There haven’t been any live public performances at America’s biggest arts center since mid-March. But New York’s Lincoln Center has been hosting some free mini-concerts for healthcare providers, teachers, and other essential workers, featuring just one or two volunteer musicians and audiences of five, max.

 

The musicians are volunteers from the New York Philharmonic, one of Lincoln Center’s constituent organizations. One of the performers is Kuan Cheng Lu, a Taiwanese first violinist who joined the orchestra 16 years ago, and a member of AFM Local 802. On a recent Friday evening, he chose to play some solo Bach.

 

Each performance lasts about 15 minutes, and each guest can bring up to four family members. Everyone is masked and socially distanced. Michaela Robbins was one of those audience members. She’s a nurse practitioner at Mount Sinai Hospital, and she brought along her husband, Ryan Robbins. During a normal summer, they’d go to hear the New York Philharmonic play in one of the city’s parks. Hearing Lu play brought them a little closer to their pre-coronavirus life, if only for a few minutes.