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Alec Jacobson

Photographer, Writer

A Musical Offing for Early Music Vancouver

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Chloe Kim is based in New York ...nt suit in Victoria, BC>

1 of 12 © 2024 Alec Jacobson

Chloe Kim is based in New York City but was touring in Vancouver when COVID closed the border. She has been staying in a relative's basement suit in Victoria, BC>

Ellen Marple has been finding n...rom her apartment in Vancouver.

2 of 12 © 2024 Alec Jacobson

Ellen Marple has been finding new ways to tap into grant funding to continue playing music from her apartment in Vancouver.

Craig Tomlinson is one of only ...ument in his backyard workshop.

3 of 12 © 2024 Alec Jacobson

Craig Tomlinson is one of only 15 harpsichord makers in the world. He was traveling in Argentina when COVID hit. He hurried home and spent his quarantine period working on an instrument in his backyard workshop.

"For the first three w...provising and the music flowed.

4 of 12 © 2024 Alec Jacobson

"For the first three weeks of isolation, I didn’t play any music even though I was inside and surrounded by many cellos," writes Marina Hasselberg. Then she started improvising and the music flowed.

Chloe Meyers and Alex Weimann at their home in Ladner, BC.

5 of 12 © 2024 Alec Jacobson

Chloe Meyers and Alex Weimann at their home in Ladner, BC.

Christina Hutton at Hodson Manor, home of Early Music Vancouver.

6 of 12 © 2024 Alec Jacobson

Christina Hutton at Hodson Manor, home of Early Music Vancouver.

Laina Tanahara in Vancouver, BC.

7 of 12 © 2024 Alec Jacobson

Laina Tanahara in Vancouver, BC.

Matthew White, director of Earl...r, at his home in Victoria, BC.

8 of 12 © 2024 Alec Jacobson

Matthew White, director of Early Music Vancouver, at his home in Victoria, BC.

"30 years ago, I immig...tart a new beginning."

9 of 12 © 2024 Alec Jacobson

"30 years ago, I immigrated to Canada, a musician with no papers, no money, no family and no language," writes Qiu Xia He, "Since the Covid-19 crisis, I have lost the majority of my income and live performance activities: concerts, school shows, senior homes and band rehearsals – everything I rely on as a musician. In other words, I am back to square one.
Except, this time I have a lot more to start with. I have my Canadian citizenship and I don’t need to be afraid of being kicked out of the country; I have enthusiastic students who encourage me to teach online; I have a husband who is also a musician and ready to deal with my overflowing thoughts and musical experiments; I have the choice of English or Chinese to connect with friends all around the world via phone, email, Facebook, WeChat; I have time to be an audience to the artistic world and their livestreams, newsletters, Youtube clips, Facebook posts; most of all, I am no longer scared. I hold many things in my hands to kick start a new beginning."

"Having spent most of ...amp;quot; writes Marc Destrube.

10 of 12 © 2024 Alec Jacobson

"Having spent most of my life making music with others and for others, this current bizarre interruption gives me an opportunity to work on my craft, and to finally really immerse myself in these six amazing and difficult works, with the hope that I will emerge a better player and musician once concert life returns," writes Marc Destrube.

Debi Wong, a singer, uses her garage as a rehearsal space.

11 of 12 © 2024 Alec Jacobson

Debi Wong, a singer, uses her garage as a rehearsal space.

Soile Stratkauskas in her apartment building in Victoria, BC.

12 of 12 © 2024 Alec Jacobson

Soile Stratkauskas in her apartment building in Victoria, BC.

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Public Project

A Musical Offing for Early Music Vancouver

Copyright Alec Jacobson 2024

Date of Work Apr 2020 - May 2020

Updated May 2020

Location Vancouver, BC

Topics Advertising, Corona, Coronavirus, COVID, Covid-19, Documentary, Editorial, Health/Healing, NGO, Photography, Photojournalism, Portraiture

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.

I followed Gabriel Galimberti's lead, sterilizing lights and instructing subjects on how to place them in their homes to keep everyone at a safe distance.

After I made a portrait of each musician, they recorded themselves playing and then sent in a reflection, and all three pieces were then tied together,

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