There’s no shortage of panic inducing discussions and news floating around. Big budget groups like the Guthrie Theater and The Met have announced or are telegraphing the punch of prolonged closures that gut most of the 20/21 season.
If that weren’t enough, the timing of service organization annual conferences happened to fall right when we’re still only beginning to learn more about coronavirus. Early studies projected an apocalyptic future and those early fears ran through online conference panels like wildfire.
The coup de grace appeared in the form early audience surveys indicating an unwillingness to return to live performances without a reliable vaccine.
As a result, media outlets have been amplifying these fears and creating something of feedback loop that only serves to exacerbate the cycle.
Fortunately, that’s starting to change.
Expanded research into live music performance is beginning to replace early anxieties with quantifiable studies ready for peer review and expanded testing.
Media platforms are beginning to take a deeper dive as well. Case in point, the wonderfully researched article by Jim Farber in the 5/15/2020 edition of San Francisco Classical Voice.
Make no mistake, it’s not loaded with sunshine and rainbows. But instead of amplifying fear, it approaches the enormous challenges ahead with a certain analytical calm.
I was happy to contribute some insight into the numerous issues examined in the article and rest assured, we’ll be covering a few of those subjects in even greater detail over the next few weeks.
In the meantime, put this on the top of your reading pile. Once you’ve finished, be sure to share across the socials and engage in some discussion about any of subjects it examines.
If you need a suggestion to get started, share your thoughts on the decision push existing subscribers to renew or lose their seats even when next season is anything but guaranteed.