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About a month into our mandatory break from performing, after some frenzied brainstorming, I wrote my colleagues to ask if they would be interested in putting together a virtual orchestra performance.
The responses started coming in as soon as I hit “send” — one after another, each person enthusiastically offering to help. I asked the 23 people who responded to record their part to Ravel’s Le Jardin Féerique (The Fairy Garden) and send it to me so I could edit them together. Preparing and recording a video was already a large time commitment. I expected my colleagues to simply send me their recordings.
That’s not what happened. Instead, the string players worked together to coordinate their bowings. The woodwinds came up with recording systems that allowed them to tune to one another. Players recorded multiple takes and created videos of the highest musical and technical quality. They went to extraordinary lengths to make the project a success.
As I edited the audio and video, I realized that even though we were not together physically, my Dallas Symphony Orchestra colleagues were committed to the same level of artistic excellence that we strive for every week at the Meyerson. An orchestra is the composite of 100 individuals working together to create a work of art larger than any one person could produce. That spirit of camaraderie was still thriving in the DSO, even though we had to stay separate.
As we enter another week of quarantine, forced to use social media to substitute for actual socialization, I take comfort in seeing people find ways to take care of one another, connect with one another and nurture the body and soul. There has been a shift in focus, from material to spiritual, on what brings people happiness.
The virtual art we created may be only a taste of the joy that comes from being enveloped by the sound of a live orchestra, but I hope it reminds us all of what we can look forward to experiencing, once we are together again.