Katerina Lewis
@inextinguishable_kat on the balcony outside her home. The cat was in the window to my right watching.
-Music-
I love talking to musicians. It takes a lot of skill and dedication to be a musician professionally. We all were or knew the middle/high school band kid (huhem…I was the drum major) but what about the folks who grew up and continue to follow that dream and play music professionally every day?
I personally hadn’t even thought about orchestras and small ensembles that play things like weddings. Shows how much I know.
Interviewed 5.30.20
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Casey: So first and foremost, how are you doing?
Katerina: OK. Good days and bad days. Good hours and bad hours. I'm getting by financially. The crushing existential despair is not terrific. You know, I could do without that every now and again. But it is what it is.
Casey: How are you feeling today?
Katerina: Today I actually had a little elopement ceremony that I played. Eight guests. Everybody spaced out and everything. I haven't seen the cellist in my trio in three months and that is the longest time I've gone without seeing her in 10 years. I got really emotional about how much I had missed playing for people and just being a part of moments and being in the world. And so that was really great. So today I feel pretty good.
I have a music note printed mask and so everyone complimented me on “my dress mask.”
Casey: How is your family?
Katerina: Golly, how is my family? Well, my parents are healthier than the rest of the world combined. So the lovely saving grace of all of this is that I don't have to worry about them. My brother has two young kids. Having them at home 24/7 has been intense, I know, but they're doing all right. My sister and her husband are also musicians. So they've been having a hard time.
Casey: You and I both have masks on today. Are they taking precautions as well? Are they nervous about all this or are they kind of like, "Meh, whatever."
Katerina: My sister and her husband; yes, absolutely. My brother and sister-in-law are doing the best with two small kids. My parents, I wish, were still wearing masks religiously and taking it seriously. My parents are kind of in the, "We just want to get back to normal" camp. And I can't fault them for that you know? I can't fault anybody for doing what they think is best with their own lives. But yeah, they're healthy. They're doing okay.
Casey: What have you been doing since you haven't been able to play?
Katerina: Well, most of what I've been doing has actually been my temp job that I found on the Atlanta Artist Relief Project. I have been packing Corona Virus test kits at a little biotech company up in Norcross.
I go up there five days a week and we assemble all the different parts, pack them up, ship them all over the world. I have personally worked on special orders that have gone to Japan. We have orders that have gone to Mexico. We've sent probably a hundred thousand to this one particular hospital in New York, which has been really cool to think that at least I'm doing something to help. So that's been keeping me busy, which has been good. I have had some lessons online with my students. Last week, I actually had one little girl come over and we just had a lesson on the porch.
Casey: What instruments do you teach?
Katerina: Violin and viola.
I've gotten to do a few music things here and there. I had one really fun recording project that I played for. My friend who is a pastor in L.A. sang, her friend, who is a guitarist and producer in Tijuana, played guitar and mixed everything and then he put together this track that she used on a few of her worship services. And that was really cool because it somehow magically sounded like we were all in the same room.
I'm not used to this “just getting through the day” thing. I'm not used to this. I mean, I'm grateful. I'm crazy grateful that I got a job and I've been able to work but I've never gone to an office all day, every day in my life. And it's not me. I'm trying to find as many ways as possible that I can still feel connected and feel like I have a voice as a musician and as a member of society.
Casey: How have you been finding to do that? With those recording projects?
Katerina: Recording projects, I have been doing some Instagram live things, just going online and playing stuff in my living room with my cats wandering around. I sat out here a few nights and just played things for the neighbors and people going on walks. Been trying to keep in touch with friends a little bit more, support friend's projects. I'm pretty connected in small business and the arts and have a lot of local friends who do their own thing that I've been trying very hard to support.
Casey: How were those first couple of weeks? What did you do?
Katerina: Awful, awful. This happened to me in like a day. I was supposed to go to Charleston for a gig that weekend and everything just started falling. Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. And then in 12 hours, I'd lost the rest of the month, and in three days I'd lost two months, and a week later it was three months.
