Distanced Together, composed by MindTravel creator Murray Hidary, is an immersive musical experience featuring a massive ensemble of 60 musicians that invites audiences on a collective, cathartic, and healing journey tracing the arc of the pandemic. Audiences make their way around and through twelve string quintets arranged in a large circle, experiencing the work just as we did the pandemic, individually, with our own unique perspective.

The work explores the heightened emotional challenges of this period, the uncertainty, fear, isolation, and collective longing for connection. Our ever shifting, individual perceptions of time during the pandemic are mirrored in the elasticity of the music composition and referenced with the twelve quintets arranged to resemble a timepiece. Yet, just as during the pandemic years, the challenges put into stark relief the hope and triumph of the human spirit, serving as a reminder of the light that always follows the darkest times.

The live performance of Distanced Together featured Contemporaneous ensemble members playing alongside North Adams-local musicians under the musical direction of David Bloom.

Distanced Together has been recorded, and now tours as an immersive, 60-speaker sound installation.