When COVID-19 began, the hardest hit communities were the Senior Living Centers. Visitors were unable to come in, the buildings were locked down, and many seniors were completely isolated. Natalie wanted to find a way to cheer up her Grandma, and decided to use her talents to play music for her outside of her building. This emotional moment stirred up something in Natalie, and she knew she could turn the idea into something amazing.
For as long as she can remember, Natalie has been involved in music. Her Mom was a piano teacher and elementary music teacher, and her dad was a former trumpet player. At the young age of 3, Natalie started playing the piano, and that is where her love of music really began to grow. At age 7, Natalie started learning the violin and wrote during one of her elementary classes that her dream was to become a professional violin player.
Natalie was serious about achieving her dream and ended up going to college in Minnesota and Louisiana to study music. For two years, Natalie played with the symphony orchestra in New Orleans. She met her husband, a bass player in the orchestra, and after some time they agreed to move to Minnesota to create their own business.
“For the first few years our career’s consisted of performing and teaching. We have about 75-80 students between the two of us and we have our own studio in Minneapolis,” said Natalie. In 2011, Natalie started pursuing a more creative outlet, and wanted to work more in music education. In a church on Summit Ave in St. Paul, Summit Music was born. Over time, Summit Music evolved into an organization that produces concerts for senior communities, and provides educational opportunities for student musicians.
Over the years Natalie worked many, many hours for free, and occasionally received donations for the concerts. After awhile, Natalie ended up connecting with the non-profit, Springboard For the Arts who were impressed with Natalie’s program, and became the official fiscal sponsor of Summit Music. “Summit Music is now able to take part in opportunities such as Give to The Max Day, and it has opened so many more doors for us,” said Natalie. Springboard for the Arts recently started a project called Artists Respond: Combating Social Isolation, which is also helping musicians and artists to get creative locally.
When the pandemic hit, there were many scheduled indoor concerts within the senior communities that had to be suddenly cancelled. Natalie ended up paying all the musicians for the concerts that never happened. “For the first several weeks I thought things are just on hold, things will pick up again after the pandemic. I put all of my energy into keeping my private studio up and running. Natalie had stayed in touch with her grandmother during the weeks that passed, and one day when the weather was getting nicer, she had an idea. “I told my daughter lets go play for Grandma, and see if she can hear us from the fifth floor window,” explained Natalie. Natalie contacted the activity director who seemed interested but not very hopeful that it would work.
“We played duets in the parking lot on April 24th for my Grandma, and we had piano accompaniment from CD’s and Spotify tracks that we were piping through my car speakers. It felt like a big concert in the parking lot. My Grandma was on her balcony, and just clapping, and so happy to see us, and hear the music. I remember by the second song, multiple residents were coming out on their balconies, and listening to us perform. It was a goosebumps moment, and I thought to myself, oh my gosh this could definitely be a thing. Even in that first concert., I saw people wiping tears, it was a really powerful moment. It made you realize that this group of people are really isolated, and they really need that connection,” said Natalie.
Since April, Natalie and other professional musicians have performed 50 parking lot concerts for seniors across the Twin Cities. “I tell everyone that we literally have witnessed it all. Every concert that I have played at I come home, and I kind of have to emotionally recover from it. Even in those first several weeks, I witnessed people crying, I saw couples dancing, waving flags, telling stories, ambulances arriving, residents announcing a spouse member had just died, and more. It was quite a journey to experience everything,” said Natalie.
Natalie plans to continue the parking lot concerts during the winter months, due to graciously receiving a free electric violin just in time for the cold weather. The program is shifting a little bit to 5 minute pop up concerts, instead of the longer concerts they had been previously doing.
Having the parking lot concerts has opened many doors for Natalie and Summit Music. “I plan to perform all winter on the electric violin. When spring rolls around, if restriction are still needed, I plan to continue to these parking lot concerts as long as needed,” said Natalie. Natalie is also organizing virtual music classes for students and other educational programs.
If you would like to support Summit Music, please consider donating on Give to the Max Day. To support senior programs specifically, Natalie recommends reaching out to the activity director to see if funding is needed.
Contact Information
Book a Pop-Up Parking Lot Concert for Seniors HERE
https://www.summitmusicseries.com/
http://www.minneapolisviolinstudio.com/
https://www.ariosostrings.net/
Ways to Support Local Musicians
- Get tickets for and attend Zoom or Facebook Live Concerts throughout the Fall and winter.
- Continue to hire musicians for Covid safe performances at weddings and churches while our usual orchestral, choir and theater jobs are limited.
- Buy CDs or digital recordings of local musicians.
- Make donations to your favorite musicians and ensembles
- Donate to Music and Arts programs on Give to the Max Day in MN.
- Take music lessons from local musicians (adults and kids!)
- Follow/share/comment/like local music projects and musicians, social media pages, since it helps with advertising/marketing their work.
