Newport String Project at Home - with NSP co-founder EmmaLee
/My new life, according to COVID-19
● I have reverted to my childhood self, the one who was homeschooled and lived on a farm as an only child. My head is awash with ideas of how to spend my time at home, showers are optional and shoes seem needless. (What I can’t do is try a new fiddle tune out on my small flock of sheep.)
● I now have time to play music with my husband Piero. We each retreat to our practice spaces, but then we converge in the living room where Piero has parked his 12-foot marimba and I bring my 14-inch violin. Our neighbors and friends below us have been showered with the sounds of our violin and marimba duos.
● It has been challenging, but I’m easing back into running, or maybe I should call it people-dodging on the streets of Providence.
● Even though it doesn’t offer the same rewards as gathering in real time and space, I’ve enjoyed having more time to connect with friends via Zoom, Skype, FaceTime and all those other platforms I rarely used before.
● I was never a techy and it took me months to muster the motivation and courage to add a few tools to my technology repertoire. But now, through the help of many patient friends, I have learned some and failed at others that I would never have attempted before this period of isolation.
● The kitchen has been a whirlwind of activity; I’ve been experimenting with new recipes and inventing meals to make use of all the odds and ends left in the pantry and gathering in the back of the refrigerator. My most exciting baking project so far was making sesame bagels!
● Growing up, I spent countless hours knitting and crocheting, practicing my violin, helping on the farm and just roaming the woods surrounding our home. I now have a pair of knitting needles, a ball of beautiful yarn and a pattern sitting on the floor in the middle of my practice room, and so it has remained for a month or so.
● Online teaching has been interesting. I’m growing accustomed to frozen questioning faces, strange squeaks and noises coming through my headphones, disembodied foreheads and violin scrolls in the corner of the screen and lots of awkward moments. I’ve learned how to get away with wearing my pj pants by staying close enough to the screen.
● For us musicians, performing for live audiences is not an option these days. But through the magic of technology we have found ways to connect with audiences in safe ways. My husband and I have joined fellow musicians all over the world to broadcast on-line concerts. The intimacy of these little events has a charm not often found in large concert settings. Everyone has a front-row seat, and the real time chatting among audience members adds a feeling of connection.
I have realized, more than ever, how fortunate I am. I live in a comfortable apartment with my husband and wonderful neighbors who are great friends and great musicians and we have been able to make music together in our social pod during this time. I have enough food to eat, time to do things that I love and the privilege of staying home. I realize this isn’t true for many many people and I feel for all those who are going without, who are working in unsafe and stressful situations and who are fighting for their lives or are grieving the loss of those who have been lost to the virus.
I would like to share with you some of the music I have been making with Piero and my wonderful neighbors and friends, Adrienne and Andrei during these difficult times.