# How is COVID-19 impacting the classical music industry?



## 20centrfuge (Apr 13, 2007)

How is COVID-19 impacting the classical music industry?

Obviously nobody in the USA, at least, is giving concerts. This has to hurt the financial picture. Are organizations surviving? What are performing arts groups doing to weather the storm?


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## ribonucleic (Aug 20, 2014)

Good article from NPR's Marketplace:



> "We're not Philadelphia, New York or San Francisco," said Celia Mann Baehr, president and CEO of the Mobile Symphony Orchestra in Alabama. "The majority of orchestras that are our size are per-service orchestras, meaning that we don't have a giant payroll of full-time orchestra members because there's not enough population here."
> 
> Regional symphonies like Mobile and smaller theater companies can focus on how to cut back on expenses and maintain their audiences because they have smaller payrolls and fewer maintenance costs than larger concert halls.
> 
> ...


https://www.marketplace.org/2020/07/02/performing-arts-innovate-in-desperate-times/


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## ribonucleic (Aug 20, 2014)

37% of classical music audiences are 61 or older.

This is the age cohort most likely to be seriously threatened by COVID 19 and most reluctant to return to live performances.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

To put it bluntly...the classical business is screwed beyond repair. No one knows how to proceed. Everything, from rehearsing to giving concerts is at a standstill. Venues are shut down. Large orchestras with huge endowments (Boston) will survive, but smaller orchestras are going bust (Nashville). Musicians aren't being paid, conductors are idle. Publishers and retailers can't sell music. Some groups trying to keep alive with web performances, but there's not enough money in it. It's a bloody nightmare. Every summer festival cancelled which not only affects the orchestras but also the places that depended on the tourism income. I will not be surprised if 50% of US orchestras close for good. Very sad situation. Tragic, really.


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## Ethereality (Apr 6, 2019)

I hope/wish there are more people like myself who have gained significant enjoyment in Classical music during this slow time, whether through just casual playlist discovery or research.


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## RobertKC (Dec 9, 2013)

The fate of a professional orchestra is in the hands of benefactors.

My guess is that the 2020/2021 season will be cancelled. (Though no one wants to admit this.) The virus isn’t going away, and best case we’re probably more than a year away from herd immunity. (And, yes – I’ve already paid for season tickets for the 2020/2021 season.)

MAYBE the 2021/2022 season will happen. In my city, the percent of symphony concert goers over 60 is MUCH higher than 37%. The crowding of people during the performance, and after the performance, is a worst-case scenario for disastrous virus transmission.


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## MatthewWeflen (Jan 24, 2019)

Yeah, I've got a Children's Series plus two more add-ons scheduled for this coming season. I am assuming they will be cancelled.

As with most economic depressions (which is what this is, regardless of cause), it's the small players who will be hurt beyond repair. Orchestras in large cities will rebound.


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## DaddyGeorge (Mar 16, 2020)

From media:
Violinist Simona Tydlitátová played with a baroque orchestras (Collegium 1704, Musica Florea), now she is sitting behind the barracks in Lidl: "From day to day we cut all the concerts, so the reception is zero. They're looking for every hand here and they probably won't just close the food, so I went for it." 


This is terrible in itself, but even worse are the hateful reactions of the people under the article (how she could make a living from fidlings, she finally does something real, whether she goes to work in the shaft, ...)


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

Some musicians - soloists and small groups - are trying innovative ways to reach audiences with some success but most classical music is closed down. It is hard to imagine how the situation can be rectified as singers and wind players project saliva considerable distances. If only plants had the money to buy tickets, we could all follow Barcelona Opera House:









Does anyone care to sponsor a plant to attend their local symphony?


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## Fabulin (Jun 10, 2019)

Enthusiast said:


> Some musicians - soloists and small groups - are trying innovative ways to reach audiences with some success but most classical music is closed down. It is hard to imagine how the situation can be rectified as singers and wind players project saliva considerable distances. If only plants had the money to buy tickets, we could all follow Barcelona Opera House:
> 
> View attachment 138991
> 
> ...





> A string quartet serenaded the "growing" audience at the reopening of Barcelona's Liceu on Monday.
> 
> Spain, a country deeply rooted in live music traditions, is marking the return of classical concerts following coronavirus lockdown. But it wasn't members of the public who attended this first opera house showing…
> 
> Instead, the seats at the Gran Teatro del Liceu were reserved for the leaves, shoots and roots of an all-plant audience, or a "vegetable kingdom", as artistic director Víctor García de Gomar coined it.


However tragic, this is hilarious on so many levels :lol:

Semperoper Dresden has kind-of reopened, but people have to sit there in those suffocating masks, so my ticket money will go into food or be saved for later for now... The good news is that the performances sell out anyway.


