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Pandemic Journal – How We Cope

How We Cope is an exploration of the ways in which our community is coping with uncertainty. We’ve asked NewMusicBox contributors to tell us how they’re dealing with the unexpected challenges they are facing during the COVID-19 pandemic.

We are also combing the NewMusicBox archives in search of our favorite past articles that inspire us to forge ahead amid change and disquiet.

Beginning Again
I am, once and for all, the eternal beginner. – Gustav Mahler, 1909   I read this sentence over a century after it was written, six months after leaving an...
How the New Music Community is Coping with the COVID-19 Pandemic
In the hopes that this can lead us toward a consensus about what might be best practices for how to deal with this extraordinary and unprecedented situation moving forward, we...
Creativity in the Age of COVID-19
Maintain a consistency of creative work and to try not and focus on where it may or may not lead. To compose, practice, and play (albeit on the Web) is...
Take Better Care of Yourself By Making Small Changes
If you’re an ambitious person (and I bet you are), you probably have lots of things on your list that you’re going to start “once you have time.” That can...
Silence Is Golden
By Alexandra Gardner I definitely believe that the sounds that we encounter on a daily basis are just as important to our physical and mental well-being as the food we...
Mentor, Me—Sustained Musical Mentorship
Kati Agócs was a patient and thorough teacher who guided me like the complete beginner I was but treated me like a professional. I was such a sponge because I...
Burnout is a b****. Let’s avoid it.
Megan Ihnen was worried. Getting mired in small tasks without a big vision kept her incessantly “busy” but accomplishing very little until she felt completely burnt out. In the end,...
The Art of Play
“How can I make the act of creating new art feel less like work and more like PLAY?” Danny Clay has been asking this question of himself and others to...
Cellos? In a time like this?
I parked in the front bus lane and jogged up to the main office, tailing the building service manager, who smiled (I think) from behind his face mask and waved...
Build the Playground: Carolyn O’Brien on composing through depression
Composer Carolyn O'Brien calls on her ingenuity and strength to create through, and with, severe depression. Read her on the importance of formal structure, a sense of play, and a...
Productivity, Pressure, and the Power of Listening: Marcos Balter
In the first installment of our first-person series on music & mental health, Marcos Balter opens up about anxiety, composition deadlines, and each person's singular path towards happiness.
Molly Joyce: Strength in Vulnerabilty
One of the hallmarks of many different kinds of music performance—whether it’s a classical piano recital, a jazz combo in a club, or an arena rock show—is the demonstration of...