The pandemic silenced our symphony halls and grand opera houses.
But will the (eventual) restart bring with it a reckoning?
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A couple of days later, it did.
Now, as New York reawakens, the performing-arts world is desperate for clues to its future.
Ive never dealt with such a fluid and changeable situation, says New York Philharmonic president Deborah Borda.
What about testing orchestra members every single day?
There are literally hundreds of questions.
And no easy answers.
Its going to be slow.
Europes musical life is already beginning to rouse itself.
The Salzburg Festivals pared-down summer menu includes two operas.
Concerts with scant, widely spaced audiences are starting to take place in Stockholm, Vienna, and Berlin.
American organizations face a murkier year, thanks to hazy guidelines and little government funding.
Even as administrators venture to plan for the future, theyre caught up in triage.
We have no idea which one is going to be realistic, says executive director Clive Gillinson.
A few days after that conversation, Carnegie canceled all concerts through the end of the year.
So have Lincoln Center and the Philharmonic.
Theres not one of us who isnt panicked.
And yet survival depends on the one resource that artists have in abundance: invention and creativity.
Theres no knowing when this crisis is going to be over, but it will be over.
Were being given a forced reset.
Do we do a drive-in concert?
Do we go sing in the middle of a field?
Do we use smaller venues?
I dont always have to dial it up to 11, she says.
I do have a setting at five.
Even the Met is trying to embrace austerity within the limits of its hugeness.
The physical opulence of grand opera may have to be reconsidered, Gelb says.
But the worst thing that can happen is to creatively retrench.
These past few months have brought a few gratifying surprises.
Once the bane of the concert hall Would you kindly silence your ringer?
the smartphone is now a medium of instant connection.
Planning years ahead is one of my least favorite things about the industry, says pianist Inon Barnatan.
I enjoy this What are you doing next Tuesday?
approach to putting on a concert.
Concerts from home need to reflect the quality of the music-making and be a real artistic experience.
The bigger the institution, the harder it is to take risks.
Now, though, you dont have much to lose.
The 92nd Street Y never had enough space, for instance.
We were bursting at the seams, says the Ys CEO, Seth Pinsky.
If we wanted to do something new, we had to eliminate something else.
Smaller organizations, already accustomed to navigating severe constraints, are using technology as a creative tool.
But now its essential that we start commissioning artists again.
Paying artists is the most important thing we do.
There are signs of an expansive future.
Weve been able to democratize the art form in an essential way, Morrison says.
My hope is that will continue when this is over.
Still, technology can only help at the margins with collaboration, improvisation, companionship, contact.
A dancer cant lift a virtual partner.
Venues have said, Our audiences are very excited, and the shows are sold out.
The Joyce Theater is taking a more minimalist approach, hoping to present local soloists for deliberately sparse audiences.
Executive director Linda Shelton jokes that the theater may have to change its tagline, Get closer.
Maybe we should add but not too close.
We are a necessity, not a luxury, Goerke says.
The art form isnt going away.
Congregating and creating art together is one of the more human things we do.
