How did the early stages of the COVID crisis go for you? And how hard were you hit by cancellations?<\/p>\n
Erwin Belakowitsch (EB):<\/b> I was hit very hard, including financially. But I was lucky enough to have had a contract with a theatre, which disbursed part of my originally agreed-upon pay despite cancelled performances. And late in the previous year, when I realised that COVID would probably come here, as well, I began studying Cultural Management at the IKM. I\u2019m lucky to have done so.<\/p>\n
You took advantage of the standstill and planned a CD production during the first lockdown. Had the idea for it already come to you pre-COVID?<\/p>\n
EB:<\/b> That idea had been kicking around in my head for a while. After all, I did want to put what I\u2019d learned in my studies to use. So the CD became my practical project; that was back in January of 2020. When COVID arrived here, I immediately sat down at my desk and started planning things out. And in the summer, with the curve pointing downward, I hit the studio and recorded it. In hindsight, I think spending the pandemic producing something physical like a CD was exactly the right thing to do, since I could send it out.<\/p>\n
You crowdfunded the project?<\/p>\n
EB:<\/b> Initially, I had no idea what crowdfunding was really about\u2014I thought it was more or less begging for donations. But then, in the cultural management programme, I learned that it\u2019s about an encounter on an equal footing. So in return for support, I made gingerbread hearts with the CD\u2019s title, Liebling, mein Herz l\u00e4sst dich gr\u00fc\u00dfen<\/i> [Darling, My Heart Sends Greetings to You], and I also offered voice lessons. That elicited a sensational response.<\/p>\n
The huge success you had with that then inspired you to give a concert online, right?<\/p>\n
EB:<\/b> Yes, that happened during the second lockdown. I wanted to find out how I could use digital technologies for my own purposes. We\u2019re moving within an exciting space here, I think, but I did also see that it\u2019s really not enough to just reproduce a performance. That simply lacks the magic of a live appearance. As with the CD production, I learned a lot here, as well\u2014like just what all is needed in terms of technical know-how, ideas, and personnel in order to realise theatrical projects on the Internet.<\/p>\n
Do you think you\u2019ll be benefiting from these newly acquired skills in the future?<\/p>\n
EB:<\/b> Absolutely. People asked me pretty frequently why I\u2019m now studying Cultural Management, and I do actually think that I\u2019m in a bit of a crisis, life- and identity-wise. But I decided to study it in order to learn something. And I wanted to do it as a precaution. The more you know, the better off you\u2019ll be later on. You also do, however, have to preserve what\u2019s fresh and original rather than drifting off into being a manager. It\u2019s a mixture of both the does the trick.<\/p>\n
What are your personal takeaways from the COVID crisis?<\/p>\n
EB:<\/b> I think I\u2019ve made good use of it. I\u2019m really glad I had my studies in the Cultural Management programme, and that I had an idea about how I could creatively realise my projects during this period. But now, I\u2019m also grateful to be able to get back up on stage.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This successful singer and actor has been studying Cultural Management at the Department of Cultural Management and Gender Studies (IKM) since 2019. During the COVID-19 crisis, he employed his newly acquired knowledge in order to independently produce a solo CD as well as an online concert.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":86,"featured_media":6451,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1192,1196,854],"class_list":["post-6448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-special","tag-2021-3","tag-resilienz","tag-special"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/magazin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/magazin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/magazin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/magazin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/86"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/magazin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6448"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/magazin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6448\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6638,"href":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/magazin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6448\/revisions\/6638"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/magazin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/magazin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/magazin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mdw.ac.at\/magazin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}