The beat goes on

His hectic schedule soon took a toll as he admitted that he was feeling "burnt out and was starting to lose inspiration".The short break that he took earlier this year unexpectedly got prolonged due to the latest outbreak in Shanghai.

"I thought I could maybe use a week off, though I didn't need this long break," he says during a video interview with China Daily.

To continue engaging with audiences during the lockdown, Jazz at Lincoln Center Shanghai has, since March 23, been livestreaming highlights from its past concerts on its WeChat account every day. On special occasions, such as International Jazz Day, May Day and Mother's Day, the center invited musicians to perform online for livestreamed shows.

"We had hoped that people confined to their homes could still enjoy some live jazz music. We hoped music could lift people's moods, raise their confidence and lighten things up," says Zhu Donghuan, music director of the center.

While technology can bridge the gap between musicians and audiences, a livestreamed concert still lacks the atmosphere of a live music venue, says Murray James Morrison, a saxophonist and composer from Alberta, Canada.

"You can play along with the recordings and make remote recordings with other musicians, which is quite nice, but that's not the same as when you play live in front of the audience, together with other musicians," says Morrison.

During the lockdown, Morrison, who is also a professor at New York University Shanghai, spent much of his time conducting lessons from home and creating video content for his WeChat video-sharing account called Dami (his Chinese nickname) Music Channel. On that, people can watch Morrison playing the keyboard as his 8-year-old daughter sings. The latest video clip shows him playing the Chinese pop ballad The Moon Represents My Heart on the saxophone in his compound, surrounded by his neighbors as they celebrated the end of the lockdown on June 1.