There are memorable concerts . . . and then there are memorable concerts.

Viera Zmiyiwsky isn’t going to forget her outdoor solo event on March 27 in 3 C weather, that left audience and performer, in tears.

Zmiyiwsky played, with a portable speaker, in the rear yard of the Ivan Franko long-term care facility in Erin Mills.

The seven-year member of Mississauga Symphony Orchestra is incredibly close to her grandmother Anna, a 94-year-old resident of the building.

They normally visit and talk on the phone several times a week. That’s no longer possible with COVID-19 regulations.

Her grandparents lived with Viera’s family in Thunder Bay for the first 16 years of her life. Music was integral to the family’s identity. She and her older brothers, also accomplished violinists, regularly gave concerts at old folks’ homes.

Her mother didn’t have the opportunity to study music, but played piano when she was pregnant with Viera, who believes she may have gained her appreciation for music in utero. Some classical pieces she’s never heard before seem strangely familiar.

“I’m angry that the virus has taken away my time with my grandmother,” says the city centre resident.

Phone calls and visits are all the contact many of the elderly Ukrainian-Canadian residents have with the larger world.

“When you take that away, you take their lifeline.”

So the musician hatched a plan to surprise her grandmother. She’d play a short set of her favourites from a socially acceptable distance.

She brought a bouquet and had the centre’s staff deliver it while she set up. She didn’t know the centre’s staff had alerted residents.

Her grandmother was confused when told to go outside to see her granddaughter.

“She could hear me, but she was looking in the trees,” laughs Zmiyiwsky.

“I started playing, she saw me. She started crying and the nurses started crying and I started crying,” recalls the U of T grad.

The plan to play 10 minutes changed.

“You can’t stop when you see this guy struggling to open the balcony door and he’s carting an oxygen tank.”

One man clapped enthusiastically after every song and implored her to continue.

“My hand was almost frozen in playing position but I couldn’t say no.”

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When she wound up after 30 minutes, her new best fan threw her a box of chocolates in appreciation.

It’s not the first time Viera has played with a heavy heart.

When her grandfather Paul lay dying in Trillium Health Centre in 2014, she played his favourite songs in an emotional farewell bedside concert.

Viera Zmiyiwsky gave a farewell concert of his favourite songs for her grandfather when he was dying at Trillium Hospital in 2014. Supplied photo

Her grandmother Anna says Viera “is so good to me. She always calls me and visits.” Residents compliment her on her musical family and want to know when Viera’s coming again.

Her balcony audience may have only amounted to six or seven members (after all, there was bingo at the same time), but Zmiyiwsky says they were her most attentive audience ever.

“Trust me, what I felt from those seven people was enough to fill my heart for many years to come.”