I am Sterling Beckwith, PhD.  Former singer and conductor,  retired professor of music at York University. 

My active musical involvement has for some time been limited to reading about, reflecting on,  and occasionally sampling the incredible richness and variety of our local music scene.  The present issue of The WholeNote demonstrates once again how much we owe to this magazine's indefatigable support   –  as catalogue,  catalyst,  and cattle-prod – for all this activity.  Without it, I doubt such an impressive  level of quality and diversity could have been so soon attained.  Whether, for how long, and to what extent our various musical lives can survive a total lockdown is anybody's guess,  but today I'm feeling optimistic.....

Neither of my two lifetime musical projects has yet been interrupted:

1)  Bridging the language and culture gap for young Canadian performers,  by providing some of my favorite European vocal works with singable new English texts.   Done so far:

Brahms: Liebeslieder-Walzer Op. 52. Monteverdi: Ballo delle ingrate. Rimsky-Korsakov:  Mozart & Salieri. Schuetz: Johannes-Passion; Weihnachts-Historie. And most recently (while self-isolating)  Shostakovich: Babi Yar (not yet performed).

2)  Expanding the everyday teaching and learning of music, currently heavily slanted towards performance training, to include thoughtfully-designed computer-assisted exercises in composing,  as well as guided listening to more than the latest pop hits. For the latter, I am actively looking for individual and institutional partners, and taking steps to insure that software development work can continue.

I can still be reached via my York U email address: beckwith@yorku.ca

I’m an arts publicist specializing in classical music, speaking here for myself (something I don’t often get to do!).

Since  COVID-19 hit, I have had to let go of publicizing three of five May events on my calendar because they have been cancelled outright. The other two of those May events have been postponed till the fall: the Upper Canada Choristers’ concert Inti Ukana: A Latin American Tapestry, has been rescheduled to October; and the International Resource Centre for Performing Artists is rescheduling its performance of Ten Singing Stars: The New Generation till the fall as well.  The biggest of the cancelled events will take place in 2021, we hope as originally programmed for 2020.

 At the moment, the basic publicity materials are prepared for when the world is ready to roll. We will just have to change the date and update any other info that might have been revised. Meanwhile, I am doing some writing and editing for a couple of clients and dealing with other personal projects that have been put on the back burner for years – like cleaning up my office!

I’m at lalitwack@rogers.com, and am on Facebook and Twitter.

I’m the artistic & managing director of The Musical Stage Company which I founded 16 years ago. We are Canada’s largest and leading not-for-profit theatre company dedicated to the development of musical theatre.

Fortunately there is nothing that we have let go of completely yet. Several things had to be postponed though.Once circumstances allow, we will be able to reinstitute all of the programming that was lost. Of greatest note, we are 100% committed to the world premiere of the new musical Kelly v. Kelly by Sara Farb and Britta Johnson which has been in development for the last several years and was set to premiere in May.

We have increased the number of workshops right now for the development of new musicals. We have found that these non-public workshops work fairly well in an online space. If we can use this time to strengthen the new Canadian musicals that are on the horizon, and ensure that they have a relevance and resonance in this current time, then I imagine a bright future ahead. We are also engaged in very complex risk planning to make sure that The Musical Stage Company is well positioned to not only survive, but nimbly adapt to whatever needs greet us on the other side of this crisis.

Visit our website at musicalstagecompany.com and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram (MusicalStageCo)

I’ve pinned us on the map  to our office; it is fairly central to all of the spots we work in.

Mezzo-soprano, speaking on behalf of myself.

Gone, or up in the air, since COVID-19 hit:  the final week of shows for I Call myself Princess at the Globe Theatre in Regina;  Kingston Symphony Beethoven 9; and Turn of the Screw with Opera 5 in Toronto. My sailboat can’t launch this month. News still pending on my debut with the Welsh National Opera, touring Britain and Dubai.

Sailing will definitely happen again someday. But I do not have any control on how companies proceed with their programming once it is safe to do so again, so I cannot say whether I’ll be able to follow through on any of the postponed or cancelled engagements. Still very much crossing my fingers for Wales …

So in the meanwhile,  I have been playing Beethoven and Debussy on the piano daily. Attending weekly meetings via video-conference as a board member of Opera.ca. Witnessing how opera companies across Canada are dealing with the crisis and planning for the future. Advocating for inclusion of more artist voices so that our new reality on the other side of this works for administrators, as well as for creators and performers. Gathering inspiration by listening to recordings of wonderful singers, watching interviews with some of them on YouTube and remembering the most influential teachers I’ve been fortunate to have learned from. Like a bit of a self-prescribed masterclass in my own home.

For people reading this who want to find me,  Instagram and Twitter are where I check in daily. I am @missprill on both. I do post on Facebook as Marion Newman, but that is mostly upcoming gigs so I’m not sure when I might appear there next!

I’m a violist  & co-director, with pianist Emily Rho, of Pocket Concerts, with a mission to use intimate, extraordinary listening experiences to build and sustain connections in our community. Since 2013, we have brought people together to share the transformative power of music in banks, hair salons, clothing stores, parks, condo party rooms, and dozens of homes. 

Individually since COVID-19 hit, I’ve had to let go of all the work I had been hired for with The National Ballet of Canada and Canadian Opera Company Orchestras. I’ve also had to let go of chamber music performances with Canzona Concerts, The Elora Festival, and Off Centre. Pocket Concerts has had to postpone all of the public and private concerts that we had planned this spring (six concerts in total). 

Once circumstances allow, we will follow through with all of the Pocket Concerts performances if and when it’s possible to gather in person again. We plan to present all of the postponed concerts at some point in the future, using the same hosts and the same artists whenever possible. 

Meanwhile, instead of my performances, I’m practising repertoire that I wouldn’t normally play, writing more for the Pocket Concerts blog, and we have launched a Livestream concert series called Pocket Concerts Live, pivoting to presenting ticketed live-stream concerts, and selling tickets for these performances through our website. No longer bound by geography, we have engaged Canadian solo artists who live abroad and wouldn’t normally be able to perform with us. We have also set up a Patreon page so that people can support us with small monthly contributions. Our Patrons get access to our Livestream concerts, and the additional tickets we sell on our website are helping us to pay our musicians fully and promptly, including those whose performances have been postponed. 

People reading this can stay in touch with what we are doing and planning by following me on Twitter at @Rory_McLeod or @pocketconcerts. For Pocket Concerts, the best way to stay in touch is to buy a ticket or subscribe to our mailing list through our website (www.pocketconcerts.ca). You can also follow us on Twitter/Instagram (@pocketconcerts), or follow our Facebook page (facebook.com/pocketconcertstoronto)

At time of writing, our next Pocket Concerts Live broadcast: Sunday, May 10th @10 AM EDT, Lucas Dann Live from Amsterdam.