Even the oboe player got in on this one.
One of the Twin Cities music scene's grandest and most ambitious musical productions so far during the COVID-19 quarantine, Dessa reunited with the Minnesota Orchestra for a virtual performance of her 2013 song "Skeleton Key" for Sunday night's "Shine on Minnesota" telethon on Fox 9. The video of it is posted below.
The staging featured what looks to be around 30 members of the orchestra doing their parts from home synced up with Dessa and her vocal partners Aby Wolf, Ashley DuBose, Cameron Kinghorn and Matthew Santos (also all contributing from isolation). MN Orch's principal conductor of Live at Orchestra Hall Sarah Hicks joined in on piano, and Doomtree's principal conductor of everything Lazerbeak added beats while two of his kids looked on with mischievous glee; which is sort of the look Dessa herself had, too.
Also part of the 2019 performances captured for their groundbreaking album "Sound the Bells: Record Live at Orchestra Hall," "Skeleton Key" was featured in the telethon alongside songs by the New Power Gneration, Stokley Williams, Jeremy Messersmith, Soul Asylum, the Okee Dokee Brothers, Yam Haus and members of Minnesota Opera, Vocal Essence and the Children's Theatre Company.
The fundraising event – which Fox 9 co-produced with 89.3 the Current and Minnesota Public Radio – brought in more than $90,000 in private donations plus a $50,000 match from Abbott to local charities Second Harvest Heartland, Minnesota Central Kitchen and Springboard for the Arts. Donations can still be made via GiveMN.org.
Members of the Minnesota Orchestra have been regularly posting virtual performance clips during the quarantine to add to the organization's May fundraising efforts. Dessa has also kept busy in isolation as part of the Doomree.TV weekly series (8 p.m. Fridays) and with some Instagram Live poetry readings.
