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The Onstage Music Community Forum: The Long Road Home with Maria Devigili

By Kath Galasso on April 7, 2020

Welcome to the Onstage Music Community Forum

All of our lives have been affected in some way by COVID-19. At Onstage, we are acutely aware of the impact the pandemic is having on the artistic and music communities.

So what can we do? Well, we can listen and share. Share your fears, your hopes, your ideas, your soul. We have created a forum to voice all of it. From the artists to the roadies to the lighting and catering crews, to the promoters and managers, venue owners, poster designers and music stores…tell us what’s happening.

None of us know where the next great idea may come from, so let’s have a conversation about it all. If you know of organizations that might assist, let us know. If you’re terrified you won’t make it through the day, week, or month…reach out. We are a big community, we can do this.

Send your story, thoughts, ideas to kathg@onstagemagazine.com and include your social sites if you have any, current project links, photos, etc. We can promote as well as listen.

Today’s voice is that of Maria Devigili, a singer-songwriter from Trento, Italy. Maria was in the United States when COVID-19 impacted Italy on a huge scale, complicating her return home.

Who says you can’t go home? Well, bureaucracy sometimes.

I’m an Italian singer-songwriter and I was suppose to have returned to Italy in March, but at the moment I am still stuck in Las Vegas.
I had many activities and concerts on the agenda from March until May but now all is cancelled. All Italy is under shutdown. This is a blow for everyone and certainly also for musicians. As an indie musician, in Italy it’s possible to pay rent and bills by doing concerts, and that’s what I’ve done for the last 10 years. It certainly is a very adventurous and difficult choice, but it’s doable. So this shutting down of all concerts is a serious blow for those who live making music; owners of clubs, musicians, audio engineers, promoters, booking managers.

But, honestly, I feel pretty lucky compared to what other people or other workers have to deal right now. Yes, I have already lost and I will lose some more money because the pandemic, but I admit also I was never rolling in money and I had to invent a bit of everything to make ends meet.

My thoughts are more for those who had a regular life, a regular job, regular income, mortgages to pay, a family with children. Many families in the world are going to lose all these safeties …

But I’m thinking also to the many nurses, paramedics and doctors who are currently working day and night and often not in a safe situation, without forget the cleaners, the groceries employee, police workers etc. I can’t imagine the amount of stress these people and their families have to face right now.

As musicians, as freelance artists, we all can do many things in this moment because, as Albert Einstein said “in crisis emerges the best of each, because without crisis all winds are only mild breezes.” If it’s true that creativity is the basis of our work, we must increase inventiveness. We have a lot of possibilities, we can do live-streaming concerts as well as sell our music and merchandising online.

Speaking about the Italian indie music scene: some clubs are working very hard to move forward and they are putting so much talent and creativity into doing it. Now they are managing deliveries of cocktails and aperitifs to their former patrons at home and livestreaming concerts.
Recently I did my first livestreaming concert for a Tuscan Club Barlume, and I will have at least two other concerts in streaming in the next days. Some of these club owners and managers are my friends so I am very proud of what they are doing.