COVID-19 financially crippled many hundreds of Bay Area arts-and-entertainment performers over the past year.
The âstarving musiciansâ category swelled exponentially, for example, because many lacked digital skills needed to overcome gig loss triggered by in-person venues closing. Noteworthy exceptions exist, however.
Pianist-singer Mike Greensill draws roughly 1,000 viewers each Monday, Wednesday and Friday to his livestreams on Facebook. They take a lot of time, he says. I have to plan and plan.
His viewers ante up via PayPal and Venmo for shows that extract tunes from the 20s to the early 60s. Greensill says he s been doing well, but it s up and down. Some weeks, he makes a lot, while during others, he makes practically nothing. Even so, he enjoys streaming.
How Bay Area musicians have kept music alive in the year of COVID-19
By Woody Weingarten article
Caption: Clarinetist John Stafford and guitarist David Sturdevant, a.k.a. Medicine Ball Duo, have played music together for more than 40 years. (Courtesy of Rory Dean)
OAKLAND, Calif. - COVID-19 financially crippled many hundreds of Bay Area arts-and-entertainment performers over the past year.
The starving musicians category swelled exponentially, for example, because many lacked digital skills needed to overcome gig loss triggered by in-person venues closing.
Noteworthy exceptions exist, however. Pianist-singer Mike Greensill, widower who lives in St. Helena (after years in San Francisco with his wife, singer Wesla Whitfield), draws roughly 1,000 viewers each Monday, Wednesday and Friday to his livestreams on Facebook.