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## Open Book (Aug 14, 2018)

Fabulin said:


> However tragic, this is hilarious on so many levels :lol:
> 
> Semperoper Dresden has kind-of reopened, but people have to sit there in those suffocating masks, so my ticket money will go into food or be saved for later for now... The good news is that the performances sell out anyway.


But is the audience taking up every seat as in the past or are people being spaced apart so that the hall is not full to capacity? In which case it's not really a sellout.


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## Fabulin (Jun 10, 2019)

Open Book said:


> But is the audience taking up every seat as in the past or are people being spaced apart so that the hall is not full to capacity? In which case it's not really a sellout.


somewhat spaced... those who buy tickets together can sit together, otherwise there are empty seats between people


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## Roger Knox (Jul 19, 2017)

The church choir I'm in stopped early this year, and where we'll be when live services resume in September I don't know. There is radical re-thinking involved. The issue of how to avoid passing infection won't go away and it is a very serious concern for both congregations and choirs. You can have the congregation sit separated from each other, and I know that the choir can sing spaced apart around the hall -- we have done that. Or maybe they will cut out most of the music. COVID-19 has played tricks on us and it's hard to be sure.


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

It's a major disaster for professional musicians, and for orchestras all over the nation....entire series cancelled....massive layoffs/furloughs....I wonder if many of the smaller groups will even survive...


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## aioriacont (Jul 23, 2018)

it is sadly being a complete disaster, especially for local orchestras. So sad to see people who commit their lives to such strong and complex art, having to suffer financially now, with no signs of the situation getting better so soon.


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## mikeh375 (Sep 7, 2017)

Deeply upsetting for composers too.


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## JAS (Mar 6, 2013)

Many marginal businesses will not survive this threat.


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

Screwed.

Music, dance, musical theater, opera are all in Limbo. 

Cirque du Soleil just file for bankruptcy and laid off 3,500 employees and performers.

My local regional performing arts center just announce they're done until January, at the earliest.

Personally, my operetta gigs are toast, and the 2020/2021 school year is still dicey. I might still have hours, but it won't be as an accompanist, but as a teacher's aide/assistant (but that's SOMEthing). My summer concerts are all cancelled. All of the last minute one-offs won't materialize.

I know a couple of voice teachers that have embraced Zoom teaching. Some local theatre groups are presenting non-musicals, which CAN be done via Zoom, because the time lags have less of an impact.
I've got one friend who's doing online busking once a week for PayPal tips.

But the performance venues being closed has ripples far and wide. Sure, there's the performers, and musicians and conductors. There's the sound and lighting techs, stage managers, directors, choreographers, stage hands. And the promotional teams, and lobby workers. And the custodians and janitors and maintenance workers. The Food service people. ALL of these people are now being very careful with their meager cash reserves, and not spending on extravagances like restaurants and bowling alleys, or travel. 

All of which are also struggling. They don't even know from day to day whether they'll be open or closed tomorrow.

And the alternative is risking people's lives.

Rock. Hard Place.


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## vincula (Jun 23, 2020)

DaddyGeorge said:


> From media:
> Violinist Simona Tydlitátová played with a baroque orchestras (Collegium 1704, Musica Florea), now she is sitting behind the barracks in Lidl: "From day to day we cut all the concerts, so the reception is zero. They're looking for every hand here and they probably won't just close the food, so I went for it."
> 
> 
> This is terrible in itself, but *even worse are the hateful reactions of the people under the article* (how she could make a living from fidlings, she finally does something real, whether she goes to work in the shaft, ...)


Poor thing. Distressing and disgusting. Few people's aware of the huge sacrifices any classically-trained musician -and many other for that matter- must go through. Years and years of secluded life when one hardly makes any money at all looking forward to... well, I stop the rant here.

Sad. So sad.

Regards,

Vincula


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## gartho (May 12, 2020)

Yes, COVID-19 is wreaking havoc on the performing arts. I have two 30-something classical musicians in my family, who are feeling this deeply. I've turned over my unused tickets for the 3 orchestras I subscribe to, as donations. So I get it. The future will look different.

But please... *don't just mark time listening to old recordings and hope it all comes back*. Do what you can to support musicians and performing arts organizations now. Buy tickets for a concert this fall that _might_ or might not happen. Discover and follow youtube channels of chamber and other groups, especially young groups, with creative projects. Buy their downloads. Talk them up. Look at what musical organizations are doing online, and encourage and follow them. Let this strange time be a time when musicians can grow into the future.

A place to start, if you like upbeat, imaginative contemporary percussion: Find the _Avaloch Farm Music Institute_ youtube channel. They posted the first of their 2020 livestream concerts just *yesterday*. It's "Sandbox Percussion" performing music by Andy Akiho. Forward thru the talking boxes on zoom until you find their brief performances. Particularly the two toward the end. If you can pipe youtube into a quality sound system, do so and crank it up! Then, you might just want to go back, and listen to the little talking heads tell you all about the incredible stuff they just played for you.


