Musician Sidelined During Pandemic: 'It Breaks My Heart'

NAPERVILLE, IL — Sharon Jones, of Naperville, has played french horn professionally for more than 30 years, but she hasn't played publicly in four months and it "breaks [her] heart," she told Patch.

Jones, who has performed with the Elgin Symphony Orchestra, Drury Lane Theater, Paramount Theater, Cadillac Theater and Niederlander Theater, among others, was blindsided by the new coronavirus shutdown, like many other musicians and professional performers. She said she played her last concert on March 7 at Hemmens Center in Elgin before things started to become uncertain.

“We played this great concert at the Hemmens Center in downtown Elgin" as news of the coronavirus began to break, she said. Then, Jones and the other musicians who had three weeks of shows left, wondered, "Are we going to play the next three weeks?"

The uncertainty mounted as other gigs began to get canceled, including graduations and weddings. Jones told Patch that feeling of hopelessness began to set in as the Grant Park summer concerts and Ravinia Festival announced their cancellations.

She said playing music professionally is different from many other industries, which were able to slowly come back as Illinois reopened. "It’s not just a matter of keeping musicians safe, but we have to keep our audiences safe too," Jones said.

She added that playing at home just isn't the same as performing for an audience. Jones told Patch, "It’s really something when you have face to face contact with your audience.”

Jones said, "We can practice at home, but it’s just not the same." She added that playing with other musicians "brings out your skills."

“For a lot of us the great thing about playing is that we look forward to seeing people that you don’t normally see," Jones said, adding, “That’s all gone.”

Jones said this is the longest most professional musicians have gone without performing. She told Patch, "This is the longest musicians have gone without any type of performance. Even if you have a gig drought it’s just never been this bad. Never never never.”

Jones said some musicians she knows have actually gone into retirement because of the pandemic.

Despite the shutdown, Jones is grateful for the support of her fans, with many of whom she still exchanges emails. She said you can still support the Elgin Symphony Orchestra remotely by making a donation.

Jones hopes to get together with fellow musicians in the future and play out for the community. For the meantime, she'll keep playing her french horn at home, imagining a time when she can play for an audience.

Jones said, “We will come back. We are going to come back. We don’t know when, but we will.”