Editor’s note: For Dallas Arts Month in April, this is one of a series of stories from The Dallas Morning News examining how North Texas artists and arts groups are coping and moving forward one year after the start of the pandemic.
— To see more from our Art and the City 2021 collection, click/tap here.
Over the past year, classical music groups in the area have been navigating tremendous challenges.
When the pandemic forced cancellation of live concerts last spring, many organizations expanded their internet presence to stay relevant. The Dallas Opera launched a series of weekly virtual shows — ranging from interviews with singers and conductors to performances by the company’s orchestra — that have racked up millions of views.
Over the summer, the Dallas Symphony offered delayed video streams of chamber music performances. Even before that, groups of DSO musicians were doing “run-out” concerts in the front yards of patrons and friends.
In-person performances largely returned in the fall, but with a much different look. The Dallas and Fort Worth symphony orchestras revamped their programming for reduced onstage ensembles, mandated masks and limited their audiences to follow social distancing guidelines. The DSO has been giving musicians daily COVID-19 tests, and the FWSO has tested its musicians one week prior to rehearsals.
Nationally, some of the most prominent performing arts organizations, including the Metropolitan Opera and New York Philharmonic, have remained closed since the beginning of the pandemic.
Even when live concerts returned to North Texas, musicians and administrators still maintained an online focus. The DSO implemented a new virtual concert platform, installing robotic cameras and a video control room in the Meyerson Symphony Center. Audiences are now able to buy video recordings of recent performances online.
Among the groups that have offered livestreams are Chamber Music International and Dallas Chamber Music Society. DCMS has moved its concerts to Lovers Lane United Methodist Church, which, unlike Southern Methodist University’s Caruth Auditorium, is allowing live audiences.
Several organizations, like Fine Arts Chamber Players and the American Baroque Opera Company, have had entirely virtual seasons. “The biggest challenge has been trying to figure out how to present yourself artistically in a safe way,” says Eric Smith, artistic director of the baroque opera company, which was founded in 2017.
The company has fought the fatigue that many have felt watching online concerts by taking innovative approaches to its programming. A staged production of Monteverdi’s Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda incorporated visual imagery from the Día de Muertos, while a recording of Jacquet de La Guerre’s Le sommeil d’Ulisse featured two members of the Indique Dance Company performing in an Indian classical style.
“A lot of people think of baroque opera, and they think ‘Oh, my God, that is so stuffy,’” Smith says. “So we’re constantly trying to push people’s perceptions of what it is.”
The most daring embrace of the virtual realm has come from the Verdigris Ensemble, a professional choir based in Dallas. Verdigris is selling Texas-born composer Nicholas Reeves’ Betty’s Notebook, a 21-minute work weaving together a 16-voice choir and prerecorded sounds, as a non-fungible token (NFT). NFTs turn pieces of digital art or other collectibles into unique, verifiable assets. They recently made national headlines when American artist Mike Winkelmann, who goes by Beeple, raked in $69 million at Christie’s auction house with an NFT art collage.
So what’s next for classical music in North Texas? What will the fall bring, and what will be some of the lasting effects from the past year?
With so much subject to change, many organizations are planning for the best-case scenario — live concerts presented with safety protocols — while keeping back-up options in mind. This route corresponds with the reopening guidance that Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the chief medical adviser for COVID-19 under President Joe Biden, recently provided to performing arts groups in a nationwide Zoom webinar.
Starting in September, the Dallas and Fort Worth symphonies both intend to give full-orchestra performances, with increased audience capacities. “I’d like to think that people will appreciate their orchestras and the music and the concert hall more, after they were taken away for such a long period of time,” says Kim Noltemy, president and CEO of the Dallas Symphony.
But the orchestra may face financial difficulties as it recovers in-person audiences. “We do have concerns about how regularly people will come, when they start coming back,” Noltemy says. “Will they come as regularly as before? And what are the financial ramifications if they don’t come as often?”
Along with live programming, the DSO will continue providing recordings on its video concert platform, and sending musicians to perform in Dallas neighborhoods. Noltemy also wants to bring back the Concert Truck, which has served up free, casual performances for outdoor audiences throughout the region since November.
The Fort Worth Symphony aims on returning to Bass Performance Hall in the fall, after being booted out of that venue just before the current season began. “The plan is to get as close as we can to a normal concert-going experience,” says Keith Cerny, the orchestra’s president and CEO. He hopes for “a lot of pent-up demand” from audiences who want to see live concerts again, but added that it’s hard to determine the impact the pandemic might have on subscription sales.
With its smaller budget, and low overhead, the American Baroque Opera Company can be more flexible with its plans. Starting in November, it’ll present three live operas centering on a theme of metamorphosis.
Classical music fans can also look forward to live productions by the Dallas Opera at the Winspear starting in February 2022 — almost two years after the company’s last full-scale opera performance.
And so, after months of uncertainty, classical music groups in North Texas are carefully moving toward a new normal.
Find more Arts & Entertainment stories from The Dallas Morning News here.
