BY MELISSA HONG

Victoria’s second-wave COVID-19 lockdown is yet another blow to the already struggling music industry, leaving musicians, students and educators questioning when normality will resume. 

“We don’t know when there will be an audience again,” Gerald Marko, Monash University’s Coordinator of Ensemble Studies said.

According to Media International Australia, the Australian music sector was the first to be severely impacted by Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s ban on non-essential gatherings when the COVID pandemic worsened in early March of last year. 

Once buzzing with life from its music venues, Melbourne has been muted by subsequent lockdowns with unsold tickets and empty concert halls. 

“I was going to see a trumpet player, Håkan Hardenberger…I bought tickets and then that all got cancelled,” Ivan Maxwell, a music student at Melbourne University said. 

“I also got tickets to see Ben Folds, and then that got cancelled.” 

The pandemic has not only affected job losses and financial insecurities for the music industry, but music education as well. 

In October, Premier Daniel Andrews announced several music class restrictions for schools in term four, which stirred an outcry from music teachers across Melbourne. 

However, Mr Marko said he was not anxious about the future of music education. 

“If the future is uncertain and fragile, it means we can shape it,” he said.

“If there’s one space that is going to be constant for the next hundred years…that’s the virtual space.”  

The video communications app Zoom has seen a dramatic increase in usage during the pandemic. Monash is one of the many universities to use it for remote learning as part of a nationwide effort to stop the spread of the virus. 

For music students like Mr Maxwell, who is in his university’s concert band, Zoom’s inability to allow musicians to play together at the same time is not ideal. 

“Everyone plays one bar each,” he explained. “And then we just go around in a circle…and talk about how we’re playing…so I guess that part of it wasn’t really enjoyable.” 

Mr Maxwell also noted the gradual decrease he saw in his ability to play in the same pitch with others, due to not being able to rehearse in-person with bandmates. 

However according to an OECD report, remote learning has been observed as beneficial to education in its own way. This arguably helps to equip music students with the tools they need for a future in music post-COVID. 

“It forces me to be more articulate and precise in my descriptions to the student,” Mr Marko added, explaining that students are encouraged to leave no room for passive learning habits. 

“The student has to be more autonomous...and [because of this], they’re actually getting better quicker.” 

This is crucial as music venues, festivals and concerts will be one of the last public spaces to reopen as lockdown restrictions gradually ease. 

Art organisations, including Creative Arts Victoria have also been encouraging musicians to take advantage of online resources to livestream, release and market their music during the pandemic.

“If you are [tech] savvy enough… you can create a collaboration with somebody in LA… Beijing… London. Your collaboration space is all of a sudden massively open,” Mr Marko said.

“I think…us artists can…find new ways of making theatre, new ways of recording albums and new ways of expressing our critical thinking,” he said.  

The pandemic could result in a new kind of normal for musicians and music educators overall as more remote work may continue into the future.