"There was no warning. We had nothing. I grabbed my viola, a few things and drove down the street and sort of waited in a parking lot to see what was going to happen.”
On January 7, Tammy Cognetta was one of more than 400 musicians who lost their homes or were displaced by the Eaton and Palisades fires in the Los Angeles area.
“The hardest part was losing the instruments. My little piano, you could see the strings kind of sticking up in the middle of everything,” Cognetta said.
While she lives in L.A., she plays Viola for San Luis Chamber and Lompoc orchestras. Cognetta escaped the fires with her viola but lost her entire performing wardrobe.
“It takes years to build a wardrobe, so you can’t just go out and buy something,” said violinist Dynell Weber.
Because of that, Weber and five other women, who are all musicians, created freeconcertclothing.org, connecting survivors with donated performance clothing and accessories.
“Our priority has been to make sure that when people come in here, that they leave feeling beautiful and they found something of quality,” Weber said.
Since January 20, the group has collected more than 850 items from musicians across Santa Barbara County, serving 31 people from L.A. to the Central Coast, according to Santa Barbara Symphony violinist Colleen Coomber.
“They walk out with a little, maybe, piece of the little jewelry that, that just a little something extra special or some makeup or some shoes just to feel human again,” Coomber said.
“You look professional, feel professional, and that's really important too,” Cognetta said, adding that she’ll be wearing some of her new clothing items this weekend when she plays for Lompoc Pops.
“For us as musicians to get back onto the stage to play music is healing. And to have the confidence to dress beautifully and be on the stage brings us home, and that's what's important,” Coomber said.
To donate or pick up clothing for yourself, click here.
