In March, Clara Kim’s performance schedule vanished. Like many of her colleagues, she found herself scrambling to find ways to make music as the coronavirus pandemic swept across New York City, experiencing what she remembers to be a whirlwind of complex emotions surrounding her practice and the world at large. 

Her performance of “Sabina” for Metropolis Ensemble’s House Music Series marks the first concert she gave after the cancellations. It was a ray of light for her, an olive branch in a time of need. Looking back, it feels like a different time—since this video aired, she’s invested in equipment for making videos and pivoted to exclusively virtual performance due to the ongoing closure of music venues across the city and beyond. 

However, in that moment, the opportunity was boundlessly valuable. She’s been working with Metropolis Ensemble in a variety of contexts for years, and when Andrew, Metropolis’s Artistic Director, reached out to her, she was immediately struck by his interest in keeping the music community alive from a social distance. And, it was a great opportunity to explore a new kind of performance—giving a short concert of the music she plays at home.

Sabina, composed by two-time Pulitzer Prize-finalist Andrew Norman, came to her as the obvious choice for this performance. The piece is one she’s played for a number of years, and she finds herself continuously inspired by it and Norman’s compositional practice. It requires only one instrument—the violin—but still manages to strike a rich magic and effervescence. In composing the piece, Norman found inspiration in a trip to Rome, where he visited the Santa Sabina cathedral at dawn. There, he watched the sunrise. He saw the ways the light flitted and danced across the floor, growing from dim, dark shades of blues and purples into the bright morning light. The violin’s exuberance depicts this phenomenon, flowing through radiant rolled chords and brilliant colors.

For Kim, choosing to perform this piece was both an act of love for music she enjoys making and a way to grapple with the despair of the moment. The music reminds us that we can find great calm, observation, and beauty, even as chaos ensues around us. It’s an affirmation of hope, a powerful reminder to keep looking ahead to better times. — Vanessa Ague

 
Episode: 01
Date: March 31, 2020
Artist: Clara Kim
Instrumentation: Violin
Work: “Sabina” (2016)
Composer: Andrew Norman
Location: Brooklyn, NY
 

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