As the summer festival season draws nearer, organizers behind the many highly anticipated annual musical events have been monitoring the Covid-19 Coronavirus situation - with its travel bans, closures and stay-at-home policies - very closely. Tanglewood and the BBC Proms are holding off on any announcements of season plans, hoping for a clearer sense of what the summer months will bring, while some, like the Aspen Music Festival, have delayed their opening, canceling or rescheduling programs from early in the season but hoping that performances in later weeks might be possible. In some cases, like the Princeton Festival and Opera Steamboat, immediate practical and logistical issues such as the closure of rehearsal and lodging facilities combined with health and safety concerns, leading them to cancel this year's festival entirely.
A Tempo this Saturday (4/18 at 7 pm) takes a look at what has gone into these decisions and how the festivals are hoping to stay engaged online with audiences and reschedule at least some of the events that were planned for this summer. Host Rachel Katz will speak with Princeton Festival Artistic Director Richard Tang Yuk, Opera Steamboat Artistic Director Andres Cladera, and Aspen Music Festival and School President and CEO Alan Fletcher.
