{"id":68659,"date":"2020-07-16T20:14:36","date_gmt":"2020-07-17T00:14:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=68659"},"modified":"2020-07-16T20:18:35","modified_gmt":"2020-07-17T00:18:35","slug":"remote-camille-watts-musicians-are-especially-gregarious-creatures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2020\/07\/16\/remote-camille-watts-musicians-are-especially-gregarious-creatures\/","title":{"rendered":"REMOTE | Camille Watts \u2018Musicians Are Especially Gregarious Creatures\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Camille
Camille Watts (Photo courtesy of the artist)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For this episode of REMOTE, we are joined by flutist and solo piccoloist Camille Watts, who has played both instruments for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra for thirty years (!). As you\u2019ll see in her contribution to this series below, she\u2019s a person of many interests: from enrolling in courses on fashion and design to taking a slow deep dive on the essays of Toni Morrison. I think it’s the variety of her musical interests that surprises me the most, the latest being Ali Farka Tour\u00e9 \u2014\u00a0an absolutely brilliant Malian musician, and a name you don\u2019t often hear mentioned in the classical world (if you\u2019re looking for an introduction, check out his album Samba<\/em>).<\/p>\n

How have you been coping with the lockdown?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

I\u2019m lucky to be healthy, and isolated in my bubble with a great partner. My husband Jeff Reynolds is a musician on faculty at U of T. We\u2019re both working from home at this point, so picture a house full of all kinds of tunes floating through it, from Baroque to Big Band, opera and world music. Ali Farka Tour\u00e9 is our latest jam and gets us dancing. The discomfort in our lives is in the NOT knowing.<\/p>\n

We know live music will happen, but how and when? Those are the questions. For now we do our best not to over speculate and focus on the possible, supporting our communities of students and institutions. I\u2019m so proud of my colleagues, turning on a dime to produce all kinds of online inspiration. We\u2019ve also been helping to put together educational videos, creating a library of resources to support students, teachers, and parents.<\/p>\n

What are the ways you\u2019ve been keeping busy?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

I\u2019m a nerd, and maybe a creature of habit, so I\u2019m still looking for my practice time every day. Scales, intervals, and lots of Bach and pieces I don\u2019t usually have time to play \u2014 it\u2019s all very grounding, and takes me back to 8 year old Camille starting the flute, amazed that I could make sound like this!<\/p>\n

I\u2019m doing Pilates several times a week, at Muse Movement online and Core Sound, a studio for musicians started by a former student. We have a weekly morning class of flute players that is an awesome way to start the day. Jeff and I go for epic walks and conversations. We know Trinity Bellwoods and the surrounding area so well by now \u2014 the architecture, the gardens, the dogs and the clouds! And fun with food. We\u2019ve managed not to do take-out, and I\u2019ve never made so much food in my life! Oddly, my house is no cleaner than it was before the pandemic\u2026.<\/p>\n

What are you missing the most right now?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Community and mobility! Thanks to Zoom and the phone, and we\u2019ve had a few people into our back garden, but we really are made to be more social than this. Musicians are especially gregarious creatures, and I realize how spoiled I am playing concerts all the time, and I promise not to take that for granted in the future. The same thing goes for travel. Last summer we were hiking in Italy, and I\u2019m savouring those memories now.<\/p>\n

Any specific books, films, or TV on the go?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

I\u2019ve been reading Toni Morrison\u2019s last essays for six months, to take in her profound wisdom slowly. And history books, Simon Schama and Tony Judt. I\u2019ve taken some courses on Coursera \u2014 “Fashion as Design”, “Contact Tracing”, and now “Love as a Force for Social Justice\u201d, along with a local course, \u201cSharing Privilege.\u201d After a lifetime built around the flute and piccolo, it\u2019s cool to expand my horizons.<\/p>\n

Any words of wisdom to get through this?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

I\u2019m looking for wisdom every day, and maybe more for PATIENCE. For me, this isolation has brought out how connected we are. It\u2019s so basic. We all need the same things \u2014 food, sleep, safety, amusement. Maybe coming out of this we can find ways to better support each other.<\/p>\n

For more chats with artists in social isolation, read on <\/span><\/span><\/em>HERE<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/span>.<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/h2>\n

#LUDWIGVAN<\/em><\/h3>\n

Want more updates on classical music and opera news and reviews? Follow us\u00a0on <\/em>Facebook<\/b><\/a><\/em><\/span>, <\/em>Instagram<\/b><\/a><\/em><\/span> <\/b>or <\/em>Twitter<\/b><\/a><\/em><\/span> for all the latest.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TSO flutist and solo piccoloist Camille Watts shares what’s getting her through the long drought of no live music in the latest edition of REMOTE.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":68660,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[33451,35839,29,36052,63,71],"tags":[37117,1306,5644],"yst_prominent_words":[37114,37104,37102,29656,12074,37111,14901,37112,37105,16042,15560,18387,37110,10356,6616,8285,10395,37113,37107,36951],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/07\/Camille-Watts-REMOTE.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-hRp","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68659"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/89"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68659"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68659\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68665,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68659\/revisions\/68665"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68659"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=68659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}