School of Music faculty, students, and alumni explore new ways of making music — and staying upbeat — during the COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced people all over the world to adjust to the challenging new normal of social distancing and self-isolation. For musicians, this can be especially tricky. Without our usual outlets for practicing, performing, earning money, and generally staying sane and safe, how do we do this? How do we establish new ways of being in the world that work for us?
There’s no single answer to these questions. So, while the School of Music has been busy reinventing our courses and our concerts to meet this new reality, we have also looked to our students, faculty, and alumni for inspiration. How, we wondered, has the pandemic changed the way they do things as artists, collaborators, neighbours, friends, citizens? What new ideas and experiences have they brought to bear on the challenges we all face?
We’ve been awed — overwhelmed, really — by their altruism, creativity, and optimism during such difficult times. We think you will be, too. Here are some of the many exciting projects that have sprung up over the past few months.
Connecting with Compassion
Seniors living in long-term care homes have been hit hardest by the pandemic, both by the COVID virus and the social isolation it has necessitated. This spring, the Faculty of Medicine launched Connecting with Compassion, a new initiative that deploys technology to help seniors stay connected with their loved ones and the outside world. With guidance from Professor of Piano Mark Anderson and technical support from Tom Lee Music, our student musicians helped bring virtual concerts to the elderly through the project. They recorded uplifting performances which were loaded onto tablet computers that UBC medical students distributed to care homes across the Lower Mainland.
WATCH: Harp student Hayley Farenholtz performs for Connecting with Compassion
Contributing students include Hayley Farenholtz, Aaron Graham, Morton Yu, Braden Eguia, Greg Andersen, Cassie Chang, Daniel Cheung, Dorinda Qui, Kurt Chen, Anican Yu, Joseph Stacey, Joanna Lee, Ben Hopkins, Laura Trainini, Lucy Strauss, Kurt Ward Theiss, Hayley Farenholtz, Katie Fraser, Aria Abrishamkar, Nathan Kwok, Shirley Cha, Hannah Park, Derek Stanyer, Caroline Olsen, Carleigh Ross, Luka Kawabata, Judith Valerie Engel, Thomas Law, Tyun Seung Son and Angela Mok.
Read more about the project.
Sonic Responses
Professor of Musicology David Metzer and DMA piano student Judith Valerie Engel collaborated with curator Barbara Cole to create the video series Sonic Responses, a joint Belkin Art Gallery and UBC School of Music project that showcases musicians responding to the changed aural conditions of UBC’s outdoor spaces during the pandemic. As the curators’ statement notes:
“The whir of students moving between classes, the hum of vehicles on the road and the ripples of classroom discussion were all familiar noises, so much so that we grew inured to them. But they are gone now. In their place, a hush has emerged. The stillness is at once eerie, peaceful and captivating. It calls out to be pondered and explored.”
Assistant Professor of Horn Valerie Whitney and UBC Music students Nathania Ko, Lucy Strauss, Sodam Lee, Carlos Savall Guardiola, Taees Ghairati, and Michael Ducharme all contributed performances.
A Tribute to Frontline Healthcare Workers
Faculty members and VSO musicians Christie Reside, alto flute, and Vern Griffiths, percussion, recorded a beautiful rendition of Arvo Pärt’s “Spiegel im Spiegel” in tribute to frontline healthcare workers battling the COVID-19 crisis. The video features images of frontline workers from across the Coastal Health Region as well as visuals of a boarded-up city and the inventive murals that quickly sprang to life there.
WATCH: “Spiegel im Spiegel” — a tribute to frontline workers
Prof. Reside first heard this piece at the start of her own social isolation and instantly felt an emotional connection to the work. “I was thinking of works that would be a fitting tribute, and I wanted to choose something with a powerful, emotional impact that would really show our gratitude to the frontline workers. ’Spiegel im Spiegel’ refers to an infinity mirror — what you get when two mirrors are placed facing one another, thereby producing an infinite number of images.”
The Quarantettes
This spring, in response to the Covid pandemic, violinist Molly MacKinnon (BMus’12) and composer Mishelle Cuttler formed The Quarantettes, a folk music group that combines poetry by 19th and 20th century female poets with original musical compositions. With support from Bard on the Beach, they played a number of outdoor concerts in parks and roamed through East Van singing for their neighbours! Watch a short documentary about the Quarantettes.
Building Community Through Podcasting
Opera alumni Alireza Mojibian (BMus’15, MMus’17) and Duncan Watts-Grant (BMus’16) created NoteWorthy, a podcast featuring conversations with upcoming musicians about the music they love to play and listen to, how they are navigating life during the COVID-19 outbreak, “how we are each pushing forward in our own way, and how our love for music and the arts not only defines who we are but encourages us to be hopeful for a brighter future.”
Socially Distanced Summer Festival
Pianist Annie Yim (BMus’02) organized “Concerts on the Farm,” a two-day open-air music festival at Inner City Farms in Vancouver this summer. The festival, which allowed people to experience live music while social distancing, featured performances by School of Music Professor of Piano Mark Anderson and Professor Emeritus Robert Silverman, as well as the Emily Carr String Quartet. The quartet performed works by Iman Habibi (BMus’08, MMus’10).
Cross-Canada Brass
The pandemic inspired a group of School of Music alumni spread out across the country to form Cross-Canada Brass, a new, socially distanced large brass ensemble that (so far) rehearses and performs entirely via video conference. In the spring, they began work on an ambitious new recording of Ewazen’s Symphony in Brass. The first movement is now available online, with two more movements to come soon.
WATCH: Cross-Canada Brass perform Symphony in Brass — First Movement
Members of the ensemble include trumpeters Malcolm Shier (MMus ’20), Silas Friesen (MMus’19), Candice Newberry (MMus’18), Matheus Moraes (MMus’19, current DMA student); horn players Ray Wu (MMus’20), Kristin Ranshaw (BMus ’18, current MMus student), Holly Bryan (MMus ’14), Nick Bartlett (BA‘16, MA’19, current PhD student); trombone players Kevin Jackson (MMus’19), Andrea Norman (MMus’20), and Devon Throness (BMus’20); euphonium player Zane Kistner (MMus’20) and tuba player Jay Uschold (current DMA student); and percussionists Simeon Weststeijn (BMus’17) and Luke Hildebrandt (BMus’18).
Rain Before Sunshine
B.A. in Music student Emily Liang won the 2020 Cantonese Lyrics Competition: Combating COVID-19, co-organized by the UBC Cantonese Language Program and the School of Music’s Dr. Hedy Law. Emily’s winning song, “Rain Before Sunshine,” is about a nurse who sees her partner for the last time before volunteering to take care of COVID-19 patients. It was performed by Ashia, a Hong Kong-based clinical psychologist, and produced in Hong Kong, Vancouver, and the US with zero in-person contact. The song is available on iTunes, Apple Music, YouTube, as well as KKBOX and JOOX for listeners in Asia.
WATCH: “Rain Before Sunshine,” composed by Emily Liang
For more stories, please check out the regularly updated COVIDland blog on our website.I f you have a story to share, please reach out!
