“It’s impossible to run an orchestra when the government is requiring everyone to stay six feet away from each other, but the Seattle Symphony is going to give it a shot,” writes Rich Smith in Thursday’s (3/12) The Stranger (Seattle, WA). “In response to new social-distancing mandates, the symphony plans to rebroadcast earlier performances of beloved symphonies and to livestream new performances through March. This weekend on YouTube and Facebook, they’re showing Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 … originally performed in Seattle last September. Livestreaming new shows will be trickier [since] musicians in an orchestra have to huddle together so they hear one another…. But symphony staff and musicians are brainstorming ways around that. Symphony spokesperson Shiva Shafii said they’re thinking about livestreaming new solo performances over the next couple of weeks. Those solos might happen onstage at Benaroya Hall, but the symphony is also thinking about musicians performing from their own homes. ‘The push to do these performances is all stemming from the musicians,’ Shafii said…. As Seattle’s entire arts community faces weekly losses on the order of $2 million to $3 million, the symphony is also announcing that a board member, Stephen Whyte, has pledged to match donations dollar-for-dollar for as long as the hall is closed.”
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