((PKG))  ISOLATED VIOLINIST   
((Banner:  Isolated Violinist))  
((Reporter:  Arturo Martinez)) 
((Camera:  Margaret Batjer, Arturo Martinez)) 
((Map:  Los Angeles, California))    
((Main characters:  1 female))  
((All orchestra video:  Courtesy of LA Chamber Orchestra))  
((NATS)) 
((Banner:  Most of the images in this video were filmed by the 
performer herself.)) 
((NATS/MUSIC)) 
((Margaret Batjer, Concert Master, Los Angeles Chamber 
Orchestra)) 
Hi, my name is Margaret Batjer.  I’m Concert Master of the Los 
Angeles Chamber Orchestra. 
((NATS/MUSIC)) 
((Margaret Batjer, Concert Master, Los Angeles Chamber 
Orchestra)) 
I've been home due to the COVID-19 virus.  Normally, I am in 
downtown Los Angeles almost all week and most weekends, 
rehearsing for concerts, playing concerts and teaching. 
((NATS/MUSIC)) 
((Margaret Batjer, Concert Master, Los Angeles Chamber 
Orchestra)) 
But I am home these weeks, trying to offer performances online 
and also learning to teach violin lessons online.  I'm going to be 
recording some solo Bach tonight and it's a family affair because 
of the quarantine.  No one could come to professionally record 
any of myself or any of my colleagues and my daughter here is 
helping.  She's going to be doing the video and my husband will 
record the audio. 
((NATS/MUSIC)) 
((Margaret Batjer, Concert Master, Los Angeles Chamber 
Orchestra)) 
This week, I'm working to record a program for In Focus, which is 
our chamber music series.  Our LACO audiences, who reached 
out to me in many different ways, are all very sad to not be going 
to our concerts.  And so, like many other artistic organizations, 
we're trying to keep in touch with them and offer them some relief 
from the fear and the boredom and the unknown. 
((NATS/MUSIC)) 
((Margaret Batjer, Concert Master, Los Angeles Chamber 
Orchestra)) 
Good evening and welcome to an In Focus concert presented by 
LACO At Home.  In these extraordinary times, these broadcasts 
are, what give our musicians and hopefully you, a lot of comfort 
and I do hope that you enjoy this evening's presentation of In 
Focus from our homes to yours. 
((NATS/MUSIC)) 
((Margaret Batjer, Concert Master, Los Angeles Chamber 
Orchestra)) 
Offering performances online has its own set of challenges.  It's 
different than performing live.  I do miss the audience reaction 
and interaction of a live performance but there is also something 
very intimate about being in your home studio and making music 
for strangers.  It could be a 100, it could be a 1000. 
((NATS/MUSIC)) 
((Margaret Batjer, Concert Master, Los Angeles Chamber 
Orchestra)) 
This is where I sit and do most of my teaching now, which is odd 
to say, but with Skype lessons being the only possibility for me to 
be able to help my students, this is where I have to do it, is sitting 
at a computer.   
((NATS:  Margaret Batjer and Students))   
((Margaret Batjer, Concert Master, Los Angeles Chamber 
Orchestra)) 
Is everybody doing okay? 
((Student)) 
Yeah. 
((Margaret Batjer, Concert Master, Los Angeles Chamber 
Orchestra)) 
Yeah?  It's old.  It's getting old, isn't it, this isolation? ((Student)) 
Oh, yeah. 
((Margaret Batjer, Concert Master, Los Angeles Chamber 
Orchestra)) 
It's getting a little depressing. 
((Student)) 
I had a really great chamber group this year, but we're not able to 
meet anymore.  And like end of the year recitals and things like 
that being cancelled, so, it's very unexpected. 
((Margaret Batjer, Concert Master, Los Angeles Chamber 
Orchestra)) 
It's very tough and my heart breaks for all of you, but we have to 
do the best we can under these really difficult circumstances. 
((NATS/MUSIC)) 
((Margaret Batjer, Concert Master, Los Angeles Chamber 
Orchestra)) 
One of the hardest things for me to get used to during this 
quarantine is sitting here at this desk with the computer.  It's so 
counter-intuitive to being an artist and a musician. 
((NATS/MUSIC)) 
((Margaret Batjer, Concert Master, Los Angeles Chamber 
Orchestra)) 
Albert. 
((NATS/MUSIC)) 
((Margaret Batjer, Concert Master, Los Angeles Chamber 
Orchestra)) 
This is one of the challenges. 
((NATS/MUSIC)) 
((Margaret Batjer, Concert Master, Los Angeles Chamber 
Orchestra)) 
Albert. 
((NATS/MUSIC))  
((Margaret Batjer, Concert Master, Los Angeles Chamber 
Orchestra)) 
Music is such a hands-on kind of experience for the student and 
the teacher and it's difficult when the sound is coming through an 
electronic computer or iPad, it's not a realistic sound.  But the 
students are hungry and they're feeling isolated.  So, their hour or 
two hours a week with me, hopefully keeps them challenged and 
keeps them inspired to continue to grow as young musicians. 
((NATS/MUSIC)) 
((Margaret Batjer, Concert Master, Los Angeles Chamber 
Orchestra)) 
Bravo.  Very, very fine. 
((NATS/MUSIC)) 
((Margaret Batjer, Concert Master, Los Angeles Chamber 
Orchestra)) 
I can only think about what it's going to be like the first time I get 
to walk back on the stage in our new normal and be able to make 
music again.   
((NATS/MUSIC)) 
((Margaret Batjer, Concert Master, Los Angeles Chamber 
Orchestra)) 
What's going to be when all of this ends?  Will there still be the 
orchestras?  Can I financially survive?  Will our economy be at a 
place where all of us can still do what we love to do, which is 
make music?  Will people come to our concerts?  Will they be too 
afraid to go into a hall where you have to sit shoulder to shoulder?  
Those are all big questions and I think it's been tough for 
everybody, not just me. 
((MUSIC)) 
((Banner:   Many orchestras have furloughed their musicians due 
to COVID-19 but, so far, LACO is still maintaining their 
performers)) 
((MUSIC))