TALES FROM A TIME OF COVID 19 – 14th in a series: CHRISTOPHER JACKSON, SINGER

ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

This is such a crazy time.

I too, like many artists, suffered this year. Much of my performing work is with vocal ensembles, and solo work with local companies including many churches. All of these were stripped from me.

I am thankful that I have maintained a voice studio so I did have that income to fall back on. Even that took a dive as many people lost their own work so couldn’t afford lessons and/or felt that they no longer had things to work towards since much of their work was also cancelled.

I am grateful that church work has picked up and I have had the opportunity to be asked to sing some concerts virtually and take part in my first socially distanced virtual opera. The spring still looks like a grey cloud but I am hopeful that with the creativity that has come from this, that we are looking at a more promising 2021.

Published by ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

Rafael de Acha has enjoyed a distinguished career in the arts as a performer, stage director, producer, and educator. He was born and grew up in Cuba. At the age of 17 he moved to the United States to study Drama at the University of Minnesota, and later Languages at L.A. City College, Music at the Juilliard School of Music, at the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music, and at the New England Conservatory of Music, from which he received the Master's degree. He has taught courses on the History of Music at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music and at Florida International University, and contributed writings and reviews to Seen and Heard International (www.seenandheard-international.com ) and to this blog. He co-founded the award-winning New Theatre in Coral Gables, Florida, where he produced and staged twenty seasons of classical and contemporary theater, including fifty world premieres of plays that went on to have international and national productions on and off Broadway, including Ana in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz (Pulitzer Prize for Drama 2002 and Tony Nomination 2003.) In 2006 he was presented with a citation from The Dade County Cultural Affairs Council for “trailblazing contributions to the arts in South Florida.”