BERLIN, 8 April 2020 – Today, IDAGIO announced it will be expanding its music platform to
provide users with a new and unique real-time video series called IDAGIO Live. With the launch
of IDAGIO Live, users will be able to view exclusive live content with a line-up of classical
musicians, ensembles and orchestras. Thus, IDAGIO Live will help create a connection
between audience and performers – bringing listeners closer to artists and the classical music
community together in a time of limited social contact.
Launching the series is renowned baritone Thomas Hampson, who will be kicking off IDAGIO
Live with the first video on Wednesday, April 8, 2020, at 1 pm EST. IDAGIO is releasing this
initiative to help connect its global community through music and engaging content during these
unprecedented times, by providing listeners with high-quality music and entertainment from the
comfort and safety of their own homes. “In times of crisis, there is an opportunity to come
together as a group, investing in new ways to cope and move forward as the world around us
changes. IDAGIO is helping to provide positive inspiration during these difficult times by offering
an interactive experience with artists and their music to engage the global community around
them,” noted Thomas Hampson.
In the coming weeks, more musicians and ensembles will participate in IDAGIO Live, including
Michael Tilson Thomas, Iván Fischer, Franz Welser-Möst, Leonard Slatkin, members of the
Vienna Philharmonic and many more. All of these artists and their full catalogue of music can be
found on IDAGIO’s platform.
In the absence of live performance, the review website has put all its staff on furlough.
Since virtually all Bachtrack’s income comes from clients who promote live performance and the Covid-19 pandemic has caused the cancellation of almost every concert or opera in the world, we have needed, with great reluctance, to take extreme measures to ensure Bachtrack’s survival.
We can’t afford to keep paying our wonderful employees, so from April 9th, we have taken advantage of the UK government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and placed them on furlough. This means that they will receive a reduced salary which will be reimbursed to us, but the rules of the scheme bar them from working for us during this period. We look forward to ending this furlough and returning them to normal employment as soon as we possibly can.
From the point at which concert halls and opera houses started to close, we have been busy turning Bachtrack into a fabulous resource for watching music online. We’ve listed literally hundreds of concerts and operas available for you to view, the vast majority of them free – the choice is bewildering! We’ve also added a section for other performance arts: theatre, comedy, circus and even videos from art galleries.
The two of us will continue to work on the site, full time and unpaid. Of course, we will not be able to publish anything like the normal volume of new material, but we will do our very best to keep the site vibrant.
We very much hope and trust that the pandemic is close to its peak and that the world will recover over the coming few months. When our clients are able to promote their events once again, we will be there, stronger than ever before.
In the meantime, while the halls remain dark, please enjoy the amazing variety of video on offer.
Stay safe, and keep the flame of music burning.
David and Alison Karlin
Israel Portnoy has put together footage of Jewish couples getting married in Australia, Israel, the US and elsewhere under Covid rules, and has covered it with his version of a Don Henley song.
I found it moving. You might, too.
Dire warning from the director of the Association of British Orchestras, Mark Pemberton:
There’s no easy way of saying this: the Covid-19 emergency has placed the UK’s orchestras in a critical position.
Unlike orchestras in continental Europe and other parts of the world, which receive significantly higher levels of public subsidy, British orchestras are heavily dependent on earned income from ticket sales, international tours and commercial activity such as recordings, at an average of 50% of turnover. And for the many ABO members that do not receive public funding, the level of earned income is that much higher. With the forced closure of entertainment venues and recording studios, that income has plunged to zero.
It isn’t just in the past few weeks that this has hit the orchestras hard. Tours to Asia, a crucial revenue earner for our members, started to be cancelled back in January, and it has escalated from there, with first international touring, and then concerts in the UK, grinding to a halt. This in turn threatens the financial sustainability of our members, and the livelihoods of the musicians who work for them.
The 65 member orchestras of the ABO have different employment models for their musicians, with some, such as the BBC, regional symphony and the major opera and ballet orchestras being in salaried employment, and the rest, including the London self-governing orchestras and the chamber orchestras, operating on a freelance basis.
There are over 2,000 members of the UK’s orchestras, of which 50% are self-employed, plus 12,000 engagements annually of freelance extras….
The Austrian lakeside festival, which begins late July, has issued an ebullient statement:
As things stand at present, the Bregenz Festival should go ahead as planned from July 22 to August 23 2020. As last year’s production, ‘Rigoletto,’ is returning for its second run on the lake stage, considerably less preparation is needed than for a new production. Rehearsals are due to start in mid-June.
The Hollywood music producer Hal Willner has jojned the lengthening toll of music casualties of the Coronavirus pandemic. He was 64.
Before his mainstream career took off on Saturday Night Live, Willner produced a celebrated 1985 Weill tribute album, Lost in the Stars.
