Joshua Weilerstein - The Past, The Present, and The Future of Classical Music - part 3
Every time a musician has opened their email or picked up the phone over the last weeks, they’ve braced for the gut punch of yet another concert cancellation. Some ensembles and organisations were quick out of the gate to cancel everything, while many have valiantly held on until bowing to the inevitable. Now, with the emerging possibility that large gatherings of any kind could potentially be impossible until a vaccine is widely available, musicians and artists of all stripes have begun to panic, seeing their incomes, their livelihoods, and possibly their futures evaporating before their eyes. No one knows how or when this crisis will end, but all we can know now is that the performing arts face an existential crisis. The question remains: How can the classical music business cope with this threat? This series of three articles is meant to explore the past, present, and future of classical music through the prism of conducting and through orchestral life, and why this crisis, while devastating, presents an opportunity for change within a field that is desperate for it.
Part 3: The Future
An imagined scenario, sometime in the (hopefully) near future: The lights come down. An A is given by the first oboe. The anticipation in the hall is unlike anything we’ve witnessed in decades. I walk out on stage, and I, the orchestra, and the audience, experience applause for the first time in a concert hall in months. I bow to the audience, taking in just how extraordinary this privilege is. I turn back to the orchestra, and after a summer(and perhaps longer) of silence, music fills the hall for the first time. This will undoubtedly be an extremely emotional experience for every single person in that hall, and everything else aside, this is the feeling that every musician and audience member should be looking forward to when social distancing regulations are able to be relaxed. In the meantime though, we should understand that, no matter what happens, certain things are going to change. Today I will lay out my predictions of some of those changes, and then try to find opportunities within each one of these changes. None of this is meant to take lightly the enormous burden this crisis has placed on organizations and musicians all over the world. As I wrote in Part 1, it is inevitable that some organizations will not survive this crisis, and it will certainly drive some musicians to pursue other fields in the name of their own survival. One major caveat is that I am by no means an administrator, and what I’m writing here is based on my own observations and on conversations with colleagues. With that said, let’s go into some of the changes that I believe will be made after the COVID-19 Pandemic is over.
After the pandemic ends, orchestra budgets, which have been severely impacted by the crisis, will have to be cut to shoestring levels. Large-scale works like Mahler symphonies with chorus and other gigantic 20th century scores will be put on the shelf for the time being due to the resources they require. Touring will dry up, as many orchestras will be unable to spend the vast sums of money to take a group of musicians around the world. A digital footprint will be an even more vital part of an orchestra’s life than it was before. Fees for guest artists will go down, and freelancers will likely not be invited to travel to far-flung regions as much as they were before due to high travel costs. It is also possible that both new music and neglected music from the past will be even more de-platformed than it was previously due to a desire to play it safe and bring audiences back with standard classics and recognizable names. Every one of these changes, plus the innumerable changes that cannot be predicted, will have a real impact on every musician. But if we can in some sense take advantage of these changes, I do think it is possible for orchestras and musicians to become even stronger. Let’s now take each of these changes one by one and try to find the opportunities within.
Large Scale works will be put on the shelf:
While it will undoubtedly be sad not to hear big Mahler symphonies or gigantic Wagner operas for the time being, it is also a chance to explore works by composers who did not write for such large orchestras. Large symphonic orchestras have long now eschewed performing the music of baroque composers thanks to a ridiculous turf war between Historical Performance Ensembles and Modern Performance Ensembles. This argument has led to a Balkanising of the repertoire that is completely unproductive and deprives people from hearing great music. Orchestras that can’t play Mahler for a while could easily put on performances of works of Bach, Monteverdi, Corelli, Biber, Rameau, and other great Baroque composers who are almost completely neglected by modern performance ensembles. It is also a chance to explore some of the incredible arrangements that have been made of large-scale works by composers from Schoenberg(Mahler 4) to Klaus Simon(Mahler 1 and 9) to Ian Farringdon(too many works to count). These arrangements can shed new light on these pieces and are a way to get unusual instruments onto the stage(aka hiring freelancers). In essence, it is a chance to have a re-birth of the orchestral repertoire and to inject freshness onto the stage. This re-birth, ironically enough, could happen by looking back into the past to find inspiration.
