IHP Meet the Musicians: Melissa Danas

Wechselhorn, Sinfonieorchester Liechtenstein
Akademiestelle, Grafenegg Festival Orchestra

Life During Lockdown:

The Lockdown has been a really difficult time, but in the end, I am grateful for it. I think, even before it set in, I was already in this creative rut- I was performing all over the world with lovely people, but everything was about the Horn. Don’t get me wrong, I love my instrument, and it is my passion as well as my profession, but my creativity is so much larger than that, and I was limiting myself to just one facet of it. Being isolated from everything and everyone, including from my job as a performer, gave me the time to reflect and realize this in a way that would have never been possible otherwise. Ironically, some of the greatest art and ideas come from a place of restriction, when you’re backed into a corner and have no other options- then, you create options out of thin air, out of the impossible, and wonderful things emerge. It feels really good to do something like this during such uncertain times, with all that is going on in the world. We came together as a group from vastly different musical and cultural backgrounds, from great distances and language barriers, to achieve a shared vision. The arts are diverse, they are essential, and they are a living testament to what can be achieved through unity.