I. News from the Trenches: Coping with COVID-19

Today, Musical America launches a series focused on how people in the industry are coping with the effects of COVID-19. In an evite to industry leaders, we suggested a few points to cover, such as working from home, staying connected, streaming plans, etc. One of our first respondents was Erin MacCurtain, director of marketing and communications for NPR’s From the Top. Here’s her response.

As you can imagine we’ve been affected. Our office has had to close and we are all working remotely (most of us are in the Boston area). Luckily, our office uses the platform TEAMS which has helped us stay in touch with easy video conferencing and file sharing.

We were supposed to be doing a residency at Interlochen Arts Academy this week, which was obviously canceled. We have another residency scheduled at Colburn in May and a recording date with the St Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra in late May, we are hopeful that we can continue with these programs, but it does feel uncertain.

And, we have to postpone our biggest fundraising event in May, which has a huge impact on our contributed income.

Despite all this, we are determined to keep going.

We know that there is a lot of uncertainty and worry in our world right now. We also believe strongly that music has the unique ability to bring joy to our lives -- and our From the Top young musicians are proof of that. In response, From the Top has launched "Daily Joy" - a reminder of music's power to bring us together.

Every day, on our social feeds and email, we're sharing something that makes us smile. Our content is on Facebook and Instagram @fromthetopfans and Twitter @classicalkid and YouTube. We have also created a page on our website for those without social accounts: https://www.fromthetop.org/landing_page/from-the-top-daily-joy/

We have reached out to our alumni…to send us :60 videos of joyful music. We’re also sharing videos from our vast archive, and enlisting material from our Guest Artists, Host, and new team of co-hosts and creatives. We’re also hoping to coordinate some Facebook live performances with our alumni. We’re figuring it out one day at a time.

Musical America invites you to join the conversation; let us know how and what you are doing. Feel free to share any tips or strategies. Stay in touch. Write to editor@musicalamerica.com