I'm a composer, pianist and self-isolating accordionist.

I released a solo piano album at the end of March about climate change called, A Little Dark Music vol. 2, it was released exactly on the 10th anniversary of the original album. The original album launched a whole North American (sustainably-planned) tour. This one ended up being released with little fanfare as I wasn't prepared for the quick and drastic changes as they unfolded in March around the world.

The premiere of my environmentally-themed piece, Pedal Music, was supposed to happen in Ecuador this June. Hopefully it will still circle the streets of Quito this October. I have a couple of chamber album projects in the works. For the first album, Project Dovetail, I was supposed to be in the recording studio from April to June working with other musicians. I very much miss this part of the creative process.

I've been fortunate to connect with soloists online during this pandemic who have been recording and sharing my new 'Music for Self-Isolation' solo pieces from their homes (http://frankhorvat.com/composition/music-self-isolation). It has been a wonderful experience working with so many talented musicians from all over the world through social media and email. Would be really nice to be in the same room as all of them but I’ll cherish being in the recording studio even more when I get to go back there.

Feel free to drop me an email (contactme@frankhorvat.com), connect on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/frankhorvat1) or listen to my music on Spotify or Youtube (http://www.youtube.com/frankhorvatofficial).

I’ve seen Toronto change over the last 27 years but nothing as drastic as what has occurred these past two months. I can only imagine how this will alter the city in the coming years. I'm hoping positive change can come out of our experiences this Spring.

I am Nurhan Arman, music director and conductor of Sinfonia Toronto.

We have postponed our 'Cellissimo' concert with cellist Stéphane Tétreault that was scheduled for April 3 at Glenn Gould Studio and a repeat of the program on April 4 for the Algoma Conservatory Concert Series in Sault Ste-Marie, but we did have to cancel our May 2 'Beethoven & Ginastera' concert in George Weston Recital Hall. Our guest artist for May 2 would have been pianist Marika Bournaki, who was a wonderful soloist with us several seasons ago; we hope we can re-invite her eventually.

Our website sinfoniatoronto.com is updated continually. We are happy to respond to inquiries from the website's Contact page or emails to info@sinfoniatoronto.com. And we welcome anyone who would like to, to subscribe to our e-news. That goes out every couple of weeks, and during this quarantine time it frequently includes a home video by one of our musicians.

I am Debra Chandler, and I have the privilege of working with a wide range of professional musicians who perform under the banner of Concerts in Care Ontario for our aging population in long-term and memory care (LTCs), assisted and independent living facilities. We perform in more than 115 facilities in Ottawa, Pembroke, Sudbury, Windsor, London, and the GTA. 

As a result of COVID-19, we can no longer perform the remaining 300+ in-person concerts inside these seniors' facilities, and the research we had planned with Kate Dupuis of the Sheridan Centre for Aging, has been deferred. We also had a pilot series of concert-lectures ready to go for the Resident Doctors at McMaster University.

It will likely be 2021 before we can even contemplate returning to inside concerts in LTCs, but we suspect retirement/independent living homes will open in the fall. We will be there as soon as safety allows. And the research will follow. AND, once McMaster is up and running, we will run there, too!

In the meanwhile, the isolation and health situations compel us to help in any way we can. We have, with our colleagues in BC, Alberta, and Quebec, started production of a series of 30-minute video concerts called "From Our Home to Your Home." This is an opportunity to ensure music for the seniors, and some decent work for the musicians. They are recorded in an up-close and personal frame with the artists addressing their audiences through the camera in a manner that makes the listeners feel as though they are in the same room with the performers, just like in-person Concerts in Care performances!

People reading this interested in finding us can stay in touch with what we are doing and planning by visiting www.concertsincareontario.com, or by contacting me by email at debra@concertsincareontario.com

John: Patti and I have hosted jazz and cabaret concerts here at our house for several years. Patti plays piano, I on trumpet. We are very appreciative of an extremely loyal following, and love our fellow musicians dearly. We miss them.

Things we had planned we have had to let go of completely since COVID-19 hit? Pretty much all of it.  We’re optimistic that things will eventually return, but it’s going to take a long while. We have about 40 paying customers every six weeks or so. Even if restrictions were “lifted” it’s doubtful that we, or our guests, would have the confidence to sit together in a confined space, right now. Challenging.

Once circumstances allow we will resume with all of it, to whatever extent is practical. 

Meanwhile? Waiting. Practising.  You can stay in touch with what we are doing and planning at https://jazzinthekitchen.ca

Patti: Further to John’s response, we had to postpone – let’s not say “cancel”! – Mike Murley’s CD release for “Taking Flight with Special Guest Renee Rosnes” at a “Jazz in the Kitchen” here which was to have been May 10th. That evening would have featured Mike Murley, Reg Schwager, Renee Rosnes, and Steve Wallace. You can imagine, there was some long range planning involved in setting that up. It really hurt to postpone it. Right now, this all kind of feels like jazz: we’re improvising…

I am director of audience engagement for the Kitchener Waterloo Symphony. 

We provide professional orchestral concerts, education programming, and community outreach to Waterloo Region and beyond. Unfortunately the remainder of the 2019/20 Season had to be cancelled. Our concert season runs from September through May.

If circumstances allow we hope to be back in the concert hall to begin on our 2020/21 Season in September! We also hope to be able to program some of the cancelled concerts in future seasons.

Meanwhile we’ve launched “Friday Night at the KWS”: free, online broadcasts of KWS concerts from the archives, some with video and some that are audio only. Each broadcast will feature a video introduction and a live chat with musicians throughout. 

Work is also continuing as normal for the beginning of the 2020/21 season in September.  People reading this can stay in touch with what we are doing and planning via our website (kwsymphony.ca) and social channels: Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Twitter.