Overview
With Australia banning non-essential events with more than 100 people due to COVID-19 — and mandating that everyone arriving from overseas self-isolate for 14 days, too — Melbourne's arts and cultural scene has started to go into shutdown mode. The city's major institutions have already announced temporary closures, and now the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra is joining them.
While MSO has announced that it's suspending all concerts with audiences in attendance from Monday, March 16–Monday, April 13, it's planning to host an online concert series — because, even if audiences can only watch and listen online from their couches, the music must go on.
The series kicked off with a live-stream of Russian composer Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade at Hamer Hall on Monday, March 16, followed by MSO's Beethoven & Mendelssohn gig on Thursday, March 19. Then, the series will show recordings of past performances that have never been seen online before every Thursday night and Sunday afternoon.
Music lovers can check out the performances via MSO's YouTube channel.
Updated: Monday, March 30, 2020