I could get really motivated and really fired up and really like, “OK, I'm going to do this, I'm going to take care of everybody. I'm going to take care of myself”… for like an hour. And then I would lie on the floor and stare at the ceiling for a few more hours. Sorry, I'm just telling you real life. That's what happened.
I mean, it was terrible. I've been a working musician since I was 14 years old. And everything I have and everything I built, it was like doors just slammed one after another and I had nothing.
Casey: When do you think you'll be able to get back?
Katerina: To what I was doing as I was doing it? I don't know. I really don't know, because the problem isn't that people don't want it. But I am worried that, even as time marches on and maybe we'll get a vaccine and maybe we'll approach herd immunity and all of that, and we are kind of able to get back to normal. I mean, these orchestras rely on sponsors and donors. Ticket sales are an incredibly small part of budgets. So will the funding be there? Will the group be there? I don't know.
Casey: Where did you play before all of this?
Katerina: I play with the North Charleston Pops Orchestra. So that's why I was going to be going to Charleston that next day. I spent many years with the Atlanta Pops Orchestra. I do a lot of collaboration with local churches and local choirs, bar gigs with bands now and again.
Casey: How are you finding the motivation to create? So you are still playing, not probably as much and not for money, but you are still playing. How has the motivation to do that?
Katerina: Some days it's not there. I'll just be honest, the office work is so draining in a way that I'm not used to, that some days it's not there. And I just have to just be OK with it. But when it is, I find that I'm able to grab on to these little things that I've been doing as enough of a sign that the world needs it. The world needs a moment to close their eyes and take a deep breath and listen.
Casey: Yeah.
Katerina: I found this video of kids at an elementary school in the Midwest playing one of my arrangements on YouTube for their elementary school talent competition. I've been able to let those little things sustain me a lot more than I thought I could. And so it's hard to have these tiny little things be everything. But that's what I've got. So that's what I'm trying to focus on.
Casey: Obviously, we miss creating the way that we use to create. But what else do you miss?
Katerina: I miss sitting at the bar up the street with my best friend on Friday nights. I miss it so much. That was our Friday night ritual. We'd always go out there if we didn't have gigs and just hang out and catch up about the week and everything and harass the bartenders lovingly, of course.
I miss group fitness classes.
The month before this, I spent two weeks on a bus on tour with 50 other people, like we were on the bus with the whole orchestra and the whole cast and the crew. And it sucked. And I miss it. I miss it. I would go back to sitting on that cramped tour bus like that if you let me.
I miss my run club. Working out has been like the thing that has kept me somewhat grounded. I'll get up and I'll do a video of something pretty much every morning before I go into the office and then walking or running in the afternoons. My run club has actually decided to have virtual run club on Tuesdays. So now we have a big group text that we just blow each other up with all of our running selfies and our, "I went here today!… I went here today!" and we just cheer each other on through that. And it's a really close-knit group. So that's really fun.
We said to each other gross, sweaty selfies and "I did two miles." "I did 10 miles" and cheer each other on.
Casey: Just to kind of sum up. What do you think you'll take away from this chapter in the world's life, but also in yours?
Katerina: I can't think of a way to say this succinctly. But for me, it is definitely a sharper appreciation of things that matter in my life. I've heard a lot of rhetoric to the end of, "Well, this teaches us what really matters. This shows us what's truly important." And yeah a lot of those things are really, truly important. Going to the farmer's market and petting everybody's dogs; that's really important. Hugging my parents; that's really important. Yeah, just those things that you just take as the framework of your life and they're enjoyable and whatever. No, that's really important. Really important. And what I hope the world takes away from it is how much we're all capable of helping each other. And that it doesn't take a lot of money or any money. And it doesn't take a lot of time or any time to care about other people. And to show them and tell them in so many words how and why and to what extent and in what way you're going to care about them.
"Oh, I don't have… I can't afford to do that. I don't have the time to do that." Yes, you do. Yes, you do.
Casey: Is there anything else that you want to share about this?
Katerina: I guess just don't ever be afraid to tell someone that you love what they're doing or you value their creations or you value them as a person. Don't ever assume that someone else is doing it. Be vocal about your appreciation and your interest and your affection. And care harder.
