I recently received a donation from the family of a former student and when I logged in to apply the donation to my little donation tracker below, I saw the previous post from June 1st. I had a now-familiar realization of how drastically the pandemic has shifted since my last post.

When it comes to my career as a musician, the persistence of covid and our lack of collective agency to defeat it has had me wondering at times when performing will happen again and in some cases whether I want to be a part of it when it does. Since the spring of 2021, Madison Symphony has been planning to put on Beethoven’s 9th for its return to the stage and while that looked possible if not somewhat ill-advised at the beginning of the summer, it is looking less and less probable that this concert will take place. Will we or won’t we has been the perpetual question for some. I’m not sure I’ve ever been too optimistic about our chances for eradicating covid, but I’ve certainly wanted to be back in a large ensemble and I have missed that privilege.

I’m still looking forward to the arrival of my new cello some time in November and I’m still hopeful that the orchestra will reconvene at some point this year and that I will get to use my new tool in that context. If that doesn’t happen in 2021, it will in some sense feel like the logical result of half of our population refusing to be vaccinated and so in that sense I’m not waiting anxiously. It’s more like I’m laying back, waiting for the cloud to get even darker. That sounds very cynical to say, but cynicism aside It has been sad and predictable and I wonder how this experience will change our society for better or worse.

I AM thankful that this past year has been filled with creative, versatile music making. Things that stick out are WSCP’s concerts at Gates of Heaven, Grace Presents, The Wisconsin Union Theater, Art and Lit Lab and the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra’s online series. While I miss playing in a symphony orchestra and more specifically the an opera orchestra, I have had some extremely intimate performance experiences over the last year that simply could not have existed in the context of Overture Hall. I can reflect on these experiences with pride and gratitude for the friends and organizers who made these concerts a reality under extremely adverse conditions. I will be compiling some videos to which I have rights and putting them on the website soon.

Stay tuned for more updates. I am hopeful to have more for you soon. I’m thrilled with how much support I’ve received and can’t wait to share the result of this commission with you.