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Arts & Communication Artists recreating our world

moment must arrive with the sound and sparkle of a Although he kept composing, it was to the concert
ribbon snapped at the end of a race – it must seem platform as a pianist and conductor that he turned for
a liberation from the last material obstacle, the last his future success. At age 44, having lost his estates and
barrier between truth and its expression.” (p. 195) 19 financial resources in Russia and needing to re-establish
his life, he essentially began his career again to secure
Audience adulation was not his measure of success.
Rather, it was that he had conveyed a sense of meaning and the financial resources necessary to settle in his new
country. He would no longer be the prolific composer that
achieved an emotional connection with audiences through Tchaikovsky applauded some 20 years prior, but instead
his performance. Here, he reveals an ability to reflect in and offered audiences deeply spiritual encounters. As one critic
on his own practice, and to make changes necessary to retain wrote after a 1932 concert, “the imperishable beauty of this
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the integrity of his work. While he wanted to communicate music is added to the spiritual wealth of the world, solace, a
profoundly to audiences, he was not swayed by their joy to treasure always in grateful memory.” (p. 283) 19
admiration, continually trying to refine his performance to
meet his own expectations. Indeed, “At one of his concerts, 8. Rachmaninoff as post-pandemic guide
while the audience was wild with enthusiasm, he was backstage and partner
tearing his hair because the point had slipped.” (p. 195) 19
As artists take a more central role, what of this world that
This despair was not debilitating, however. For, another we seek to create? Certainly, if we are to make a new world,
result of the failure of his first symphony and the support we need to artistic imagination to envisage that world, says
he gained from his mentors throughout his early life meant Burns. If past pandemics are a guide, notably the Spanish
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that he had the inner resources necessary to reflect on his Flu that swept the globe 1918 – 1920 is any guide, Monteiro
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performance. Although knowing that he had not met his notes that new, provocative art forms are bound to emerge
own expectations, he was still able to carry on without in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. For the performing
being incapacitated. arts, bringing subscribing audiences back to concert halls is
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7. From dependence to independence proving a challenge, but also presents an opportunity to
educate and develop younger attendees, says Farber.
Rachmaninoff’s experiences of failure, depression, and The National Arts Council of Singapore notes in their
recovery were important for his long-term professional pandemic report that the arts are crucial in creating
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career. The disaster of his first symphony was a crucible social action and raising awareness, for example, of the
experience, which, as Bennis and Thomas note, is Black Lives Matter movement. The visual arts provide a
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transformative, providing the developing leader with vehicle for people to advocate for social change through
an “adaptive capacity” (p. 45) born out of trauma. ease of sharing, says the report, and this has been made
Rachmaninoff would not realize at the time the significance easier through the growth of digital arts.
of his ability to come back from a potentially career-ending
slump, and under normal circumstances, he would have One of the unexpected impacts of the pandemic was the
been able to look forward to a long career as a composer and absence of motor vehicles on city streets. This had the effect
musician in his homeland. However, political events were to of reducing carbon emissions but also of giving space for
overtake him and his family with the onset of the Bolshevik artists to reimagine city life without cars, as Camille Walala
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revolution and the accompanying social upheavals in 1917. has done in her revision of a busy London street. Further,
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Finding himself on the wrong side of the political divide as Drymer reports, galleries and museums have become
at the time, he rejected what he saw as the “vague Utopian more inclusive of alternative forms, including street and
illusions” of the revolutionaries and reported that: public art. This has the effect, she says, of keeping the
“spirit of communal art alive” (p. 6) and of helping develop
“the anarchy around me, the brutal uprooting of all the innovative solutions and social initiatives.
foundations of art, the senseless destruction of all means In the United States of America, the American Rescue
for its encouragement, left no hope of a normal life in
Russia. I tried in vain to find an escape from this ‘witches’ Plan Act, signed by President Jo Biden in March 2021 to
Sabbath for myself and my family.” (p. 185–186) 20 stimulate post-pandemic recovery, presented an open
invitation to and funds for artists to collaborate with
He left with his family for Sweden on December 24, local developments. For example, Zabel reports on
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1917, never to return to his mother country. His life as an artists’ involvement in the light rail transit construction in
émigré would pose new challenges, and the resilience he Minnesota, making local culture more visible. The presence
had developed as a young man would provide him with the of artists supports engineers as they work through design
strategies necessary to protect his family. challenges by understanding the creative process.

Volume 2 Issue 1 (2024) 10 https://doi.org/10.36922/ac.2126