The Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM) has announced the launch of a new website: Musicians in America during the Covid-19 Pandemic. Thanks to the award of a CARES Act Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities in June 2020, SEM hired three ethnomusicologists (Dr. Holly Hobbs, Dr. Raquel Paraíso, and Dr. Tamar Sella) to investigate the consequences of the pandemic and social distancing directives for musicians and their communities.
Between August and November 2020, the researchers conducted 240 online video interviews with musicians in all 50 American states, the District of Columbia, and 5 U.S. territories.
SEM’s collection of short interview videos features musicians working in a wide range of genres, such as Native American traditions, jazz, blues, gospel, country, zydeco, norteño, mariachi, salsa, rock, klezmer, and Western classical, as well as traditions from such countries as Cuba, Nicaragua, Peru, Brazil, Ireland, Poland, Spain, Ghana, Ethiopia, Turkey, Iraq, India, Indonesia, China, and Japan.
In addition, the researchers co-authored a website essay that highlights several themes in the interviews: the musicians’ reexamination of the significance of music in their lives and communities, their loss of employment, illness and death of community members, and new directions in the creation and presentation of music.
Collectively, the interviews offer a snapshot of what it was like to live in a society in which, for the first time in a century, concert halls, nightclubs, schools, places of worship, and other music settings largely turned silent.
Watch the videos and read more at the website: https://semmusicianscovid.com
Headline photos: Trina Basu (New York City, New York); Lyla June (Albuquerque, New Mexico); Alonzo Townsend (St. Louis, Missouri)
Author: World Music Central News Room
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