First to close. Last to re-open. That refrain has haunted musicians in Victoria since mid-March, when clubs, theatres and performing-arts venues were hit fast and hard by the fallout from COVID-19.
Many musicians have resigned themselves to bringing up the rear when it comes to the provincial reopening plan, since concerts won’t be returning any time soon. But a resourceful group of performers and promoters is bringing live music back to various communities, largely free of charge, while respecting physical-distancing limits.
“The comment that I keep getting back from people is: ‘Wow, at a time when I thought it was impossible to have fun, you made us dance in the street,’ ” said singer Stephanie Greaves, who has performed daily since May in neighbourhoods around Greater Victoria. “Music has a great ability to join people.”
Greaves said she receives a steady stream of requests to perform from neighbourhoods around the city. She only declines if her schedule won’t allow it — she has performed 65 free concerts since the province shut down.
Pianist Christopher Donison has performed live with amplification for passersby every Friday for the past four weeks from the living room of his home on the fourth floor of the Janion building, not far from the Inner Harbour. The fifth concert of the series is set for 7 tonight and will continue each Friday, both live and online, through the end of June.
Performer and choir director Louise Rose has also been offering hour-long concerts, playing the piano and singing, each week for the past two months from her home in Saanichton. She has dubbed the performances Doors and Windows Wide Open. “It’s wonderful,” Rose said. “There is lots of laughter. According to my neighbours, I’m a highlight of their week.”
Rose said she is attempting to extend the work of the Victoria Good News Choir, whose mandate is to do outreach in homes where the vulnerable live. “Since the choir can’t go, and because of social distancing, I created a different way of doing it.”
Maria Manna has taken a similar approach. Since March 30, she has been singing two songs nightly from the balcony of her condo in the Ponds Landing development on Bear Mountain, to a warm reception from her neighbours. “What’s grown out of it, here in our neighbourhood, is that people have gotten to know each other,” Manna said. “After I’ve finished performing, they sit out there talking, because they just met new friends.”
Manna will give her 75th consecutive and final free performance for area residents at 7 p.m. on Sunday, this time from the patio of Westin Bear Mountain Resort, steps from her home. She will be joined by a number of guests for the finale, including Maureen Washington, Duncan Meiklejohn and Tom Vickery. “I needed a bigger balcony,” said Manna, who has a number of family and friends who watch her nightly broadcasts from their homes in Italy.
As she’s done for her other balcony concerts, Manna will livestream the event on her Facebook page. She pays tribute to frontline workers at 7 p.m., shortly before each performance, by banging on her cowbell with a wooden spoon.
By the time she completes her final performance of her series, she will have performed 175 songs — in English, French, Spanish, Hebrew, Portuguese and Italian.
Jazz singer Edie DaPonte has been developing her street-singing skills in Sidney since April. DaPonte and her musical partner, guitarist and bassist Joey Smith, gave their first social-distancing performance at Sidney’s Amica Beechwood Village retirement complex, where residents on their balconies watched the pair perform on the grass below.
“We have a wireless setup, but we had some volume so we could reach the balconies,” DaPonte said. “It was so touching — people were crying and laughing, a little bit of everything. They had signs in the windows saying thank you, because they knew we were coming.”
The pair performs every Friday in the area out front of Barbara’s Boutique and Sabbai Thai on Beacon Avenue in Sidney. Shoppers in the area have told DaPonte the sound of live music adds to the ever-increasing atmosphere. “One person said it felt like Sidney was coming alive again,” DaPonte said.
DaPonte and Smith also perform from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. each Saturday and Sunday at the Fickle Fig in North Saanich. The exposure has generated a number of paid bookings, as event promoters grow more comfortable with the idea of small crowds. “We’re doing a cul de sac in a neighbourhood next week, and people are bringing lawn chairs and inviting their friends,” DaPonte said.
Matt Masters of Calgary began playing community concerts on April 21, much in the same way Greaves has, but from the top of his family minivan. He has performed more than 60 concerts around Calgary since launching the concept.
The idea became such a hit, Masters created a company called Curbside Concerts, with mobile musicians now available for hire in Alberta, Manitoba and Ontario.
Vancouver Island was one of the first places Masters chose as a satellite location for his new business. The concept is like a street party delivered direct to your door — neighbours don’t have to leave their bubbles to enjoy the concert.
‘Musicians can’t go on tour now, but they don’t have to,” said Masters, who has worked with Barney Bentall’s Cariboo Express. “The whole thing is about staying a safe distance from your neighbours, without putting anyone at risk. And it’s about getting musicians back to work.”
Comox Valley singer-songwriter Helen Austin joins Adam Dobres of Pender Island and Oliver Swain of Victoria as Curbside Concerts’ Vancouver Island representatives-for-hire.
“I had done a couple of online concerts, which people had asked me to do, but I didn’t want to push myself onto anyone,” Austin said. “When I saw what Matt was doing, I thought it was really cool, as he’s handling all the organizing.”
Austin said she will stage her appearances from the back of her pickup truck, outfitted with battery-powered amplifiers. “Performers are realizing that we like to show off, and not showing off is weird,” she said with a laugh. “It’s weird not getting up in front of people and doing what we do. I’m missing the performing side of things.”
Jade Gan is not a performer, but like Masters, she feels for musicians who must navigate the new terrain. She has been hosting 45-minute concerts featuring musicians from the Victoria Symphony on her front yard in Fairfield each Friday at 7 p.m. since May 22.
Gan, who lives at the corner of Linden Avenue and McKenzie Street, will continue hosting concerts weekly through Aug. 3. She pays each musician $30 to perform. There is also a donation box, which gives those attendance an opportunity to contribute — which Gan said audience members have, and generously.
“I wanted to do something to help,” Gan said. “I have a special passion for the symphony, and since they cancelled the season’s concerts, I felt so sad.”
She now has more than 40 email addresses and sends out show notices to her growing list of supporters before each concert. “These groups have been so welcomed. People just love it. We have regulars who came at 6:30 with their chairs. Some brings blankets and have pizza. I’m so happy that people come.”
Greaves has been drawing raves for her “lawncerts,” during which she performs solo with a portable speaker and an iPad running backing tracks for each song.
Greaves performs at these events free of charge — “have voice, will travel” is how the singer, who is well-known to Victoria audiences for her charity work, describes her approach.
She has performed almost every night — sometimes thrice daily — since May 2 at locations ranging from outside Royal Jubilee Hospital to an 87th birthday party in Oak Bay, with no end in sight.
She also played in May as 101-year-old Second World War veteran John Hillman walked the final lap of his fundraising walk in the courtyard of his Oak Bay retirement home.
Greaves, who is performing three concerts through the weekend, starting with a performance tonight at 6:30 on Joseph Street in Fairfield, refuses to accept money for what she feels is a community-minded initiative. “This is just as much for me as the people I am singing for. I love to sing.”
Rose said these concerts by a wide variety of performers across the city show the importance of music. “The ability to be with other human beings in a space, even through social distancing, is vital to our lives. If we are unable to literally touch one another, music does that. It connects us in ways sometime that nothing else can.”
