Drew McManus on the orchestra business.
At the end of last week, the Sequoia Symphony Orchestra (SSO) published a teaser video about their upcoming Music Uplink digital series. I managed to get a head’s up about the program when recording an upcoming Shop Talk episode with SSO music director Bruce Kiesling and Niccolo Go, Partner and Creative Director at Go Creative Group (the company that partnered with the SSO to create the series). They described the program …
There’s a fascinating interview in the 9/25/2020 edition of KUER.com, NPR Utah, where host Caroline Ballard examines a recently completed project by a team at the University of Utah led by scientists Tony Saad and James Sutherland that studied Abravanel Hall’s airflow to help identify risk for musicians in the Utah Symphony. You can listen to the full interview at the radio station’s website, but a few bits that jumped out …
If you’ve been watching any of the early efforts from orchestras experimenting with socially distanced concerts, you’ve probably noticed that on-stage musicians are wearing masks, even wind players when they aren’t actively playing. In the handful of indoor events, audience members are wearing masks as well. So why are some conductors going without masks or walking out wearing a mask, but removing it while conducting? Holly Mulcahy was wondering the same …
Jim Farber has been following classical music organizations making the leap from testing free in-person socially distanced events to those that are strictly admission based. His latest article in the 9/14/2020 edition of the sfcv.org examines Mainly Mozart’s efforts over the summer that have evolved into a sort of live concert terrarium testing environment. The article takes a look at the efforts from business, artistic, and operations perspectives. The organization plans …
Orchestras that aren’t shuttered through 2021 face a similar challenge in that they need to identify venues that meet local, state, and national safety guidelines. The trouble with that is many don’t own their own facility and as the Ft. Worth Symphony Orchestra recently learned, an owner can pull the rug out from under you in short notice. For orchestras in milder climates, outdoor stadium venues offer unique potential. They want …