Igor Shakhman will never forget the concert he attended at New York City’s Carnegie Hall in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
“The world was changing and uncertain. It was a similar feeling to right now. Everyone was in shock,” Shakhman remembered.
That is, until conductor Seiji Ozawa and the Boston Symphony Orchestra touched hearts and created instant community in that famous auditorium.
“It was very moving music and the entire audience felt like one organism,” Shakhman said. “It was so spectacular and inspiring. That’s the human power of music.”
Today’s public health emergency may feel similar to 9/11, but the nature of this crisis prevents audiences from gathering for the healing and inspiration offered by the performing arts — at least not until the pandemic ebbs. From orchestras to bar bands to Shakespearean thespians, performing artists are struggling to survive until then.
While top stars can still charge standard ticket prices for private concert streams, hardworking local performers are posting free content and inviting tips. It’s their way of keeping their sounds and brands fresh and familiar so audiences come flocking back to theaters, concert halls and nightclubs once the COVID-19 pandemic is over.
“We are in the business of offering live events,” said Igor Shakhman, executive director and lead clarinetist for the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. “My job is to make sure, after the dust settles, Vancouver still has its symphony orchestra.”
Ironically enough, the Vancouver orchestra’s semi-pro size and status may help. While the full-time Oregon Symphony has been forced to lay off salaried musicians, conductors and staff, the Vancouver orchestra doesn’t have such fixed expenses. It’s a “per service” group that pays musicians for rehearsals and concert performances, Shakhman said. When those events don’t happen, musicians don’t get paid — but they do qualify for unemployment compensation.
Shakhman doesn’t expect to lose musicians because of the coronavirus pandemic, he said. The organization has a staff of just four, and rents Skyview Concert Hall for its orchestra performances.
But lost ticket sales and canceled fundraising events take their toll, Shakhman said.
“We are looking for sure at a shortfall of revenue,” he said. The nonprofit may be eligible for relief — perhaps from state and federal funds or grants from the Community Foundation of Southwest Washington. It’s also seeking technical assistance from the League of American Orchestras.
Orchestra fans can help by donating back the value of tickets they’ve already bought or exchanging them for gift certificates, he said, instead of demanding refunds.
Spring into podcasts
Since live concerts won’t resume anytime soon, Shakhman said, it’s imperative to keep the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra’s name and reputation in front of the public in other ways.
“Now is the time to focus on institutional branding and marketing,” he said. “We need to make sure everybody knows about us. We need our marketing to be exciting and unexpected.”
The VSO now posts weekly podcasts featuring guest-artist interviews and concert excerpts. If you’re feeling social-isolation gloom, there may be no better remedy than the April Fool’s Day podcast, which explores humor in the music of Haydn and Strauss, or the April 13 “Spring into the Music” podcast, featuring a recent performance of Aaron Copland’s sunny, breezy “Appalachian Spring.”
“All of our performances are recorded. Normally they just go into our archive,” Shakhman said. “We made the decision to put a recording online, every week, plus we provide some education by interviewing the artists.”
All of which is a great way to nurture and reassure the orchestra’s audience, Shakhman said. But it’s still no substitute for the live experience.
“I’ve been to some great concerts that are online now,” he said. “It’s just not the same. In the concert hall you can have a life-changing experience. That’s the experience we are determined to provide.”
Much ado about money
Vancouver’s downtown Magenta Theater was excited about its first attempt at Shakespeare, this month’s planned launch of “Much Ado About Nothing.” But opening night has been postponed indefinitely.
The custom-built stage set will stay in place until the stay-at-home order has been lifted, Magenta founder and artistic director Jaynie Roberts said.
“We’ll be performing that play next, whether it’s this summer or Christmas,” Roberts said. “We optimistically pushed everything back thinking we’d be up and running again by May, but that’s not going to happen. The rest of the season, we’ll just have to roll over into next year.”
Like the orchestra’s Shakhman, Roberts is hoping people who have already bought tickets — or season ticket packages — won’t demand refunds.
“Their money is tied up in four main stage shows,” she said. Magenta invests upwards of $25,000 in each main stage production long before it opens, she said. The troupe has already spent about $100,000 on upcoming shows, and still hopes to stage them all.
Fortunately, Roberts said, Magenta’s landlord is deferring half the rent for the troupe’s Main Street theater until the crisis is over. The deal is interest free, but the deferred rent will have to be made up eventually, Roberts said. Magenta has already paid its property taxes and insurance for the year, she said. Magenta’s actors are volunteers who don’t get paid. Roberts gets a small stipend — small enough that she’s considered looking for a job.
“Insurance just went up 31 percent,” she said. “It’s a pretty scary time but I’m trying to keep a positive approach. Otherwise everyone else gets depressed too.”
‘Magenta all-stars’
While people have been enjoying performances on small screens ever since the advent of television, Roberts mused, there’s something unavoidably awkward about trying to do theater online with all the actors in separate places, interacting with video cameras instead of one another.
Whether they’re kissing, dancing or fighting, actors often get close to one another to bring their scenes to life. Distancing makes those scenes seem so much more artificial, Roberts said.
Still, Magenta is getting ready to post its own homemade video performance of Oscar Wilde’s classic drawing room comedy, “The Importance of Being Earnest.” In addition to Magenta regulars, the show will feature many alumni and friends. “Call it a reunion of the Magenta all-stars,” Roberts said. “We want people to remember how awesome we are.”
Magenta will post the free performance May 5 on its website and social media feeds.
“We’ll ask for donations, but I just don’t think people want to pay for stuff like this,” she said. “I think they’d rather buy gift certificates for shows they can see in our theater, sometime down the road.”
People’s faces
Clark County musicians used to touring and gigging are feeling the coronavirus pinch in a big way.
Washougal guitarist, pianist and bandleader Jeffree White has had to cancel 14 gigs in three months.
“Not only do I lose income, I have to, in effect, lay off musicians I’ve hired for those gigs,” he said.
“I’m officially out of work,” said Mac Potts, a popular and busy local piano-lounge singer who also works as a piano tuner. Both of those revenue streams have dried up. Potts, who is blind, said he’s “barely hanging in there” playing online for tips, several times a week.
Local folk duo Fox and Bones was on a three-month U.S. tour when 40 of their gigs disappeared. They hurried to member Sarah Vitort’s parents’ basement in Camas to wait out the crisis, and offered a live “driveway concert” for neighbors and online fans to enjoy from a safe distance.
The show brought in decent tips. “But we’d have to do driveway concerts like that at least a few times a week to make what we were making before,” Vitort said.
Amber Sweeney, a rocking bandleader and studio musician now stuck at home in Battle Ground, thinks the novelty of livestreamed music may be wearing off already. Her first streaming show brought in an impressive $1,000, she said, but the second was half as successful and the third only half of that.
Sweeney is now considering other options, like a subscription fan club that gets members exclusive online content for just a few dollars per month. Mostly, she’s looking forward to hitting the road again.
“I love touring because I love seeing people’s faces as they’re having a great time,” she said. “I don’t see (video performance) as a replacement for live music.”
