ORCHESTRA WITHOUT THE PIT

By Hannah Weisz ‘24

    During the COVID-19 pandemic, many members of the Golda Och community miss going to concerts and musicals. However, the virus has hit musicians and performers harder, and Broadway’s classical musicians must find new jobs to make enough money during uncertain times. To find a job without a crowd, these incredible players have to be creative.

Violinist Suzy Perelman, who has played for shows such as “The Phantom of the Opera” tour, “Cats” and “Evita,” was in the off-Broadway musical “The Unsinkable Molly Brown” when the pandemic hit. Similar to most, the initial experience for Perelman and her colleagues was an assumption that this quarantine would be temporary.
    “It wasn’t a total realization of what’s happening… for two months, collecting unemployment won’t be so terrible,” Perelman said. “And then it became six months… this disaster is actually happening. Then it became a year, and now we’re all very realistic about the fact that it’s going to be longer than a year.”
    ​The concertmaster has been finding ways to perform everywhere she can. From socially distant weddings and anniversaries to prerecorded virtual concerts to playing at poll stations on Election Day, nothing is too far out of Perelman’s comfort zone. She has even picked up new skills, like playing the ukulele.
    Percussionist Joseph Mowatt has also been finding unconventional ways to cope with the closed theaters. His credits include the “Cinderella,” “The Music Man,” “Crazy for You,” and “Evita” tours, and was subbing for “Come From Away” and “Mean Girls” when the shows stopped. His opportunity to sub for “Ms. Doubtfire” was cut short when the quarantine started. When asked about how the quarantine started for him, he began with a sigh.
    “As a full-time musician, I’m [at home] quite a bit,” Mowatt said. “What messes with you is that there isn’t any specific date that we’re gonna go back to work… It’s incredibly frustrating.”
Mowatt’s jobs subbing in for other shows got him his health insurance, and he is not able to collect pension anymore. Any benefits from his union, Musicians Union in New York City (local number 802) stopped on Mar. 12.
    ​“I’ve been doing this for 35 years, and now all of a sudden somebody turns off the spigot,” Mowatt said.
    In terms of music gigs, opportunities have been scarce. Mowatt had a virtual show, a jazz show in Madison and some recording sessions together with a trombone player. However, since he doesn’t know when his career will return to normal, he has looked into other passions.
    “What this has forced me to do is start to think about what else I can do besides play music because I don’t know when this is going to come back,” Mowatt said. “I’ve really been into smoking meats. I might start my own business doing that… I can’t spend a lot of money cooking on a regular basis. There’s licenses and permits involved, but I’m working it out.”
    Although Perelman and Mowatt have had extremely different experiences over the course of this year, they had two answers that were exactly alike. When asked about how they would have changed the way people handled the pandemic, they agreed that the producers and theater owners of Broadway did everything they could to keep the public safe. When it came to the larger government, however, they weren’t as approving.
    “The way it could have been handled better was that as soon as the experts at the head of our federal government knew that this could be a big problem, it could have been revealed to the American population earlier and in a more serious way,” Perelman said. “I think as far as the way it was handled in our region based on what we knew at the time, it was handled well.”
    Mowatt agrees. “The producers and the theater owners… did it exactly the way they should have done it,” he said. “Their business model is to try to fill the seats, but I think they did the right thing. The government should have been on this way before they actually acted as far as getting protective gear, shutting things down and keeping people distanced.”
    Most of all, both musicians miss being live in Broadway’s orchestra pits.
    “The people that you’re with, I mean everybody’s really great, the musicians, the actors, in all of these shows everyone is so much fun to be around. I’m pretty lucky like that to have a career where you go to work and have a good time,” Mowatt said.
    ​Perelman shares that joy of being together with other artists.  “Making music with my colleagues, which encompasses seeing everybody in one room and making the social connection with everybody… that sound, and that camaraderie. I would put camaraderie first, but the sound is a close second,” she said.