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## larold (Jul 20, 2017)

The only evidence is COVID-19 has damaged the industry, some parts probably beyond repair, just like it has damaged everything else in high and popular culture. 

My friend in Minneapolis, a former arts reporter who is linked into the arts community, told me yesterday he would be surprised if the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra survives. He said he anticipates a very different arts landscape once this is over with -- assuming that happens.

Closer to home I think my own local orchestra, which lost its benefactor two years ago, has given up. The last posting on its web page was its scheduled March 6 concert that was canceled. 

The art gallery my wife's friend managed in East Lansing, a college town recently hard hit by COVID-19, folded. Some college kid threw a party at a bar there; he was sick. Next day they reported 14 new cases. Two days later is was 73. A week later it was 183 in six cities. That was last week and it's still spreading. We are one of many states that have again closed drinking establishments after a brief re-opening. Our state legislature chimed in by passing a new law allowing bars and restaurants to serve cocktails to go.

My church is resuming July 12 under stringent seating and distancing guidelines but the choir I sing in has no scheduled resumption date. There will be no hymns in church either. 

The major USA popular culture item set to resume is pro baseball July 23. However the teams reported yesterday more than 100 players who tested positive, most asymptomatic. I doubt there are going to be fans in the stands when the games come back.

I know it wasn't like this in 1918, in part because it was an autumn outbreak. A New York Times article last month said closures were nothing like now -- even though one-third of the world's population was thought to have been infected.


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## aioriacont (Jul 23, 2018)

besides that, it's also killing a bunch of old farts


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## larold (Jul 20, 2017)

in my state, Michigan, an official said,"Now the majority of cases are in people who have an average age of 35." This has also been reflected in some of the Sun Belt states that had to backtrack recently on economic re-openings by closing bars and beaches.


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

Just had an emergency Zoom meeting about our production of *The Pirates of Penzance*, due to the Governor's comments on Friday about banning singing in church.

We've used an overabundance of caution for rehearsals, with some on Zoom, and the live rehearsals with up to 10 performers at a time in 3-sided covered boxes on one side of an outdoor courtyard and me on the other behind a plexiglass drum shield. When they're out of their boxes the performers must wear face masks, and face shields if they leave their box while singing is going on. Staff do the same, masks at all times, and shields if they cross into the "splatter zone".

Each performer is individually miked, as am I. They have monitors to hear me and the keyboard, and I have a monitor to hear them and the keyboard.

We can only rehearse up to 10 performers at a time, and we limited the cast size to 20 (10 principals and 10 ensemble)

The performance will be a combo live/recorded deal . . . Some "performances" will have live-streamed principals with prerecorded ensemble on audio and video, and other performances will have live-streamed ensemble with the principals pre-recorded. There will be a third version of all-prerecorded in case the live stream doesn't work out.

The recommendations and regulations from the state, county, city, and park district change frequently and randomly, but we've rolled with the punches (somewhat easy so far considering that we started the project using the best precautions we could muster). We started out by using "Day Camp" guidelines, as those seemed most applicable, but changed over to "church service" guidelines when those become more appropriate.

The latest pronouncements prompted the "emergency" Zoom; it seems the Governor mentioned, in passing, that there should be no singing or chanting in church services.

We think we're OK . . . we're outdoors, socially distanced, boxed, masked, and shielded, with participants limited to 10 at a time with staff generally 20 feet away.

But we had to discuss contingency plans, as the local authorities have to have their own discussion on Monday morning.

[sigh]


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## JAS (Mar 6, 2013)

With masks, perhaps you can do the Highway Robbers of Penzance. (I know that when I wear my mask I feel as if I should be robbing a stage coach, but I wear it to be a good citizen and do my part.)


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

*The crisis is over.*

We no longer have to worry about Covid-19 OR the coronavirus.

The pandemic is nothing to worry about.

No less an authority than the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES announced yesterday that *99% of COVID-19 cases are 'totally harmless'*.

This is great news for the Classical Music Industry.

Indeed, everyone in the performance industries should be able to go back to work tomorrow: Dance, concerts, theatre, sports, conventions, casinos.

I repeat, *99% of COVID-19 cases are 'totally harmless'
*.

This is straight from the President. Confirmed. It's a good thing, too, since coronavirus cases are surging in the US, which has the highest number of confirmed cases and reported fatalities in the world.

He also reported to the country that will have *a vaccine before the end of the year*. OMG. That is awesome!

Really.

