“You can write a piece for a hundred tubas. You can write a piece for three orchestras on different planets, connected via satellite. Music is creativity, not a prescription.”
Be careful what you wish for.
By the beginning of 2020 guitarist Mary Halvorson, one of the most acclaimed musicians of her generation, was also one of the busiest. Her thoroughly unique playing style—barbed and studded with effects (including her trademark, a squiggly pitch bend that resembles a sonic ricochet)—and compositional approach had placed her in high demand in the experimental jazz community and with audiences. She was moving nonstop, playing tours and festivals with her own bands in addition to working as a sidewoman. Winning the MacArthur Foundation’s “Genius Grant” in 2019—guaranteeing her an income of $125,000 a year for five years, with no strings attached—seemed only to intensify the demand.
“I was pretty burnt out,” she recalls. “Through February of 2020, I was just constantly traveling and was kind of griping to myself, ‘Augh, I don’t have time to myself to practice guitar and write music. I just want more time at home.’”
We all know what happened after that.
The global COVID-19 quarantine wasn’t what she had in mind, of course. But Halvorson made the most of it. “She works incredibly hard,” says her friend, Deerhoof guitarist John Dieterich. “Any time I talked to her she was like, ‘Yeah, I’ve been writing for five hours,’ or ‘I’ve been practicing for six hours,’ this kind of thing.” The music
