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Home » Orchestra News » Orchestras Cancel Summer Festivals


Orchestras Cancel Summer Festivals

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Classical music’s most established summer seasons and festivals have been canceled from coast to coast due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The disappointing, though not unexpected, news has come from the Tanglewood Music Festival, summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra; the Los Angeles Philharmonic, which spends its summers at the Hollywood Bowl; Chicago’s Grant Park Music Festival; and the nearby Ravinia Festival, summer home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Tanglewood will offer an online festival, with video and audio streams of past performances, as well as newly created content that will feature the Boston Symphony Chamber Players—members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, represented by Local 9-535 (Boston, MA). Some content will be offered free of charge, while some will require a paid admission.

Similarly, the Grant Park Music Festival is launching Festival Remixed, which will feature the Grant Park Orchestra—whose musicians are represented by Local 10-208 (Chicago, IL)—in weekly radio broadcasts of performances curated from past concerts; hour-long video streams from summer 2019 performances; and live-streamed chamber performances and solo recitals. The festival will also present virtual master classes with international soloists, as well as a virtual performance and discussion with violinist Rachel Barton Pine of Local 10-208.







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