In February 2020 I was Thinking Big Thoughts and still writing occasional blog posts here. I was listening to daily podcasts from NYT (the daily) and Vox (today explained) that made it very clear that it was just a matter of time before the new coronavirus spread fully ‘round the world. In March I was enjoying playing Candide in the ESO Opera with my wife. Rehearsals were going well, we finished the second dress and went home, planning for opening night the following day. But then everything stopped - we all know that by now and we all have our own versions of the same story.
15 months later, what’s new?
We bought a house last March/April right as the local version of the pandemic took hold, and moved out of our high-rise apartment.
Our son graduated HS and has just completed his first year of (completely online, from home) studies at McGill.
Tons of outdoor chamber music concerts happened all over Edmonton (and around the world) as we musicians tried to stay active and engaged with our audiences.
The ESO managed to perform a couple months of live concerts in October and November, before everything shut down for the second time over winter.
I made a few video recordings for HASA, the ESO, and myself just for fun, just like so many other musicians looking to stay sane when otherwise locked out of public performance opportunities.
like this one:
and this one:
And these…
and the complete first solo Bach suite in G major, which you have to subscribe to the eso virtual stage series to watch but I also helped make a little mini-promo for it:
And the g major string sextet by Brahms, which is previewed here:
We also recorded three of the four seasons by Vivaldi (couldn’t get spring done because of the COVID-19 lockdown… and Autumn is behind a paywall, I believe…)
Anyway. So now it’s nearly June 2021. Vaccines have been made and distributed and so far seem to be working their magic bit by bit, at least among wealthier nations. Remains to be seen how we figure out how to help the rest of the world before too many viral mutations happen that throw everything back into more chaos…
The summer ahead will include some small chamber outdoor concerts, driving my son to Montreal to move into a studio apartment for his second years, maybe crossing the US border to visit family in Wyoming- if the border restrictions are lifted enough; to allow it…
I know, it all sounds so awesome.