Drew McManus on the orchestra business.
It was bound to happen. An orchestra’s guidelines requires as much masking for on stage musicians as possible. A chorus that operates as a separate entity has a different policy and refuses to wear masks. As a result, any works that require a chorus are removed from the program. An article by Peter Dobrin in the 8/19/2022 Philadelphia Inquirer reports on this exact scenario and to make matter even stickier, it …
In March, 2021 the field was starting to emerge from the pandemic to live performing and I launched a poll asking musicians about their concerns over physical, emotional, and psychological risks related to returning to work. At the time, musicians were concerned about both at nearly equal rates. While the exercise was somewhat academic then, we have nearly a year of quantitative data pointing to the conclusion that these were more …
While dealing with event production in the era of COVID is by no means easy, it’s still something most patrons and board members don’t see. And because the professionals making all of that happen are as good at it as they are, it risks comes across as simple. Thankfully, Mark Larson wrote an article for the 1/20/22 Chicago Reader that illuminates the challenges involved, the toll it takes on those doing …
As we begin the new year, I want to encourage everyone to contact the White House to advocate for the administration to establish a national vaccination status program that can be adopted at the state, local, and even institutional level. The omicron variant underscores the need for a secure and reliable system managed at the federal level that organizations and local governments can opt into. It needs to be user friendly …
The omicron variant is rapidly demonstrating that arts and culture orgs can find themselves in a scenario of unexpected shutdowns thanks to multiple cases of staff and artists testing positive for coronavirus. While everyone was looking forward to capitalizing on the momentum for in-person events, it’s beginning to look like groups that maintained their virtual activities developed over 2020 and 2021 are better positioned to continue their engagement if the sector …