After the Lockdown

A lighter musical message sent out during the lockdown to guest and crew of Regent Seven Seas Cruises. One of the things I miss the most is performing for other people. 

I don’t have any deep wisdom or pragmatic, constructive optimism to offer. Half a year from now things could improve, they could get worse, or they could be the same. So much analysis has been thrown to us with ideas and positive thinking about how the world will be and how we will move forward. But the truth is, nobody has any idea how our lives will be in six months from now. For the time being I can only share how things are today. 

I have seen crises around the world many times, and now for the first time I find myself trying to follow my own advice: “don’t give up”, “carry on”, “this will pass”. But I think am speaking for all musicians out there when I say that it is getting harder and harder, with work cancelled till the end of the year. Like all musicians, connecting with people through music has been my staple food for decades. Like everyone else, I have had to adapt to the current situation, but an internet live doesn’t quite live up to the expectations of a music performance. I try to follow a busy daily schedule, but most days it is hard to keep practicing the piano when I don’t know when I will be performing next. For me, life is about making plans and one by one achieving them. I have had to accept that currently this way of living is not possible. Still, I try to devote most of my time to the piano, going through new and old repertoire and learning to play orchestral scores on the piano. The rest of the time I study languages, with daily lessons in Japanese and Chinese, and I exercise almost daily, moving closer to my new 26.2 mile goal. It is in my nature to stay busy, but it doesn’t mean I am right. Doing nothing for weeks on end, could perhaps be an equally important lesson in life.

The music activities of Keys of Change continue all around the world, but public performances and music camps have been postponed. Our music students in Ghana, India, Mexico, Ecuador, Japan, are out of school, and need a reminder that the world might be closed, but has not forgotten them. I am working with music teachers from all five continents to keep a busy online schedule for our students, who now, more than ever, need support and inspiration. These music lessons play a vital role in keeping some of these communities going, and give a sense of purpose for young people that in many cases are stuck in a tiny room for a home, shared with numerous siblings and family members. It is an equally important process for the music teachers, many of whom are also performers who have otherwise lost all their livelihood, and keep these few internet lessons as a crucially important source for financial survival. 

Playing music is one of the strongest tools for adaptivity. Directly from the learning process, where a series of black and white dots on a paper become sound on an instrument via our body, one has to adapt the information, internalise it and bring it out almost instantly. Then, moving on to performance, in a group setting, where one’s sound has to “blend” with those around, it becomes a mastery of adaptivity, as one constantly moves to higher levels of performance. But even just coming out to play solo requires a high degree of adaptivity to external and internal factors, with different acoustics, different reaction of the instrument, or simply just being in a different day. Today’s evolving crisis serves as a reminder to how important adaptivity is in our lives.  

All crises and emergencies have one constant: they all pass. We might not know when, but it is guaranteed it will pass. There’s so much noise about reacting to daily information about peaks, curves, lockdowns and re-openings, but I find it equally challenging and important for me, to zoom out, defocus, see the bigger picture and act accordingly. Family aside, which is an unweathering constant, what will be important three years from now, and how will this current time, be it weeks, months or years, connect to this? I might not know when my next paycheque will come, but I do know that music will be important to me three years from now. And that is perhaps as far as I can go today. 

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If you would like to help:

-Stream my music online (Apple Music, Amazon Music Unlimited, Google Play Music and Tidal). Feel free to keep streaming for days, weeks or months (I won’t be offended if you turn the volume turned down). 

-Make a monthly donation to Keys of Change. Now is more important than ever to have a monthly basis for our musical classes. No amount is too small. If everyone on this list were able to donate $10 a month, we would be able to cover all our operation and sustain the online music activities for months and years to come.

Link for Keys of Change UK (GBP)

Link for Keys of Change USA (USD)

-Donate air miles. It might seem irrelevant at the moment, but we will return, and we will want all our young musicians to come together for music camps and performances. Air miles will not only help us bring teachers to different parts of the world, but they will open up the possibility of bringing children together from different parts of the world. How life changing would it be for Mexican and Ghanaian children to travel to Japan to play music together? Email me directly for more information on how to support via and air miles donation. 

-Declutter and donate. If you have any books, CDs or DVDs which you no longer want, this is a way to turn them into cash, and for the cash to come Keys of Change as a donation. Email me for more details. 

-Pledge towards organising a musical event in aid of Keys of Change. Support can be multiplied when the message is shared effectively through likeminded people. I would be thrilled to visit you, play music, and talk about musical experiences from around the world, from the Amazon and Siberia to Fukushima and Sierra Leone.  No prior concert organising experience is needed, not even a piano at home is essential, as I can help with all the practicalities. It might be difficult to fix an exact date at the moment, but knowing you have pledged for such an event some time in the future, when it will be safe to do so, will give me, and everyone in my team, hope and encouragement to continue our work.