Alec Jacobson

Photographer, Writer
    
© Alec Jacobson, 2025
Untitled
Vancouver
Jul 3, 2020
Craig Tomlinson is one of only 15 harpsichord makers in the world. When COVID-19 started to shut the world down, he was traveling in Argentina with his wife, Carol. "While flying back I began outlining what a 14 day quarantine would look like," writes Craig, "Before we left for Argentina, I had been in the final stages of voicing and regulating a new French Harpsichord. My quarantine period would involve completing the project; painting, gilding, fabricating the brass hooks and levers and generally looking after the remaining details to get the instrument ready for shipment to its new home in Toronto. In fact, my days under quarantine for the most part turned out to be no different from my regular work-weeks. Luckily, I have my harpsichord workshop on the same property as our home, in a quiet corner of West Vancouver.
When Vancouver started to shut down at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, I watched a lot of work on my calendar evaporate. I started calling other creatives in town to get sense of how they were being impacted. When Matt White at Early Music Vancouver picked up, he talked about how they had to cancel their 50th anniversary season but that they might also have the chance to commission some new work to support freelance musicians in the Early Music family. From that conversation, a project evolved to make portraits of musicians in social isolation and offer them up along with new recordings of music and written reflections by each musician. I'm so excited to see these start to come out and so grateful to Early Music for taking on this project that has supported and inspired me and many others in these wild times.
LOVE

By Alec Jacobson —

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