Facebook videos offer relief to artists
Violinist survives COVID, performs to raise funds for classical music community
When classical violinist Gary Capozziello emerged from a debilitating month-long bout of COVID-19, he says “I felt compassion and love for what was around me. I decided to use the power of music to try and help others.”
Capozziello, member of Hartford Symphony Orchestra, decided to help his fellow musicians whose livelihoods had been affected by the crisis. He began posting videos of himself playing solo violin pieces as a Facebook fundraiser in hopes of raising $10,000 for an artist relief fund to be managed by the Greater Hartford Arts Council.
“I sweated over which foundation to do a fundraiser for. I thought, how can I really have an impact?”
On his Facebook page titled “Help Me Create a COVID-19 Artist Relief Fund,” Capozziello posts videos of himself playing separate movements from by J.S. Bach’s “Partita #3 and Belgian composer Eugène Ysaÿe’s “Sonata for Solo Violin.” The movements connect over time, as the fundraiser continues. When Capozziello has reached his goal of $10,000, he’ll perform a fulllength livestreamed recital. The donations will then be given to the Greater Hartford Arts Council to distribute to Connecticut musicians.
A Fairfield native who recently moved to Avon from New York City following his illness, Capozziello feels fortunate that he is able to help, and even to play violin again.
“I was sick all of May,” Capozziello remembers. “I was like on my deathbed, man. I felt it wanting to get to my lungs. I wanted to go to a hospital but I was in New York City and it was too dangerous,