In the midst of a global pandemic and an escalating economic meltdown, beauty and the arts might seem somewhat superfluous. Why make time for singing, poetry, and painting when there are new statistics to read about and updated graphs to look at? It’s true that the arts might not be “useful” in times like this, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t important for our overall health. As I wrote this week in an article on monitoring our intakes in an over-stimulated age, “Beauty and the arts don’t necessarily help solve a grievous crisis like this, but they can help us cope with it, and in time they will help humanity make sense of it.”

That’s why, in this edition of TGC’s arts and culture newsletter, I want to focus on sharing beautiful things—specifically musical things. One delightul trend in COVID-19 has been a surge in musicians offering free concerts, videos, and new songs online to help bless people. Below you’ll find my roundup of some of my favorites.