fourlights

A drive-in concert is a fantastic idea! Can you share a few details, like how is sound being managed? An all-acoustic environment played to people in their cars would lose a tremendous amount of detail, so I'm assuming that there will be some (transparent) amplification involved?

Also, how are the ensembles playing together while maintaining safety? The most recent research shows that there is no safe physical distancing for singing, and likely for wind instruments, either, so are you only programming music for strings, percussion, piano, etc.? Or have you been advised with new information about effective distancing for vocalists and wind players?

Thanks! I really hope these concerts are completely successful, and am very glad that you and the festival are making such substantial efforts despite fairly severe limitations. I'm sure your audiences are LOVING them.

(If artists and arts organizations can financially survive the pandemic, I think the light at the end of this particular tunnel is that, once we find our new normal post-pandemic, the demand for in-person events--especially live music--will be enormous, and may help lots of people to re-discover the unique and special value of live, in-person music. Which would be great for the professional performing arts long-term, and I sure hope that arts orgs are doing a lot of post-pandemic thinking and planning, alongside the catastrophe management of surviving it in the first place. Because the opportunities for cultural engagement, audience development and change once we're past this, will be unprecedented.)

Naive and Sentimental Music is one of the great symphonies of the 20th century (of all-time, really, along with Harmonielehre and Chamber Symphony).