_*"Now we have tested almost 40 million people,"*_ Trump said. *"By so doing, we show cases, 99% of which are totally harmless. Results that no other country can show because no other country has the testing that we have, not in terms of the numbers or in terms of quality."*

*"We've made a lot of progress,"* he said. *"Our strategy is moving along well. It goes out in one area, it rears back its ugly face in another area. But we've learned a lot. We've learned how to put out the flame."*

*"We'll likely have a therapeutic and/or vaccine solution long before the end of the year"*

[/sarc]


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## Open Book (Aug 14, 2018)

Please don't anybody argue with the above post. We have already has TWO threads about COVID-19 shut down for heated and excessive political discussion.

I know it's tempting, pianozach.


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

Open Book said:


> Please don't anybody argue with the above post. We have already has TWO threads about COVID-19 shut down for heated and excessive political discussion.
> 
> I know it's tempting, pianozach.


_*I*_ posted it.

And I posted it without any editorial comment, save the small one-word comment at the end.

Let the President's words speak for themselves. As it should be.

*In other coronavirus news*:

USA: 132,569 total deaths
World: 532,873 total deaths

The USA has 25% of the World's deaths.
The USA accounts for only 5% of the World's population.

Deaths impact the Classical Music Industry.


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## aioriacont (Jul 23, 2018)

I want a BACH tour HERE IN NORTH COREA


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## Open Book (Aug 14, 2018)

pianozach said:


> _*I*_ posted it.
> 
> And I posted it without any editorial comment, save the small one-word comment at the end.
> 
> ...


I know who posted it, I meant I can see how tempting it was for you to post it. We need a political outlet, but that is in the groups section. Why aren't people posting political views on the pandemic there? (They weren't last time I looked, at any rate.)

You made scant editorial comment, but someone else will probably infer one and post a retort. And one retort leads to others, and they get nastier, and then take over the thread, which leads to the mods shutting it down.

It's not worth risking another thread being shut down.

Your bitterness is understandable. I'm sorry this pandemic has impacted you and so many other musicians and others in jobs supporting musical performance.

There may be a small silver lining. Online performance is being explored. Symphony orchestra members are performing chamber music online. And getting some payment for it. I'm enjoying what I have seen and heard so far from the Berlin Philharmonic and Boston Symphony. This will probably continue to develop even after the pandemic is over.


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## annaw (May 4, 2019)

Some great news for the UK at least: https://www.classicfm.com/music-news/coronavirus/uk-arts-industries-billion-government-funding/.


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## Sonata (Aug 7, 2010)

Well, I know it's not classical music, but Broadway music has had a very personal impact with the death of actor Nick Cordero, just 41 years old. He fought a very hard 3 month battle with COVID-19 and subsequent complications. RIP Nick. He leaves behind a wife and one year old child


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

Sonata said:


> Well, I know it's not classical music, but Broadway music has had a very personal impact with the death of actor Nick Cordero, just 41 years old. He fought a very hard 3 month battle with COVID-19 and subsequent complications. RIP Nick. He leaves behind a wife and one year old child


Cordero had no underlying conditions. Prior to contracting the coronavirus he was perfectly healthy.

As it was they amputated his leg, and anticipated a double lung transplant.


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## larold (Jul 20, 2017)

My church notified me (and the rest of us) today that the scheduled July 12 resumption of services has been delayed to at least August 2.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

aioriacont said:


> besides that, it's also killing a bunch of old farts


This is very rude, take it back please.


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

pianozach said:


> Just had an emergency Zoom meeting about our production of *The Pirates of Penzance*, due to the Governor's comments on Friday about banning singing in church.
> 
> . . . .
> 
> ...


Crisis averted. Monday morning meeting cancelled, as all of the high mucky-mucks decided on Sunday night they're just fine with the program, and our handling of it.

Here's our COVID-19 rehearsal cubicles.









And me behind the plexiglass splatter shield on the other side of the courtyard. Not a flattering shot, but for me, flattering shots are a rarity anyway.


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## Open Book (Aug 14, 2018)

Music organizations are discovering how to keep the music alive online.

Some are offering just what amounts to commercials, like Music Mountain in Connecticut, a chamber music festival. But I got to hear a pianist I was unfamiliar with, Simone Dinnerstein, play Schubert and Glass, and I'd like to hear more from her. 

I'm right now streaming a nice performance of the Brahms Piano Quintet in f op 34 played by members of the Boston Symphony. It cost $5 and will be around only a few more days. The BSO will be releasing videos all summer. Some musical performances will be played by members, others by world class soloists who would have appeared this summer. There are also lectures and master classes -- I want to see Andris Nelsons' conducting class next, that might be fun.

bso.org if anyone is interested. You can purchase the videos a la carte or donate $100 and get access to all. Some are free.

If the BSO isn't your orchestra, other major symphony orchestras are doing a similar thing. Check out their websites.


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