Amelia Hollander Ames

This week's Musician of the Week is Amelia Hollander Ames, violist of the Craft Ensemble and string teacher extraordinaire in the Somerville Public Schools.

THEN: A year ago Amelia always had 20 balls in the air; a typical day found her racing between lessons at schools throughout Greater Boston, picking up her kids from their schools, getting dinner on the table, and then hitting the road again for her evening performances.

NOW: Today, she is doing less racing, but has just as many balls in the air. Her kids are home schooling remotely and she spends the day in front of her own computer teaching lessons over Zoom. She is glad to be able to continue teaching, but says, "I miss playing with people so bad it hurts."

HOPE: Always the optimist, she adds, "But I've taken to heart more than ever the words of my teacher Martha Katz: "it's always chamber music, even if the dialog is between you and your instrument." Amelia says that seeing the donations come in to NEMRF gives her hope that there's an audience waiting for us on the other side".