How are you spending your time sheltering-in-place and what are you doing to stay upbeat?

William: I’m doing some on-line teaching for UC Berkeley, Young People’s Symphony and Head Royce School.  This is all done using internet based social media platforms. Embracing the technology has been a great learning experience but it does have limits, so I’m looking forward to working with young people face-to-face as soon as it is safe to do so.  

On April 11, my niece Michelle Harvey was wedded to Ricky Martin (not the singer) in San Diego. Due to the public health crisis the event was downscaled to a simple backyard ceremony with five people physically present and the rest of us at home on Zoom. My wife, California Symphony violinist Josepha Fath, and I performed Clarke’s Trumpet Voluntary and Mendelssohn’s Wedding March over the phone. 

If you were not a musician, what career would you be in?

Josepha: As we find ourselves Sheltering in Place and trying to find our new normal for the way we live our lives, I find myself thinking about mental health, and how we need to maintain and keep healthy, not only our physical beings, but our mental mind sets as well.  I have always had in the back of my mind, the idea that if I ever decided to change careers, I would consider the field of Mental Health.  I find it fascinating and feel that my sense of empathy could be an extremely useful tool in helping others in their achieving a healthy state of mind.