When the coronavirus pandemic wiped out our collective sense of normalcy and eviscerated our calendars, my studio switched to online. The following letter was emailed on March 20, 2020.

Dear musicians and families,

The best news is that we still get to make music. The other news is that through the miracle of technology, we will continue our lessons online rather than in person for the foreseeable future. And by thunder, we will find a way to perform for each other this spring.

Music connects us across generations, cultures, and lifetimes, and it is therefore heavily used for celebration, grief, worship, love, silliness, satire, exploration, and everything else that humans can think of. Have you ever sung quietly to a baby in a darkened room or at the top of your voice with thousands of strangers/new-best-friends? Me too. It's awesome. It's essential. And it is inevitable, so our job as musicians is to be able to make music that is effective. Thank you for keeping these ancient skills alive, and thank you for doing it with me.

As we boldly venture into virtual lesson space, here are some answers from me:

We will use Zoom, an online meeting platform with video and audio
Google docs will replace physical rehearsal notebooks immediately
Everyone will get the studio rate starting in April since I will not be traveling to you
As there is no imperative to avoid school hours, let's do lessons during daylight hours rather than extra early or extra late (of course we can avoid work hours as needed)
This will be a fantastic solution for snow days and snot days in the future

For best results, your part for online lessons includes the following:

Use a computer rather than a tablet or phone when possible
Use the Zoom app rather than the browser and close everything else
Set up your camera approximately where my eyes would be if we were together
Share your music with me electronically before the lesson
Plan to sit with little ones during their lessons as needed

Ladies and gentlemen, in these uncertain times, people around the world are turning to the arts for connection, comfort, and normalcy. As musicians, we have the beautiful task of keeping high standards of performance and serving the music for our loved ones and ourselves. What excellent news.

Go practice. And thank you.

Love and music,
Lauren

Thank you, everyone, for being so graceful and gracious and for continuing to make music. As our understandings evolve, it’s always important to remember our humanity and the humanity of others, and making music — our craft — is one of the best ways to do that.