VIDEO: Violinist Jordan Busa plays outdoor, 'porch-side' concerts • the Hi-lo

W.H. Auden wrote, “Music is the best means we have of digesting time.”

Of course, these days, time is all we seem to have. Local violinist Jordan Busa never thought he would be playing to audiences after his gigs dried up due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A week ago, the out-of-work musician announced in a social media post that he’d play a 25-minute, “porch-side“ mini-concert in front of people’s homes for only $10.

“I had to get creative, and after I posted it on social media, my phone just blew up. Now I have more than 80 bookings,” said Busa, a Long Beach native who graduated from Poly and has been playing the violin since age five.

In his younger years, Busa played as a featured violinist at Disney Concert Hall with the Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles, an organization he’s still involved with, and performed at the unveiling of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial in Washington D.C. as well as a fundraiser honoring First Lady Michelle Obama, where he was able to shake her hand.

Long Beach freelance violinist Jordan Busa performs a porch-side, 25 minute mini-concert at the Cary family home in Lakewood. Photo by Stephen Carr.

Thanks to the generosity of others, Busa is now working more than ever, performing from L.A. to Orange County and, of course, Long Beach.

Busa had been playing churches, weddings and smaller gigs. Now, for less than a week, he has been busily playing neighborhood sidewalks and lawns.

After Busa played for friends and family of Jessica Cary in Lakewood, Cary said “It blew me away in a way I didn’t expect. It made me feel like crying; this is an emotional time for everyone. We’re all grieving lots of losses, and music has a way of tapping into that on a different level.”

After Busa plays his 25-minute set, he puts his violin named Aurora 2 into the trunk of his red Ford Mustang and rushes to the next performance.

Jordan Busa performs a Porch-side 25-minute virtuosic classic repertoire mini-concert, for Ruth and Scott Mosier and their 1-year-old son Carter, at their home in Bixby Knolls. Photo by Stephen Carr.

Busa says when he plays, “It makes me feel more settled. People tell me how much it meant to them.“

After Busa played for Ruth and Scott Mosier and their young son in the Bixby/California Heights neighborhood, Scott Mossier said, “Music is really something that brings people together. It gives you a moment of escape. In these trying times, it gives us a sense of normalcy.“

After one of Busa’s performances, he was given a large tip by an elderly woman. He asked her why she did that?

“She told me, people like us don’t have much time on this earth, and we will certainly remember this experience.”

To contact violinist Jordan Busa, you can reach him on Instagram.or texting him at 562-896-9040.