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As performing arts ensembles moved their performances online in the wake of venue closures due to Covid-19, many are discovering that their reach now goes far beyond their traditional audiences. This has opened up new possibilities, and this Saturday (1/23 at 7 pm) A Tempo highlights a partnership between the Princeton Symphony Orchestra and the Buskaid Soweto String Ensemble to present five of Buskaid's concerts online.

As opera companies roll out 2021 programming, many of the productions were totally conceived of and created in the era of Covid-19, with its restrictions on live performances and the shift to screens and devices. A Tempo this Saturday (1/9 at 7 pm) looks at some upcoming events at Opera Philadelphia and Prototype 2021 Festival. Host Rachel Katz will speak with Opera Philadelphia General Director David Devan about its upcoming showing of Lee Hoiby's Bon Appetit, starring Jamie Barton as Julia Child, which is also serving as a fundraiser and runs Jan.

Many performing arts organizations have had to re-think their annual holiday traditions, including Messiah performances and family concerts, because of the restrictions on live performances and public gatherings during the Covid-19 pandemic. A Tempo this Saturday (12/12 at 7 pm) checks in with Trinity-Wall Street and the Philadelphia Orchestra to learn about their revised and re-imagined plans for holiday specials.

Since 1992, Westminster Choir College has brought music of the season to the community through its annual Readings and Carols, which has become a highly anticipated part of the holiday season for those in the Princeton, NJ area. This year has brought challenges to the school, including its move by Rider University to Rider's Lawrenceville campus and restrictions on large gatherings and live performances.

When Dallas Black Dance Theatre's Academy first created its Espresso Nutcracker in 2018, bringing together parts of the Tchaikovsky ballet with Duke Ellington's jazz-infused Nutcracker Suite, it quickly had to expand the production as venues sold out amid popular demand for tickets. This year it will continue its tradition with a virtual production, mixing video from past performances with newly recorded selections.

As the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra adapts to social distancing restrictions, it has unveiled a revised season that maintains its mission to feature its musicians around the state performing a diverse repetoire, including some new and contemporary works reflecting current-day discussions of race and social justice.

Behind the news headlines and social discussions of inequality and discrimination - ranging from incidents of police brutality to all-too-common everyday examples of bias - lie some very fraught decisions and emotions faced by Black parents as they raise their children and prepare them to go out into the world as young adults. Some of these reflections came up during conversations between composer Susan Kander and soprano Roberta Gumbel, and the result is the chamber opera dwb (driving while black).

As pianist Yael Weiss looked ahead to Beethoven's 250th Anniversary, she asked composers from conflict-torn countries around the world to create works inspired by his piano sonatas and tied together by a motif from the Dona nobis Pacem from his Missa Solemnis. The composers hailed from countries inlcuding Ghana, Iran, and Jordan, to the Philippines, Syria, and Venezuela, and Weiss began touring with her project, called "32 Bright Clouds," in 2018.