Dear Alma, Covid killed my playing
OrchestrasFrom our agony aunt:
Dear Alma,
My 2nd and 3rd year of college was during Covid. I play a wind instrument. It was very tough to improve during those years, and even after that I had to play with a strange mask on. I took a couple of years off and worked in a restaurant. My confidence is at an all-time low, and I feel like I missed out on years of technical improvement and performance experience. Other, younger players sound better than me. I want to go back to get a higher degree but I am frozen.
Alma, help?
Dear help?
The Pandemic, in its original form, is now over. This does not mean that the effects, from health (mental and physical) to missed opportunity, are not still with us. And will be, in varying degrees, with us or people we know for the rest of our lives.
Help?, I would suggest several things.
First, take some time to think deeply about what you want to do with your life. Reading your letter, I sense a lack of desire and warmth towards your instrument. Yes – go for a degree, but maybe this is a perfect time to pivot. You are still young and there are many things you are capable of.
Second, if your instrument is what you want to pursue, reach out to a former teacher and have a couple of lessons as well as ask them for help in making a list of potential schools to apply for.
Third, in your letter you come across as quite isolated. Contact old school friends, join a support group, reach out to family. It’s terrific that you want to get back in the game, and having a support network is important for you at this stage.
Help?, you are at a pivot in your life. It’s a great moment to reassess your priorities and dreams for what life can hold for you. Dream big and take a chance. You won’t regret it.
Questions for Alma? Please put them in the comments section or send to DearAlmaQuery@gmail.com
I think of Mischa Maisky, who spent two years (I believe) in a gulag — and then left and returned to his cello and a stunning career.
Did Maisky suffer any long term effect on his physical health?
Yes, it doesn’t sound like this musician’s heart is in it if he or she couldn’t take advantage of the lockdown period to dig in on their practicing, even if they were working at a restaurant.
Re. “during Covid” – the pandemic may be over but the virus is still with us and making people sick regularly (albeit not as severely, thanks to vaccines). The wording here strikes me as a little too retrospective.
Doesn’t sound like a wind instrument person. This, is a viola player.
Please, stop.
Of course everyone is entitled to their opinion but as a wind musician I don’t seem to recall EVER “having to play with a strange mask on” during the pandemic. I certainly _could_ have, and some of my colleagues _chose to_, but there were no requirements to do so. In fact, all our contracts specifically had carveouts for wind musicians to make it clear that we didn’t have to use some juryrigged solution.
Anyway, I would agree with Alma that this person is well positioned to re-evaluate their career options and pick _any_ other path, all of which- including being a server at a restaurant- would almost certainly provide more security and remuneration than (*hah hah*) being a Western art musician in the 21st century.
Some schools in the north, particularly, were requiring special masks for wind/brass players and singers. If you were already an adult with a career of course you had more choice.
So what? Video killed the radio star.
I know of no one who was not affected by covid in some form or other. Many were musicians, but they are still performing up to the same or better standard today than pre-covid. Unfortunately wind players require excellent breath control and the effects of those who suffered as a result of covid could well have affected their playing. But the writer seems not to have caught the virus. So most of her letter just sounds too much like sour grapes. “Frozen?” Stop griping and get on with life!
I knew a guy who quit a music theory PhD program to be a manager at a local chain restaurant. He was making more, with more benefits, than a lot of his friends were going into adjunct and tenure-track jobs. As far as I know he’s still there 20 years later.