Live music in the time of Corona

Süddeutsche Zeitung 27. December 2020

As the Summer of 2020 started to wane, our thoughts turned to the upcoming Christmas season which for us free-lance musicians is one of the busiest and most lucrative times of year. Our beloved J.S. Bach left us with such riches as the Christmas Oratorio – 6 wonderful cantatas that are traditionally performed every year all over Germany by all manner of musicians ranging from world-class baroque orchestras to local Church choirs and ad hoc amateurs from the community. In December alone, I had 10 concerts booked, in all of which I was engaged as Concert master – so quite some income and exposure for me as a violinist new on the scene here in Germany.

However, by mid-October, it became clear that all of my work was being cancelled due to the pandemic, so – what to do now? My Colleagues in salaried postions in the Bayrische Rundfunk Orchester or the Staatsoper were by then on kurzarbeit, which while not great, was at least a good two-thirds of their income coming in regularly. We free-lancers had nothing!

This was not the first time I had been in a hole with seemingly no way out – life as a Free-lancer has these moments, but being a bit older has its advantages too, because looking back, I realised that it is always at these crunch moments when we are forced to do the impossible, that we are the most innovative and forge ahead the fastest. Because we have to. We have absolutely no choice - sink or swim!

I felt rather guilty not turning up to the protest marches that my Free-lance Colleagues were organising to demand subsidies in order to survive, but the truth was, that I was just too busy. I was contacting people like mad. I knew that the church services in Germany would be allowed to continue, and I guessed that they would start needing some sort of small-scale music to make up for all the Christmas oratorios that had been cancelled. I spend hours researching the church system in Bavaria, and found out about the Catholic and the Lutheran churches. The Lutheran seemed more organised and it was much easier to find email addresses of key music directors. The Catholics were more opaque, and I ended up having to just pick up the phone and call numbers I found from various sources and ask around a lot. I send a lot of emails basically offering to play in church services. I knew absolutely no-one, so it was all cold calling, which is bad enough in your own language….. my German wasn’t great, but somehow I managed.

Performing Bach Cantata “Ich habe genug” with social distancing at the Himmelsfahrtkirche, Munich

Amazingly, after about three weeks of solid work, I started get a few responses, and my first two paid Church services were on the 22nd of November in the stunning KlosterKirche in Fürstenfeldbruck with an original 17th century organ! From that weekend on, I was actually fully booked, and on some weekends I even had to turn down work. I played in all sorts of Churches – Catholic (beautiful baroque churches, but bone-chillingly cold!) and Lutheran (modern and smaller, but warmer!) all over Munich and further afield too.

Often I had to tune up my baroque violin to modern pitch, but we played mainly Bach and Handel, but some Biber as well – sonatas and arias with various (some very excellent) singers. The Kirchenmusiker seemed to go out of their way to try to help me, and I think they genuinely understood the enormous challenge we Free-lancers were up against. Whilst some of them were very used to playing with baroque instruments, many were thrilled to have to chance to work with a baroque specialist.

View from the organ loft at the congregation social distancing at the Catholic Abbey of Furstenfeldbruck

For me it was the beginning of a wonderful and important journey in my development as a musician. Not only have I developed a huge respect for the work of these multi-talented Church-Musicians who not only artistically direct the church music in every facet from community singing projects to working with professional musicians on huge Bach Oratorios, but also play (and sing!) every single Sunday without fail themselves. But most importantly, I have realised the pure joy of playing music in a spiritual environment, where there is no clapping, and where people simply need the music to lift them into that spiritual level where they can sense God. I love that, because it has nothing to do with me – I am only the channel through which the music flows. It helps me let go of any fears or doubts because those thoughts are simply inappropriate, and even ungodly – because God put me here to do a job, and I just have to do it. No more and no less – I have no choice but to allow this music to lift these people up.

And it did. As December rolled on and the bookings have continued into January, February, March. etc., it seems that the numbers attending these services are increasing. Now I’m frequently asked to book small ensembles to play Bach or Telemann cantatas, so I am in the privileged position of providing some of my freelance Colleagues with a little bit of work. I do believe the church services are doing well in the pandemic, and possibly even getting more popular. Dare I hope that it is because of the music? I believe however, it is more the combination of beautiful words spoken in the service complimented by the music. I realise that this is a powerful combination indeed, especially when it takes place in a spiritual setting. It is no wonder that many of the greatest music compositions of all time have been composed for church services!