The National Arts Centre Orchestra Delivers Music to Those at Home
The National Arts Centre’s Music Department aims to create diverse performance spaces and opportunities, to build community relationships, and to engage patrons and viewers in a meaningful experience. They faced many new challenges as the first lockdown was announced in March 2020. Many of these challenges included communications, online streaming, logistics of rehearsals and performances, and new marketing strategies. The department navigated in a variety of ways, including inter-departmental teamwork, partnerships, and creative thinking.
As the Manager of Artistic Planning for the NAC Orchestra, Daphne Burt handles a variety of programming mandates for music at the National Arts Centre. Using an adaptive mindset, she led her team in offering new music programs online, communicating with the orchestra, and broadening community collaborations. Working closely with Music Director, Alexander Shelley, Burt selects repertoire and manages programming. She also selects and engages guest artists, builds relationships with outside organizations, and manages the orchestra’s artistic budget.
As Burt relayed to us, difficulties in communications naturally arose with staff working from home. Pre-pandemic, the staff could communicate face-to-face, but with the early-pandemic restrictions, they were met with the challenge of communicating through back-and-forth emails and virtual calls, which was time-consuming and tiresome. Burt noted that the challenge of working remotely also had effects on conversations with artist managements (deeply affected by pandemic), public relations, and team building. Communications across departments was an ongoing challenge, however, they learned to adapt over the course of the pandemic.
With limited experience livestreaming performances, the NACO’s initial challenge centered around the choice of online platforms, and the issues of broadcasting (including expenses, rights and royalties, and the size of the production team). The Digital Media Department played a substantial role in researching and supporting NACO through this transition. Ultimately, they decided to stream through Facebook, YouTube, and the NAC website. The Digital Media Department devised an internal system for staff and worked alongside the production team to support streaming and online programs.
With the challenges of developing new programs geared specifically for a virtual platform and audience, the NAC devised a plan to differentiate their online performances from the in-person concert experience. Like many other organizations that have online streaming, such as the Berliner Philharmonker's Digital Concert Hall, MET Opera on Demand, and the Royal Opera House Stream, the NAC set out to create and include backstage material and interviews that featured artist biographies and shared program notes. NACO Live, their free orchestral streaming program, incorporated this element and offered a new learning experience to audiences from the perspective of the composers and/or the performers.
To bring music to audiences at home, the NAC created three primary programs: NAC Orchestra Home Delivery, NACO Lunch Break, and Musically Speaking. The goal of these programs was to make the orchestra’s programming more accessible to their established audiences. The NAC administration sent emails directly linking patrons to the NAC Orchestra Home Delivery — the NACO’s archival recordings. This was especially important for their senior patrons who make up a large portion of their audience and yearly subscriptions.
Launched in late March 2020, the NACO Lunch Break series showcased a variety of musicians from the orchestra and the larger Canadian music community who perform short compositions from their homes. Outside of music programming, the NACO sought to share stories about the musicians in the orchestra. Alexander Shelley interviewed musicians in the Musically Speaking series, and explored the individual musical experiences of each musician, their personal life, and inspirations. These programs enabled the NAC to stay connected with patrons and viewers at home during the pandemic.
Strict guidelines, put in place both federally and provincially, not only affected NACO’s in-person concerts, but even made NACO’s virtual programming a challenge. The NACO team kept up-to-date and implemented the changing guidelines as the orchestra planned to rehearse in-person during the pandemic. When restrictions started to loosen in some provinces, which allowed for small, socially distanced in-person concerts, the NACO administration connected with other venues in Québec to explore alternative options. In order to make these performances a reality, Burt explained that the administration worked extensively with the Musicians Union in aspects related to scheduling and working conditions. Great consideration was also given to the logistics of ventilation in rehearsal spaces and the impact of aerosols from wind playing instruments.
Wearing masks when not playing, staying six feet apart, not socializing before or after rehearsals, and following arrows on the floor for foot traffic flow became regular procedure. But the NACO implemented other guidelines that helped to ensure the safety of musicians, including the use of plexiglass and dividers between musicians to avoid spread of aerosols while playing. Musicians playing wind or brass instruments had to take additional measures. For example, flute players were required to add shields to their instruments while other wind players such as oboe, clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, French horn and tuba players were required to cover up the bell of their instrument to avoid the spread of aerosols (see pictures below). One can imagine the challenges this posed for the musicians. The combination of additional coverage on individual instruments and the six-foot spacings between musicians made hearing one another a new challenge. Similarly, the conductor was also impacted by the wearing of a mask as they rely heavily on facial expressions as a way of communicating with the orchestra.
Beyond the work that went into programming in this new virtual world, the NAC (in general) and the orchestra (specifically) invested time in addressing diversity. They continue to work on developing relationships with organizations that promote diversity and advocacy through music performance and education. Some of these organizations include: The Composer Institute, The Sphinx Organization, American Composer Forum, and Orchestras of the Americas. The NAC Music Department envisions a robust online network to be able to support hybrid shows that simultaneously offer both in-person and streamed performances. The future holds the promise of new ideas, opportunities, and connections.
National Arts Centre Orchestra, Copyright © Fred Cattroll. Used with Permission.
[Image Description: These photos feature NACO musicians and conductor Alexander Shelley wearing protective personal equipment while performing. The first photo shows the NACO in performance: the string players have face masks, while the woodwinds are playing behind plexiglass. The next two photos feature first violinist, Jeremy Mastrangelo, and then conductor, Alexander Shelly, wearing face masks. The fourth photo features the principal flautist, Joanna G'froerer, playing her flute; she has a plastic shield attached to the head joint of her flute to prevent aerosols from spreading.]
[Video Description: NACO concert live-streamed from the National Arts Centre on Nov. 14, 2020. The Orchestra performed Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Ballade for Orchestra, Francois Dompierre’s Les Diableries, Kelly-Marie Murphy’s Curiosity, Genius, and the Search for Petula Clark, Chopin’s Grande Polonaise Brillante, Op. 22, and Mozart’s Symphony No. 41 in C major, “Jupiter”.]