The Houston Symphony season is going to look very different.
The Houston Symphony is about to embark upon an unprecedented season, one in which everything from the audience in Jones Hall to the orchestra’s repertoire will be radically different from what anyone anticipated six months ago.
But one thing will be the same, at least sort of: the orchestra will be performing for a live audience, however small that may be at first.
“We’re an orchestra, so that implies gathering musicians together to engage in the act of live performance for an audience,” says John Mangum, the symphony’s executive director and CEO. “That’s our mission, and we have to figure out how to be doing that.
“And so I think that’s really what’s governing our decisions: the question of how do we fulfill our mission in a way that protects our musicians and is safe for our audience?” he adds. “As long as we’re able to do those things, we feel confident about the path we’re on.”
At this stage of the pandemic, most American orchestras will be presenting their fall seasons virtually, if at all. But as one of the few exceptions — others include the Dallas Symphony and Minnesota Orchestra — Houston’s will cautiously allow a select number of subscribers into Jones Hall for its performances, a policy that may begin in mid-September.
Mangum says the symphony is working closely with the city of Houston, health care provider Houston Methodist and landlords Houston First to determine an acceptable ceiling of audience members for each performance.
He expects that number to be around 150 at first, with patron households seated at least 6 feet apart, but says that number could stretch to as many as 700 or 800, depending on the principal metrics used to track COVID-19 infection rates.
According to Mangum, subscribers who opt for the highestlevel ticket packages — 18 concerts for the Classical Series; nine for the POPS Series — will be prioritized for tickets; those who opted for lesser packages may queue up once Mangum gets the green light to increase capacity in the hall. Unfortunately, nonsubscribers will have to wait until the Houston area’s COVID picture is a little rosier.
However, “I know our marketing department is keeping waiting lists and making sure that they’re keeping track of everybody who wants to come, and as soon as it’s safe for us to do it, we’ll do it,” Mangum says.
“I would say that, at the latest, I’d love to be able to do it by the holidays, just because our concerts are such a gathering point for celebrations and people getting together and marking the holiday season, and we’d hate to have people not be able to do that,” he adds. “But really, as soon as it’s safe for us to increase numbers, we’ll increase numbers.”
New health measures
Those who do arrive at Jones Hall will be greeted with an array of new safety measures, including the now-familiar mask mandate and plentiful hand-sanitizing stations. All tickets will be mailed or emailed to subscribers — will call has been temporarily eliminated — and entry times will be staggered according to seating location.
Additionally, the bank of seats closest to the orchestra will be blocked off; restrooms will feature no-touch hand-washing stations (and will be cleaned more fre
quently); and Jones Hall’s Encore Café will be closed. Concert times have been shortened to about an hour to eliminate intermissions, when people tend to gather.
“We’re just trying to really keep it focused on getting people safely into the hall so that they can enjoy the Houston Symphony giving a live concert and making sure that they have a good time and want to come back,” says Mangum.
Conditions will be drastically different onstage as well. Thanks to the “Live From Jones Hall” livestreaming series (which will continue), Mangum says the musicians now have a pretty clear idea how to rehearse and perform while adhering to recommended social-distancing guidelines. But the sudden need for a smaller ensemble — the stage can safely accommodate about 40 musicians, Mangum figures, less than half of the orchestra’s usual prepandemic numbers — has also forced the symphony to almost entirely rethink its programming.
“Big Richard Strauss tone poems and Mahler symphonies and Stravinsky ballets — big Stravinsky ballets — scores like that are just out for the foreseeable future,” Mangum says.
Wherever possible, Mangum says it has tried to bring in previously scheduled guest artists and conductors. If a certain piece is no longer feasible to play, the orchestra may substitute another work by the same composer, as with Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings instead of Symphony No. 5. Its revised schedule thus far includes Schubert’s Octet in F major and mezzo-soprano Kelley O’Connor — who was originally slated to appear as part of Franz Schmidt’s “Book of the Seven Seals” oratorio — singing songs by British composer Ethel Smyth, as well as works by Jennifer Higdon,
Anna Clyne and Florence Price.
Underrepresented composers
“One of the things that we’re trying to do is feature more composers that have been, I would say, traditionally underrepresented in our programming and in all major orchestra programming: Black composers, Latino composers, women composers,” Mangum says. “We’re discovering some wonderful repertoire there, and it’s a great opportunity for us.”
Many pieces that will be heard in the upcoming weeks were suggested by the musicians themselves, Mangum notes. The unusual circumstances surrounding the season have, in a way, relieved the pressure on the orchestra to adhere so closely to the standard symphonic repertoire.
“When you have to sell 2,500 tickets or something, there’s only certain (pieces) that will drive that kind of sales, so those pressures are gone and we can really just do all kinds of music,” Mangum says. “One of the things that I’m hoping is that people are excited by what they hear and that’ll give us more latitude in the future to be more adventurous in the programming.”
But not too adventurous, he chuckles.
“The unfamiliar music is music that we really believe has something important to say, and says it in a direct and approachable and enjoyable way to listeners,” Mangum says.
Smaller staff, big ambitions
During one of the most difficult periods in its history — in June, the symphony laid off one-quarter of its staff to offset the projected $11 million revenue downturn brought on by the pandemic — the orchestra has nevertheless managed to find a remarkable audience. Mangum says its array of online video content, including the “Living Room Series” and “Live From Jones Hall,” have been viewed more than 700,000 times. Its livestreams are regularly seen in at least a half-dozen different countries each time, he adds.
As people turn to arts organizations like the symphony to relieve anxiety, or simply get through the day, Mangum says he and his colleagues have been impressed by “the depths of our individual musicians as creative spirits and artists.”
“We’ve been reminded profoundly that each of these people is a creative person and artist, an individual with all kinds of things that they can share and express,” he adds. “That’s a great kind of call to action for those of us that are managing the enterprise.”
Furthermore, “at the heart of the decisions we make, we need to give a platform to our musicians to share their creativity and to really use that to inspire our community of people here in Houston,” Mangum says, “but also now with the videos and the presence on the internet, (to) people really around the world.”