When COVID closed the world down in March and we all retreated to our homes, music was one of the great consolations: listening to favourite radio stations, re-visiting best loved albums, sitting down with an instrument and allowing fingers and breath to translate our emotions into sound. But it wasn't long before a sobering truth became evident: the true power of making music is in sharing the experience with other musicians and listeners.
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Unable to attend religious services, congregations turned to online alternatives. Matthew Stuckings, musical director at St Paul's Cathedral Manuka, conductor of the Canberra Rugby Choir and ANU Choral Society, explained that with the onset of COVID restrictions, he recorded Choral Evensong for distribution via Youtube with the bare minimum of 4 singers at St Pauls once a month from April to July. Live singing recommenced in August, but still with the minimum number of personnel. Rehearsals for each of the choirs Matthew conducts remain available for those in high-risk categories via Zoom.
The need to stay muted during these online interactions can be exasperating for those participating - but most choristers agree that it is better than nothing. Physical singing is irreplaceable, as Matthew described: "Moving from singing several times a week to just once a month made me realise how critical music making with others is to my sense of wellbeing - the dopamine hit was out of this world!" As soon as restrictions on numbers lifted in August, Smith's Alternative became a haven for those who play in the weekly sessions across all brands of music, with small COVID-safe concerts re-appearing to re-build the sense of community.
Kim Cunio, head of the ANU School of Music, faced the grand challenge of moving all teaching to online platforms when the university ceased face-to-face classes in March. Experimentation was required to find the best means of teaching music virtually. Lessons were conducted with phones, computers and plug-in microphones - and somehow it all worked. One highly successful initiative was a partnership with the Canberra Symphony Orchestra which created virtual orchestras with School of Music students and members of the Canberra community.
For Cunio, the highlight of the return to face-to face teaching has been launching the new ANU Orchestra in October: "It was a big effort from students and staff to see this come to fruition with the health directives changing constantly. Although difficult, we feel that this has brought our staff and students together more."
Artistic Director of the Canberra International Music Festival, Roland Peelman laments the cancellation of the festival and the inevitable loss of work for some 80-odd musicians.
To cope, many musicians took advantage of short-term project grants, developed new skills or worked on new repertoire. Many relied on teaching income to get through the worst. But streaming became the new black. Peelman praises Melbourne Digital Concert Hall, which became an overnight success, featuring many CIMF artists on this new channel. He predicts that "even as we welcome live music again on our stages, streaming is bound to remain part of the scene. In due course it might even provide new sources of income for musicians who have lost not just gigs throughout this year, but for many years have been defencelessly watching the rise and rise of digital media and see the value of recorded music plummet."
What rankles for many musicians is the disparity between the restrictions applied to live sport events and live music concerts. This year, the organisers of the Woden Valley Youth Choir Carols by Candlelight are not permitted to encourage the audience to sing along with the reduced number of choristers, and yet multiple sporting events have proceeded with no intervention. As Canberra ex-pat Reuben Styles (Electronic music duo Peking Duk) so eloquently posted recently:
"50,000 is the amount of people who attended a state of origin match at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane. 50,000 humans, no masks, lots of beer, all sitting side by side, elbow to elbow with absolutely zero social distancing (and no contact tracing). Oh....and there was live music there. 1,500+ Is the number of people who are not allowed to attend an outdoor music festival with proper COVID Safe protocols in place.... Why? Is there a magical reason that differentiates how COVID is spread between rugby fans and music fans?"
Elite violinist Pip Thompson describes this year as one of the strangest periods of her professional life. After an exhilarating performance at Womadelaide in early March with Super Rats Romanian band, she returned to Canberra to discover that restrictions imposed meant that the Canberra Symphony Orchestra could not perform live.
She reflects: "We recorded the Saint-Saens Organ Symphony for an empty hall, feeling sombre and slightly shell-shocked, and that was the end of live performances for all of us for the next eight months. As concert after concert was cancelled, it all felt frighteningly pointless." Like many other musicians I have spoken with, Thompson questioned the notion that we could create "business as usual" in the arts by going digital. Yes - it was essential for basic survival, but the compromises of sound quality for virtual performances and the sacrifice of a unified vision without the live interactions between musicians, conductor and audience were frustrating. The other concern is that restrictions in the numbers attending recent concerts halves audiences and poses a very real threat to financial stability for orchestras.
Next year is looking promising, and Thompson captured the hopes of all Canberra musicians: "A live performance is a contract between audience and performer to share an experience for the brief time that it exists, and its irreplaceable. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a vaccine."
