Violinist Sage Cole, co-founder (with Lorna Tsai) of Manchester Summer Chamber Music. Simon Powis photography.
For musicians, the summer that never was has come and gone. Almost every seasonal festival got cancelled. That loss can only be balanced by what might return in the future.
For Sage Cole, co-founder of the popular Manchester Summer Chamber Music series, if the future brings back her intimate festival, that will provide balance. This summer’s concerts, typically three weeks in August, was her way of connecting to her hometown, and a close-knit audience.
“So much of what we love is the community,” Cole says. “We had the whole program figured out for last summer, and everyone was excited for the possibilities.”
MSCM will survive. Onstage, the core of musicians—an extended family of friends that Cole and co-director Lorna Tsai have connected over the years—will return.
Offstage, a robust board has built a strong foundation, and created a special home for the festival—the Barn at Castle Hill. An unlikely place for music-making at first glance, the Barn—along with the surrounding landscape, a splendid spot for picnics and socializing—forms a perfect space for MSCM’s low-key, welcoming presentations.
And as childhood friends, Cole—a Manchester native now living in New York City, and Tsai, from Andover and now living in Canada, where she is principal second violin of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra—have a connection that won’t dissolve simply because of one year’s absence. The duo bonded in music prep school, and have stayed close ever since.
“Our hope when we cancelled in the spring was to do a real season in 2021,” Cole says. “Assuming nothing changes, that’s what we will do. Obviously the safety of everyone will be our concern. And then the fundraising, which I think should be possible.
“But we had the whole program figured out,” she says, “so we’re just going to do what we were planning next summer.”
For Cole, life in New York stays hectic, even without performances. She teaches violin at Silver Music, a community school on the upper West Side. With two young children—ages one and three—she and her husband have plenty going on.
“We’re lucky we don’t have to deal with school,” she says. “But we’ve been very busy. My husband is an audio engineer, and he has to be in the studio. But they have good protocols in place.
“I’ve been teaching remotely, non-stop,” she says. “But we have opposite schedules. He works early and I work late. Because of the uncertainty this fall, I was able to set up my schedule like that. I don’t understand how parents can both be at home teaching, with two full-time jobs and kids.”
Every musician with students has had to adapt to online instruction—most of them unwillingly. Cole makes the best of it.
“It’s all remote, and there are many challenges,” she says, “but it’s going way better than I thought it would. Kids and families in general have more time—they’re not into running around. I’ve got sixteen total students—the youngest is five.
“We Zoom one-on-one, and then we do a group lesson too. The group is incredibly challenging—we can’t really play together. The only way to simulate it is if they go on mute and play with me. But they’re happy, and successful.”
In this strangest of off-seasons, Cole and Tsai have avoided live-streaming outreach for MSCM. They stay in touch with the festival’s supporters with a monthly newsletter, and a nostalgic supply of recordings from past performances (manchestersummerchambermusic.org).
“We just made a different decision,” Cole says about creating online musical content while the real-life options remain closed. “I do recommend to all my students, since they can’t get out to concerts, that they see live-streams. I’m curious how successful it has all been.”
Keith Powers covers music and the arts for Gannett New England, Opera News and Leonore Overture. Follow @PowersKeith; email to keithmichaelpowers@gmail.com.