Emanuel Ax, pianist

About four years ago, I played Schubert’s Opus 42 A minor Sonata, and not very well. So I’m trying again. The notes are unbearably difficult, and the concept, too. And Yo-Yo Ma and I are hoping that in the next few weeks we might have the possibility of doing some streaming of Beethoven sonatas. My wife, Yoko, and I are big opera buffs, so we are really taking advantage of this wonderful Met Opera streaming initiative they are doing every night. It takes three hours of liberation from the newspaper and the news. People die in opera, but never of coronavirus.

Nadia Sirota, violist and host

What do I get out of being a performer, host or curator? Yes, it is the music. But another thing is community: bringing people together in a joyful way surrounding art. That was missing all the sudden.

How can we still provide that for people? We ended up doing “Living Music” (which was originally planned as a podcast, then debuted early as a Facebook Live series). Just having this event and having people talk to one another, and playing and having drinks at the computer — every time we’ve done of these shows, I have been given that community-based high that I crave and love. So we’re going to do “Living Music” for as long as this quarantine goes on.

Jaap van Zweden, music director, New York Philharmonic

It is wonderful to have all the time in the world for new scores. One I am learning is the Kurtag opera, “Fin de Partie,” that we are giving the American premiere of next season. And then I picked up a violin somebody loaned me. I’m planning this week to practice and get a little bit in shape again and play the Bach partitas. Not only is it incredible music, and fantastic for your technique, but the healing factor is there. Whenever I play Bach, he makes me the most happy person in the world. Somehow he has the ability to clean you inside.

The third thing is that I am starting, very carefully, to write a piece myself. If the piece is ready, maybe I can call it composing. Before that I want to be extremely modest: I first want to see if what comes out is OK.