she says. “I lost $1,000 in one day of gigs and teaching getting canceled.” While she’s lost income, she’s also lost opportunities to connect with audiences and the community. “I’m used to these ways of gathering,” she says, and certainly, having a square dance doesn’t work in the world of social distancing. She’s honest and says that not being able to be with her musical community makes her feel depressed and socially isolated. Saxophonist Elijah Jamal Balbed, who’s involved in D.C.’s go-go and jazz scenes and is the founder of The JoGo Project ensemble, is experiencing local and touring gig cancelations and trying to figure out how to help local artists livestream from home. But he admits for go-go, the experience can’t be replicated. “For go-go bands in particular, one huge element is the call-and-response, the interaction with the audience,” he says. “It’s a struggle for all genres, but in D.C., we’re really going to struggle not having a live audience.” Non-professional musicians, those who play music or sing as a social function or as a part of school work, are seeing their activities canceled. On Friday, Anne Arundel Community College decided to move all classes online for the rest of the semester and cancel all remaining student performances. Ian Wardenski, chair of the performing arts department, is still figuring out how to put ensemble courses like band, which always works toward a concert at the end of the semester, and small group instrument classes online. “How do you teach 80 to 90 band students online who have to be performing? Does the student have the resource, space to do something like a piano class online?” he asks, admitting he doesn’t have the answers yet. Last week, Jeanne Kelly, the director of Encore, a choral organization based in Annapolis, Maryland, with more than 20 choruses for adults over 55 in the D.C. area, made the decision to suspend all rehearsals until further notice, knowing her singers are in the at-risk population. She adds the decision didn’t come easily, noting that social isolation is a problem for older adults and the choruses provide an opportunity for friendship, social interaction, and teamwork. “I’m worried about what isolation is going to do to our participants,” she says. Encore made another major decision when they suspended rehearsals: to still pay all of their conductors. Kelly says that most of their conductors piece together numerous conducting jobs, and she wants to keep them after this is over. “I’m very happy with our conducting staff, and we’re going to keep them happy,” she says. While some artists might hope for the benevolent venue that can still pay them based on advanced sales, that isn’t the reality. Local folk artist Cathy Fink says she and Marcy Marxer have been playing together for 46 years, and the pair feels grateful that they have been in the business long enough to have diverse income streams. All of their performances in March and April have been canceled, but they still can count on royalties to a certain extent. Fink says that they are taking this time to “work on projects that aren’t yet creating income, but they will be bankable later,”
and seeing the ways in which they can assist younger musicians. Drummer Jordon Stanley is also trying to take the situation in stride. Although he regularly plays at bars and clubs in Annapolis and on the Eastern Shore of Maryland with everyone from jazz to rock bands, he’s felt that having multiple streams of income has made him successful. His drum lessons will continue online and, “until it passes, we’ll do stuff at home,” he says, which for him includes recording and working on new compositions. For most musicians, this wasn’t a scenario they could imagine, and so imagining what comes next is even harder. In 2014, Baltimorebased musician and author Sarah Pinsker did imagine what would happen if people couldn’t gather and what that would do to musicians in her short story “Our Lady of the Open Road,” which she further developed into the novel A Song for a New Day, published last fall. After a global pandemic and multiple simultaneous acts of domestic terrorism, the government decides gatherings of 30 people or more are prohibited, while schools and public places are shut down. The result is that all music moves to virtual reality streaming, and “there is no path for smaller musicians” because technology companies “get to choose who does and doesn’t have a platform,” she says. The book tells the story of the illegal underground music scene and what musicians and music appreciators do to keep live music alive. While we wait out our real-life pandemic, many musicians are turning to online platforms like Patreon, Concert Window, and YouTube to stream music. Pinsker warns that relying on a technology can be dangerous. “They can change their model on a dime,” she says, making it less friendly for independent artists. She also doesn’t think it is the best option: “Whether it’s social music, or music that you’re getting paid for, or music you’re getting a little extra money for, or the joy of making that connection, online music is definitely not the same thing.” Becky Hill also hopes that after this, people will put down their phones and be more present. “They’ll realize that social media isn’t actually community,” she says. “They actually need interaction.” Artists are also looking for help from relief funds, community, and music sales. Fink notes her union, the American Federation of Musicians Local 1000 always has an emergency relief fund for members. The American Guild of Musical Artists is asking the government “to pass immediate, substantial economic relief for our signatory companies and all non-profit arts organizations likely to be shuttered in response to COVID-19,” while others are taking grassroots approaches to providing resources for musicians like the COVID-19 Freelance Artist Resources website. Wiggins has confidence in the community, saying, “I really feel like the Washington, D.C. music scene is strong and good about taking care of each other.” Boatright, Stanley, and Gellman all encourage people to buy CDs directly from artists and plan for there to be an after, a time when venues book musicians, people buy tickets to live music, and recurring gigs happen again. CP
Celebrate Women’s History Month with the National Portrait Gallery
FEATURED EXHIBITIONS: One Life: Marian Anderson through May 17, 2020 Women of Progress: Early Camera Portraits through May 31, 2020 Storied Women of the Civil War through March 13, 2022 PLUS: The painting Orange Disaster (Linda Nochlin) by Deborah Kass through fall 2021 THE CELEBRATION WILL CONTINUE WITH:
Birthright by Maren Hassinger Photo: Maren Hassinger by Grace Roselli. Pandora’s BoxX Project
Sunday, June 7, 2020, 1:00 p.m. a performance art commission for the National Portrait Gallery’s IDENTIFY series Her Story: A Century of Women Writers opening July 10, 2020
8th and F St. NW • npg.si.edu • #myNPG • @smithsoniannpg
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washingtoncitypaper.com march 20, 2020 13