Touring:
Orchestras have built prestige by long tours that bring the musicians to a big Central European, Asian, or American capital to perform repertoire that the local orchestra already plays every week. The financial cost of touring is well known; as well as flight or other transportation costs, orchestras must pay for visa applications, instrument insurance, an entourage of staff, the conductor(who is usually paid a higher fee for touring concerts), the soloist, and sometimes even for promotional materials. All of this cost is almost never offset by the fee offered by the concert promoter. There is of course another cost to touring, which is environmental. I have long thought that touring in the age of climate change is a moral quandary, and I would certainly not be opposed to orchestras pledging to only tour to places they can reach by train or bus. One additional cost to touring is that the orchestra leaves its local community. An orchestra could take the astronomical cost of touring and divert that money to local initiatives, like performing in schools, performing outdoor concerts in warm seasons, to expanding education and outreach departments, and more. A reduction in touring is a chance to dial up local engagement and to truly become an ensemble known and adored by every local, not just those who come to concerts on a weekly basis.
Digital Footprint:
Classical music has always been wary of the internet, and for some good reasons. Live performance is our bread and butter, and it is utterly irreplaceable. But that doesn’t mean that the internet doesn’t give us a chance to rethink the way we perform concerts. The most successful live streams of the COVID era have not necessarily been rehashes of archival material, but streams from within peoples homes, or in socially distanced concert halls with no audience. The most creative ensembles have turned their streams into chances to engage with people around the world, using tactics as simple as having a chat function enabled with a member of the orchestra answering questions. I say over and over that classical musicians are often woefully unaware of the lack of detailed knowledge of classical music by the general public. This lack of knowledge becomes a barrier when entering the intimidating world of classical music. Streaming is not solely a means of reaching our existing audience, but a way of grabbing the listener who just randomly clicks on an orchestra’s Facebook Page, or Twitch.tv profile. A kind musician answering questions like, “how does an oboe make a sound” in the chat on a live stream can do wonders to open the eyes of that potential future audience member. Remember that we are selling tickets to future concerts with live streams, not merely keeping our names out there. Turning digital performances into interactive experiences is an absolute must, and post-pandemic, some of these innovations can be put into our live performances to make a modern performance feel like a modern performance, not a relic of 100 years ago.
Decline in travel for guest artists:
This can be a chance for guest artists to more deeply embed themselves in their communities. Visual artists travel around their home city, discovering new ideas and creating art that reflects the place that they call home. Classical musicians can do the same, partly by embracing digital media, but also by creating initiatives to positively effect the lives of those who live around them. The videos of front yard performances for quarantined residents have been profoundly moving, and those should not stop in the future. There are ways of making these kind of performances financially viable, whether it’s a donate button on a live stream, a virtual tip jar, or even a soliciting of donations or a ticket for an impromptu outdoor performance.
Programming more safely:
This final change is one that I hope will not happen. Orchestras and ensembles that take risks in this period will be rewarded, and while the goal should always be to perform music that the audience likes, we must be willing to take risks and to perform music that we believe in. An orchestra should not be subject only to the whims of the audience. The orchestra should defend its programming, even when it is challenging, and bring something new to the audience every time, whether it is a piece from the Baroque era, an unheard romantic work by an underrepresented composer, or a piece from today.
The future is going to be uncertain, that is the only thing we can be sure of. But when we perform, we are expected to be spontaneous, to take risks, and to fully dive into the music we are playing, with all of our hearts. We can do the same thing with new business models, new ideas, and new spirit. None of this is meant to discount the financial burden that is now on everyone, and it is certainly a scary time to be a musician. And of course, these regulations are not simply an inconvenience. They are meant to save lives, and even with them, we have all experienced a trauma in the hundreds of thousands of lives lost to this pandemic. But if we are to come through this stronger on the other side, if we are going to become servants to our communities, we must be willing to dive in wholeheartedly, just as we would when we take out our instruments, open the score, and tear into one of our favorite works.