Reviews

Developments with the COVID-19 virus are moving fast, and arts and performance organizations are having to be agile just to keep up.

On Feb. 25, as the virus was making its way across the globe, the Monterey Symphony still had Oleg Caetani from Italy on the marquee as guest conductor for their March 14 and 15 concerts, part of the symphony's farewell tribute to outgoing music director and conductor Max Bragado-Darman. But due to Italy's lockdown, Caetani could not leave his country. So the symphony announced on March 4 that conducting professor and music director Brad Hogarth, a trumpet player from the Bay Area, would fill in.

On March 9, they announced that the March concerts would proceed, but noted that they were listening to health officials, offered those who had bought tickets three alternative options to attending, and forecast their cancellation policy.

Monterey Symphony Executive Director Nicola Reilly says they first decided to cancel events that involved food or drinks.

"Then we talked to Sunset Cultural Center and they said, 'We're washing all the arm rests, [utilizing] hand sanitizer,'" Reilly says. "But we put 100 people on the stage. They're all from other counties where there are cases. And we have 700 people in the audience – predominantly in the higher-risk category."

The average age of the symphony's patrons is 72.

"I started thinking, what if the first Monterey County case is because of somebody who went to the symphony?" Reilly says. "It was just too risky."

On March 11, they cancelled March events – youth concerts, a luncheon, a supper club, the Facing Faith pop-up photography show – and the concerts.

"The situation with COVID-19 has put musicians and other freelance artists in a vulnerable financial position," the Symphony said in a statement.

The so-called "Freeway Philharmonic" musicians – who travel from gig to gig to string together a living, from as far away as San Diego, Nevada and Colorado – were going to lose critical income as symphonies began cancelling shows.

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"COVID-19 has put musicians and other freelance artists in a vulnerable financial position."

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To mitigate this, the Monterey Symphony offered to pay the musicians for the March 14-15 concerts anyway, despite a force majeure (uncontrollable circumstances) contract clause that would have absolved the organization from doing so. Their payroll budget for one concert was $65,000 to $70,000.

Drew Ford is a freelance cellist with Northern California orchestras, including the Monterey Symphony. He's also the librarian for Carmel Bach Festival and others, for which he makes a salary. But his income from performance fees – $300 to $1,200 per gig – have been hit by concert cancellations.

"My wife is a violinist," he says. "Between the two of us, I'm pretty sure we've lost about $6,000 of work."

He says that's about average for where they live, in the Bay Area, but he knows one musician who will lose $14,000.

Ford's next scheduled job is April 11, playing at Chase Center in San Francisco in support of rock band The Eagles. After that, another Monterey Symphony concert. Neither are cancelled as of press time (Reilly says they will decide the fate of the April concert on April 1) but he knows that there's no way to tell what's going to happen in the coming months. And the musicians aren't the only ones that lose out in a scenario like this.

"Every time 70-plus musicians come to town, we all spend our time and money in Monterey County," Ford says. "We stay at hotels, eat at restaurants, shop at local businesses, and bring along our friends and family."

Reilly notes the immediate effects of a single cancellation – on valets, sound engineers, caterers. "It was this unbelievable list that made us realize the trickle-down economic impact of these cancellations. It's huge, just huge," she says.

The foundation world is responding. For example, the Nancy Buck Ransom Foundation lifted restrictions on grants to the symphony originally designated to support educational concerts, freeing up the money for general operating expenses.

"It makes no sense for us to fund that right now," Executive Director Lynn Bentaleb says. "I see the arts in particular as being a very challenged group in this time, because they're not providing 'essential services.' Yet, these things are absolutely necessary and we need them."

Ford says that, to a large extent, all the community musicians have is each other.

"We see many of the same musicians week after week wherever the next orchestra needs us. It's truly a pleasure to get to know the friendly people of every area we work in. So I want to say thanks to all the supporters of Monterey Symphony."

The American Federation of Musicians, Local 6, has set up a GoFundMe page to help its members get by (to give, search Bay Area Musicians Relief Fund). The Monterey Symphony is allowing ticket-holders to donate back their purchased tickets to pay musicians for a concert they won't see. That kind of altruism is catching.

"One musician wrote back when I told them we would pay, and said 'I will donate my fee back to the symphony,'" Reilly says.