Some days, it was enough to take the camera out and see what happens. As always, it helped me find new vantage points, new life, new ways through the dark.

The photos in the beginning of this gallery are fond reminders of the communal beauty of music. I have come to see in them not what was lost, but what can be regained, and the importance of those things that have never left us.

As the year went on, I found myself expanding my view. I hiked through prairies, forests, and mountain trails, looking for details of changing seasons. I gazed upwards at the vastness of space and found light from impossible distances. I reveled in the predictability of moonrises, sunsets, and orbital paths.

I married Bridget. It was the best day, full of sun, flowers, love, and beauty.

Here are some of the things I saw, heard, witnessed, and experienced this year.

Here’s to getting through. Here’s to new directions forward.

January 19

Fourth Coast Ensemble records music by Lori Laitman for her new album.

January 23

Acclaimed trumpeter Alison Balsom performs at a private event with Jane Glover and Music of the Baroque.

February 29

The Chicago Children’s Choir makes a joyful noise during its Englewood Community Concert.

March 1

Scott Speck leads the Chicago Philharmonic in an all-strings program.

March 3

Sir John Eliot Gardner leads the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique in a beautiful, though bittersweet, performance of Beethoven at the Harris Theater.

March 20

Millennium Park in downtown Chicago falls silent and empty as the stay-at-home order takes effect.

April 7

Getting used to staying indoors.

May 21

Needing a break from the city, I drove to Headlands International Dark Sky Park along the northernmost shores of Lake Michigan to watch the stars dance.

June 17

Finding comfort and new life at the Kent Fuller Air Station Prairie in Glenview.

July 4

Fireworks under a full moon on the Fourth.

July 13

The newly discovered NEOWISE Comet makes a faint appearance in the pre-dawn hours.

July 24

The brightest, happiest, most magical day of my life: Bridget and I got married! (Photo by Eric Snoza)

August 11

Stars swirl above Bear Lake, while Hallett Peak is illuminated by a half-moon, in Rocky Mountain National Park.

August 31

From the stage of the Green Mill, Kurt Elling’s live performance is beamed out virtually to a worldwide audience.

September 22

Chicagohenge: the sun sets along Chicago’s east-west street grid during the autumnal equinox. This year, the haze from the western wild fires created an eerie gray sky.

October 20

Took myself on an artist retreat to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to catch the last of the fall colors and the brilliant turquoise of Lake Superior.