Sarah Darling: “I think being responsible these days is also feeling that this is okay.”
“When it began, I’d been playing nonstop for years,” Sarah Darling says. A key instrumentalist in many Boston ensembles, the Roslindale resident epitomizes the successful musician freelancer.
At least, she did.
Darling is in-demand as a contemporary violist—a founder of the Criers, and a key cog in the Boston Ballet Orchestra. She’s also in the top ranks of Baroque violinists—a principal at Boston Baroque, a central part of Musicians of the Old Post Road and Emmanuel Music. She teaches at Longy, and co-directs the Harvard Baroque Chamber Orchestra.
“At first I was busy live-streaming, finishing up teaching,” she says of the initial impact of concert-closings. “As the weeks went on, I focused on collective action. Working out what we were going to do, facilitating A Far Cry response. Ten hours a week in meetings with the Criers—what to do financially, how to reach out to the audience.”
Especially how to reach audiences, given the limits of online contact. Darling looks at the experience of being a virtual performer in several ways.
“I don’t think it can go back to business as usual,” she says of the relationship between musicians and audiences. “Now we are learning about the strengths of online tools.
“These video montages are either profound or they are absolutely terrible,” she says. “But reaching out keeps us sane.”
Darling compares the smiley-face and thumbs-up responses to online music-making with the concept of Tarab, the idea of ecstatic response, in Arab classical music. “You can have this beautiful singing phrase that ends in a mischievous swirl. The audience gives a collective gasp, then a murmur goes up.
“That’s the participatory thing online—a cascade of hearts. I love that. It’s like you’re in a jazz club, whispering to your buddies. We’re learning things we were not expressing before.
“I think being responsible these days is also feeling that this is okay,” she says. “I don’t feel that it’s illuminating problems in the classical world. It’s illuminating some solutions.
Nevertheless, it won’t fill the gulf created by losing a live audience.
“I’ve always thought that there was a portion of myself that didn’t come out, unless I was interacting,” she says. “Now I’m seeing what emerges when I’m alone. We’re being patient in ways we would not tolerate before. That’s legitimately amazing.
“Memorial Day weekend was a turning point,” she says. “The teaching was done. And most of the planning for next year—my summer schedule was completely full, and it’s all gone. I’m spending time just listening to the trees rustling.”
Inaction does takes its toll on a musician’s muscle memory.
“What a violist does every week is different than what you practice,” she says. “You’re playing repeated eighth-note accompaniment, meshing and melding with others. That side has gone dry. I was demonstrating something the other day, and it just didn’t work. I thought to myself, ‘I need to get back on the wagon. I need to bring this back to life.’ ’’
None of Darling’s ensembles have concrete performance plans, and will likely follow unique paths back to the concert stage.
“Each group inhabits a different space,” she says. “With A Far Cry, we’re administrating and dreaming. Boston Ballet without a ‘Nutcracker’—that has my stomach in knots. With Old Post Road, there we’re one on a part, so it might be easier getting back. They all have different stresses.
“The Criers are lucky right now,” she says. “We’ve been in desperate situations before. We have a lot of grant support, and so rather than getting into a defensive crouch, we can think about what we want to be offering. Some traditional ideas, and some not.”
With a summer suddenly clear—“this is more project time than I’ve ever had,” she says—Darling has ideas for viola, violin—and keyboard.
“Right now I’m on this diet of contemporary music for viola, some pieces my friends have written,” she says. “Getting closer to presenting a solo recital. For Baroque violin I might do something cheesy and fun, like the twelve solo fantasias by Telemann.
“And every time I play, I’ve tried to write something about it,” she says, about her “keyboard” project. “From straight-up concert reviews, to musing on music at large.
“It’s been a good practice for me. I’m looking for that state of mind where you’re willing to put into words whatever it is that excites you.”
Keith Powers covers music and the arts for Gannett New England, Opera News and Leonore Overture. Follow @PowersKeith; email to keithmichaelpowers@gmail.com.