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America’s concert halls have flung open their doors to welcome back audiences – who are still showing reluctance to return. What can orchestras do to alleviate their concerns?

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Music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts the Philadelphia Orchestra

JESSICA GRIFFIN

As orchestras across America embark on their first full season of live, in-person performances since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, the impact of the Delta variant is casting a shadow over ticket sales.

Orchestra audiences are overwhelmingly vaccinated, and many orchestras have made proof of vaccination and mask-wearing non-negotiable conditions for attendance. However, the latest Covid-19 study by Audience Outlook Monitor (AOM), an initiative by US arts consulting firm WolfBrown, suggests that about a third of concertgoers will wait until at least January 2022 before returning to the concert hall.

AOM has been tracking attitudes to going out to cultural events since May 2020, and has worked with more than 600 organisations in four countries to survey audiences on a monthly or bi-monthly basis. The study’s second phase, which launched in January 2021, includes a cohort of 15 US orchestras, among them major players such as the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, and Cleveland Orchestra. By September, the study found that for most orchestras, the percentage of the audience already vaccinated was in the high 90s, but 46 per cent of that audience was waiting for infection rates to become lower before they were ready to go to performances again.

WolfBrown principal Alan Wolf explains: ‘Between the high percentage of vaccinations and the health and safety protocols that orchestras have introduced, being in a concert hall is one of the safest places you can be on Earth. But we’ve always known from our data that there’s a segment of the audience that is just super-cautious. They have underlying health challenges, or they may be caregivers to other family members, and are concerned about transmitting the virus even though they’re vaccinated. So there are legitimate concerns, but there’s also a fear factor.’

Sales of subscriptions and single tickets are reflecting this element of caution. André Gremillet, president and CEO of the Cleveland Orchestra, reports that as of mid-September subscriptions were at almost 80 per cent of comparable pre-Covid levels, while Philadelphia Orchestra president and CEO Matías Tarnopolsky says sales were about 70 per cent of what they were in 2019, although he emphasises that the sales cycle for 2021–22 began six months later than it did for the 2019–20 season.

Gremillet says 80 per cent is better than he expected: ‘It’s a pretty good figure given the pandemic is raging in Ohio, and the number of cases is as high as it was in January this year.’ He adds that for single tickets, it is too early to see the extent of any weakness in demand, but Wolf reports that single ticket sales in the sector have so far been sluggish. For Tarnopolsky, the response to a free day of performances at Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center on 18 September left him optimistic about sales picking up. ‘The audience saw the orchestra back on stage, and they saw it was safe to be in the hall,’ he says, ‘so I’m feeling very positive about more people coming back.’

‘We’re trying to provide as normal a concert experience as we can’ – André Gremillet, president and CEO, Cleveland Orchestra

Both Philadelphia and Cleveland hope their vaccine policy, along with mandatory mask-wearing, will reassure more cautious audience members. ‘Eighty per cent of our audience told us months ago that they were not going to come back unless they knew for certain that everyone in the hall was vaccinated,’ says Tarnopolsky. ‘So there is overwhelming support for the key safety protocol that everyone in the house is vaccinated, with the exception of under-twelves, who can’t be vaccinated yet, but need to show proof of a negative PCR test.’ Beyond these protocols, and upgrades to the ventilation and air filtration systems in Verizon Hall, there are noticeable changes to the Philadelphia Orchestra’s concert format for autumn, with shorter programmes and no intermissions, to reduce mingling. Refreshments are available, but masks must be worn ‘in between bites and sips’.

What’s not in the mix any longer for many orchestras is socially distanced seating. Reducing capacity means taking an economic hit, but should orchestras offer some performances with enhanced measures as an accessibility strategy for Covid-vulnerable patrons? Gremillet does not think it’s necessary now: ‘If you’re going to have everyone wearing a mask, having shown proof of vaccination, that takes care of it as far as we’re concerned. We’re trying to provide as normal a concert experience as we can, and it’s not inspiring for musicians or audiences to have a hall that’s deliberately half-empty.’

Orchestras have had to calibrate expectations ahead of the 2021–22 season. Anticipating some audience hesitancy continuing through the autumn, the Cleveland Orchestra scheduled far fewer concerts for before January than it would have done for a normal season. The Philadelphia Orchestra is offering flexible ‘create-yourown’ subscriptions for the autumn, and is continuing its Digital Stage programme of live and on-demand performances, although Tarnopolsky says this is as much about the orchestra keeping connected with the global audience it has grown during Covid as it is about staying in touch with people in Philadelphia. Wolf says:

‘It’s great to see orchestras figuring out how to stay relevant to these patrons who can’t come out, whether that’s through live-streaming performances, or finding other ways to stay in touch with them.’

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