Need to lift your spirits? These 10 videos celebrate the good in life, music and art

Memorial Day weekend is at hand, the unofficial kickoff to summer. But the season is dawning over a changed world. Swimming pools are closed. Ball parks are quiet. Outdoor festivals have been called off because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As a way of offering perhaps a shred of homebound solace through music during such a curious summer start, we have scoured the internet for performances to lift the spirits. But there were requirements. Offered up aren’t exclusively homebound clips by acclaimed artists, although there are a few of them here. We also didn’t opt solely for homemade video projects that stress sentimentality, although an emotive streak obviously fuels some of what you will see and hear.

Instead, we discovered 10 video performances — some as intimate as single-shot outings from a solo artist, others massively edited collages utilizing over 100 participants – that celebrate the good in life, music and art. Hopefully, they will inspire as the most unusual summer many — if not all — of us have ever experienced gets underway.

Mark O’Connor: ‘Shenandoah’

Multiple Grammy winner Mark O’Connor has been such an industrious fiddler and composer through the decades that he has formulated his own technique (the O’Connor Method) for violin instruction. But he has also been long been versed on a multitude of string instruments, including the mandocello — essentially, a guitar-sized baritone mandolin. As the O’Connor Method owes greatly to Americana inspiration, he uses the immaculate, deep tone of a 1924 Gibson mandocello here to explore a new arrangement of the folk classic “Shenandoah” in the great outdoors. The surrounding birds simply add to the tranquility. Watch online at https://bit.ly/2ZlNH7z

Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra: ‘Fanfare for the Common Man’

Aaron Copland composed “Fanfare for the Common Man” for the Cincinnati Symphony in 1942 at the request of the orchestra’s then-conductor Eugene Goossens. With then-Vice President Henry Wallace, upon the United States’ entry into World War II, proclaiming “the Century of the Common Man,” the composition’s title was set. After numerous stylistic interpretations through the years, “Fanfare for the Common Man” has returned to the Cincinnati Symphony in a clip utilizing and editing the talents of 61 brass players and a lone percussionist. Simply majestic. Watch online at https://bit.ly/3gd7R9F

Crowded House: ‘Something So Strong’

The Aussie pop collective Crowded House was to have toured for the first time in nine years with a new lineup that teamed co-founders Neil Finn and Nick Seymour with Mitchell Froom (who served as producer for the band’s first three albums) as keyboardist and Finn’s sons Liam and Elroy on guitar and drums, respectively. Those shows have been pushed to 2021, but the new lineup faithfully revived “Something So Strong” (the fifth and final hit from Crowded House’s 1986 self-titled album) in composite performances from five different houses with the tune’s inherent cheer remaining intact. Watch online at https://bit.ly/2ZpjmEY

The Greenwood Wind Band: ‘Spain’

If you want to appreciate the true global reach of jazz music, do a quick online search for International Jazz Day. Usually celebrated with high profile performances by some of the genre’s most celebrated artists, this year’s homebound festivities upped the diversity factor several times over. In this clip, the students of the Greenwood Primary School in Port Elizabeth, South Africa interpret Chick Corea’s signature composition, “Spain.” The arrangement is noticeable slower than most versions, but the studious devotion these children display in honoring a jazz classic produces a charm that is wholly unique. Watch online at https://bit.ly/36joGLw

Sheryl Crow: ‘Beware of Darkness’

In a homebound performance for “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” Sheryl Crow spun back the years and steered away from her own music to play a solo piano version of George Harrison’s “Beware of Darkness.” Pulled from his 1970 album “All Things Must Pass” (still, for my money, the finest work by a solo Beatle), the song embraced Harrison’s spirituality in ominous terms. As the title suggests, it cited the intrusions of material influences – be they monetary, political or falsely religious – on personal tranquility. Crow embraces the composition’s inherent warmth but also its sense of warning. Watch online at https://bit.ly/2LOFAs1

Devine Carama: ‘We’re Going to Make It Through’

One of the saddest inevitabilities the COVID-19 crisis is that everyday tragedies that have nothing to do with the pandemic don’t simply stop. Lexington hip-hop artist and activist Devine Carama posted this poem the same day – in all likelihood, mere hours before – a single-car accident on the Blue Grass Parkway claimed the life of daughter Kamaria Spaulding. Carama has always been a local champion of keeping the faith during difficult times and circumstances. Although “We’re Going to Make It Through” speaks directly to life in the COVID climate, one hopes he finds comfort in his own words of encouragement and healing after such immense personal loss. Watch online at https://bit.ly/2TqlR6i

California Guitar Trio: ‘Get Back’

I’ve been championing the music of the California Guitar Trio ever since seeing them open for King Crimson at Cincinnati’s Taft Theatre in 1995. Watching three acoustic guitarists - one from Belgium, one from Japan and one from the United States - play Bach’s “Toccata and Fugue in D Minor” through a monster prog rock PA system is pretty mindblowing. CGT’s new cover of the Beatles’ classic “Get Back” is a testament to the stylistic breadth of its repertoire (which includes a hefty amount of original works). Mostly, the clip is just a fun, summery celebration expressed through social distancing from three different cities. The song is part of the CGT’s splendid new “Elegy” album. Watch online at https://bit.ly/2TsV8pF

Ruthie Foster: ‘Angel from Montgomery’

One of most devastating artistic losses of the pandemic was the April 7 passing of John Prine, a songwriter whose sense of unforced but always human storytelling made him a favorite of multiple generations. Online tribute performances poured in as soon as word of his illness was announced, including this relaxed but richly poetic front porch version of “Angel from Montgomery” from Texas folk, blues and soul stylist Ruthie Foster. The singer has regularly played the tune with the artist who made it famous, Bonnie Raitt, although Foster’s version contains a quiet luster that is very much her own. Watch online at https://bit.ly/3eaUZiJ

Rhiannon Giddens and Francesco Turrisi: ‘He Will See You Through’

Over the past year, Rhiannon Giddens has stepped back from the broad pop spectrum that showcased her astounding vocal clarity to the leaner, roots-driven command of her work with the Carolina Chocolate Drops. But the scope was made different through a personal and professional alliance with Italian-born multi-instrumentalist Francesco Turrisi. What is so inviting about “He Will See You Through,” aside from Giddens’ typically arresting singing, is its timeless sense of affirmation. Giddens penned it with Dirk Powell as the concluding tune to last year’s “There is No Other” album, although it possesses the antique comfort of an early 20th century Appalachian ballad. Watch online at https://bit.ly/3g9E6qq

The Juilliard School/ Keigwin + Company: ‘Bolero Julliard’

One the most popular outreach programs of the New York contemporary dance ensemble Keigwin + Company have been performances set to Maurice Ravel’s “Bolero” for various communities and age groups. For “Bolero Juilliard,” choreographer Keigwin teamed with the Juilliard School and a corresponding army of musicians, dancers, actors, vocalists and alumni performing from living rooms, kitchens and parking lots in Australia, Japan, Russia and scores of other locales. It features over 100 artists, some recognizably famous, others unknown but uninhibited. The result is an epic, real life jigsaw puzzle imbued with a level of playfulness no pandemic can contain. Watch online at https://bit.ly/2XiCW3i