A World Without Music

Yeh, I get it.

In order to contain the coronavirus, we should not congregate in large groups for fear of spreading the disease.  Therefore, we must cancel all large public gatherings – like concerts, plays and sporting events.

The problem, however, is that we seek refuge in public places to experience arts and beauty when we are feeling anxious and upset.  And many of us are having those feelings right now, while at the same time we are told to avoid other people.

Here’s what many are coping with: a virus we know very little about but is nevertheless engulfing the US, the stock market (and our retirement savings) dropping at catastrophic rates and feeling powerless over the flow of world events. To help us deal with these issues, we seek comfort by being with other people and listening to live music. But we are told now that we can’t.

Instead, we are isolated in our houses, prohibited from experiencing solace with our friends

As the spigot of live arts entertainment suddenly goes dry, we are left with few options to calm our fears.

Also, the abrupt lack of revenue for our arts organizations may have implications to their future.

With a nice cushion of reserves Wharton Center will not experience long term financial problems.

Mike Brand, executive director, says, “We’ve had a great season and there aren’t that many shows during the spring.

“ ‘Wicked’ and ‘Dear Evan Hansen’ are still scheduled to play Wharton and we’ve sold a lot of tickets to them. I’m waiting for a call to see if the tours will close down. If ‘Wicked’ cancels, it will be five or six years before we’ll be able to have it again. For the first time in history, Broadway closed down this week.”

Only five Wharton shows were caught in the clutches of the closings – “Tao: Drum Heart” and Winnipeg Ballet’s presentation of “Wizard of Oz” were canceled. “Dogman, the Musical”, “Of Equal Space: Isotopes in Motion” and “The Klezmatics” were postposed.

Brand says, “Life is shutting down all over the world. People will have to find new things to do with their time – like listening to CDs and even their vinyl records.”

“Wicked” will be opening on April 1^st and Brand says, “People are going to be ready to explode by then.  They’re really going to need the arts.”

Local international piano soloist, Ralph Votapek, has found that closing arts venues is not just an American practice.  In April, he was going to travel to Argentina for a series of concerts, but the tour was recently cancelled.  “They invited me back for next year, but it seems that the virus is everywhere.  People who are attracted to live music will have to wait awhile before they can go to concerts again.”

But many small concerts are going on unabated. Votapek will be giving a small house concert this weekend in the Detroit area.

The Michigan State University College of Music took a big hit with the cancellations. They had to cancel 20-30 events, including a lavish production of Mozart’s opera “La Clemenza di Tito” as well as the annual chamber series, “Cello Plus”.

Melanie Helton, Director of the Opera Theater said, “We had a $40-50,000 budget for the opera and will lose about $35,000.  We had a guest conductor who had been here for six weeks plus a designer. We had a cast of 26 students, four who are graduating this year. 

“The opera company has a staunch group of donors who have helped out, but we will certainly loose about $12,000 in ticket sales. The financial loss will force us to be economical and careful in presenting next year’s operas.”

Helton feels that there are specific things we can do to make up for the loss of live music performances.  “It’s a time that we can self-educate and work on self-care through music.”

She has even found virtual excursions through art museums that she is sharing with her students. Helton will also be going through play lists that her students have created on Spotify and Pandora and then discuss the music.

“We are blessed by living in a time that gives us access to many remote music sites that can soothe the soul.”

The Lansing Symphony Orchestra was not hurt too badly by the changes.  Music Director Timothy Muffitt says, “We are fortunate that we didn’t have a super-packed spring.  Our pops concert (ABBA), which is a big audience pleaser, had to be postponed.”

Muffitt says that he greatly appreciates the local classical FM station, WKAR, to supply classical musical throughout the day.  “We may be holed up in our houses, but WKAR is our conduit.

“However,” he says, “there is no replacing the live music experience.  I remember giving a concert in Baton Rouge two days after the September 11 attacks.  It was a very moving experience.”

The real losers here are the audiences – us. The mid-Michigan area has a rich culture of all types of music, theater, and dance.  And during times of stress like these, the arts can offer us perspectives on to make sense of emotional and confusing issues.  The arts make a community healthy.

Let’s all seek out the arts in our homes (both listening and playing) and through small groups to find the healing.  It will hold us over until we’ll be able to experience live music again, along with a large group of fellow music lovers.