Krenz on Thursday (4/23) at New York classical radio station WQXR. “New York City is in the middle of its COVID-19 lockdown. Businesses are shuttered, most construction sites are quiet, and the streets are fairly empty.… The city’s sound has been different. Perhaps the coronavirus is forcing us to have an extended performance of John Cage’s 4’33”, the groundbreaking 1952 work that epitomized his every-sound-can-be-music philosophy…. I’ve been taking some of this time to listen anew, experiencing the sonic composition of a paused city…. On my recent walks … the quieter sounds … are surprisingly audible now: water rushing through the storm drains, garbage bags rustling in the breeze, exhaust systems churning, pigeons’ wings flapping in the middle of Times Square, the clicking of cyclists’ wheels, the flapping of flags, the rustling of the leaves, the sound of the rain. And the birds…. Ultimately, this quiet, introspective time of listening has made me realize that the sound of NYC is, for the most part, humanity…. The song of New York City is us.”

“It requires more optimism than usual to run an arts organization these days,” writes Michael Zwiebach in Friday’s (4/24) San Francisco Classical Voice. “Yesterday, April 23, the California Symphony announced its coming season, and it looks adventurous and interesting.… It starts … with Beethoven’s ‘Emperor’ Concerto, with [pianist] Adam Golka as soloist; Haydn’s Symphony No. 82 … and a work by Marianna Martines (1744–1812), who was a protégée of the poet and librettist Metastasio…. Music Director Donato Cabrera had apparently long wanted to do a concert centered on music about birds and [in a program] centered around Igor Stravinsky’s [‘Firebird’] ballet score, the orchestra will also welcome cellist Joshua Roman to play Mason Bates’s Cello Concerto (2014)…. Ottorino Respighi’s Gli uccelli (The birds) and Saqqara Bird by Australian composer Melody Eötvös round out the bird-themed concert…. The season finale … is built around Dmitri Shostakovich’s mighty Fifth Symphony. In the first half of the show, concertmaster Jennifer Cho plays Jennifer Higdon’s … Violin Concerto … and composer in residence Viet Cuong … unveils his first work for the orchestra.” Also planned in 2020-21 are Florence Price’s Violin Concerto No. 2, Vaughan Williams’s Fifth Symphony, and Stravinsky’s Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments.

“The symphony may not be able to hold shows in person, but the music has not stopped. Last week, the Georgia Symphony Orchestra took to YouTube for the ‘first ever’ 360-degree virtual chorus,” writes Courtney Kueppers in Wednesday’s (4/22) Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “The performance of ‘Georgia On My Mind’ was a way to honor front-line workers and essential personnel ‘in Georgia, across the nation, and around the world,’ the symphony wrote on YouTube…. The performance was the brainchild of the symphony’s music director and conductor Timothy Verville…. ‘Whether we are serving our community in person or virtually, our mission to engage audiences through imaginative programming and critically acclaimed performances remains constant,’ GSO executive director Susan Stensland said in a statement.… According to the symphony, the 360-degree experience with adaptive audio is best experienced on a phone or tablet while using headphones. It’s one of a variety of performances that have been posted on YouTube since the coronavirus outbreak began. In March, 500 Cobb County band students performed ‘Shimmering Joy’ from Atlanta composer Tyler Grant together digitally. And last week, members of the Collins Hill High School Orchestra in Suwanee played ‘A Million Dreams’ in a digital performance.”

The Lewis Prize for Music announced that it is establishing a $1 million COVID-19 Community Response Fund to distribute over 20 one-time grants of $25,000 to $50,000 to youth-serving music programs that combine artistic training with access to mentorship, meals, transportation, mental health services, and housing for young people. Grants will be awarded to organizations that are showing responsive and adaptive leadership within their organization, community, and for their young people. The application will open on Monday, April 20 and close on Friday, May 8, with grants distributed on June 16. The Lewis Prize for Music is an annual award established by philanthropist and social impact investor Daniel R. Lewis to assist music programs and projects that seek to create more fair and vibrant communities. The Lewis Prize will open its annual Accelerator Award process in the summer following the distribution of grants from the COVID-19 Community Response Fund. For more information, visit the Lewis Prize website.

“Michiel Commandeur, a Dutch violinist, sounded surprisingly upbeat when he said his income had fallen to zero since the coronavirus pandemic began,” writes Alex Marshall in last Wednesday’s (4/8) New York Times. “Mr. Commandeur, 50, is a member of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, a group that has plenty of acclaim, but no home concert hall or rehearsal space. Though it has an office in Berlin, the musicians only meet to go on tour.… ‘We’re people from about 20 different countries,’ Mr. Commandeur said…. Orchestras … like the Berlin Philharmonic or the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam receive state funding, so are in a relatively good position to deal with the crisis. But … over 90 percent of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra’s income comes from ticket sales…. José Vicente Castelló, the orchestra’s principal horn player, who lives in Barcelona, … said he was hopeful that things would go back to normal … Mr. Commandeur said he could not see the orchestra playing together ‘before Christmas.’ … Its members … have been checking in on one another every Saturday morning, at first using Zoom then other apps, and sharing their experiences of the crisis. ‘It’s been a little bit like therapy,’ Mr. Castelló said.”

On April 17 at 3 p.m. ET, musicians from North Carolina’s Charlotte Symphony Orchestra will perform the fifth movement of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 (“Pastoral”) at the same time, while isolated in their homes. For the performance, dubbed A Symphony A Part, musicians will not be able to hear each other, and there will be no conductor. They will perform their individual parts from wherever they are—a sidewalk or front porch, or indoors with the window open to the outdoors. In a press release, the orchestra noted that A Symphony A Part performances are intended to “demonstrate the musicians’ commitment and gratitude towards the Charlotte Symphony and their communities,” and that the fifth movement of Beethoven 6 was chosen because “it promises beauty and celebration after the storm.” Videos of the musicians’ individual performances will be posted on April 20 at asymphonyapart.com, #CSOatHome, and the orchestra’s Facebook page.

“This feeling? The one I’ve felt since … the day when New York City’s Mayor de Blasio closed all performance venues? It’s one that questions my sense of purpose as a composer,” writes Mary Kouyoumdjian in Tuesday’s (4/14) icareifyoulisten.com. “This feeling that’s saturated with solitude, that makes it difficult to be productive, see beyond the present moment … feels an awful lot like grief. What could it look like to not write [music] for a period of time in order to really prepare yourself for your next work? … My city is building overflow spaces to treat the living and carry the dead…. A lot of us are mourning.… There is no shame in choosing to prioritize your health…. This does not make you any less of an artist. It just makes you human. My humble hope is that after all this, there will be a wild explosion of art to celebrate. The Black Plague gave us the vitality of the Renaissance. The Great Depression gave us bursts of experimentation in cinema and music…. Let’s choose to take care of ourselves now…. With this choice, I am beginning to daydream again. I had forgotten what that felt like.”