"I Can't Work In These Conditions!" Screams Local Orchestra Musician on COVID-Era Performance Environment

The following is written by Allison Ross, who I interviewed after a well-meaning, but tragically misguided attempt at resurrecting a symphony orchestra's performance schedule in wake of COVID-19.... "I set down my violin case, give a signed form to the nurse, and take a needle prick to the finger. How will that feel while holding the bow at this evening’s rehearsal?,​ I wonder. But there is no choice – a COVID-19 serology test is a requirement to play this concert. Next, the pre-service health screening: symptom inquiry, temperature reading, N-95 mask distribution. We should be in the city’s performing arts hall; instead, rehearsal is held at a public-school sports complex. For the next few hours, our music director will compete with the volume of a booming voice announcing the football game on the other side of the wall. I navigate to my seat and realize that we aren’t assigned stand partners. Each chair is placed exactly six feet apart, and we are admonished not to budge them ​at all​ or the stage manager will have to readjust with his tape measure. We’re also told that our issued masks must be worn absolutely at all times. A wind player is called out for having crossed the area with his mask dangling from one ear. Winds are only allowed to remove their masks once they are seated with an instrument to their lips. For string players – even the bassists, naturally distanced due to the size of their instrument – the mask is to remain on from the time we enter the building to the moment we exit. The situational protocol is not simply annoying. Performing masked means an erasure of basic communication: facial expressions, rhythmic breathing, and necessary cues. When the connection is already lost between performers seated mere feet apart, it’s reflected in the entire orchestra’s cohesion. Lack of a stand partner is highly disruptive. Most instrumental sections (especially strings) rely on a hierarchy of passing notes: the principal turns around to relay bowing or phrase changes, and their m