The Charlotte Symphony returns to the stage for the first rehearsal since the March shutdown

The Charlotte Symphony rehearses with Music Director Christopher Warren-Green using masks and socially distanced in order to comply with COVID guidelines. (Photo Credit: Joshua Komer)

‘If we don’t play, we’ll disappear.’ Charlotte Symphony resumes rehearsals carefully

By Liz Rothaus Bertrand
The Charlotte Observer
October 19, 2020

After sitting dark for months, music and light has filled Knight Theater once again. Twenty-two musicians from the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra recently gathered there for their first indoor rehearsals together since March.

Despite challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic, the symphony is charging ahead with a revamped fall season, including virtual concerts, and carefully adhering to COVID-19 health guidelines to bring live music back to Charlotte.

Artists say the show must go on for the symphony to survive. The Observer attended one of their rehearsals in early October to see how orchestra members were adjusting in this new reality. For now, indoors rehearsals only includes string instruments.

“You know musicians — we eat, drink, breathe music, and to not be able to play for maybe seven months was absolutely dreadful really for us,” music director Christopher Warren-Green said. “So any chance to play together in harmony with each other is a godsend, but it’s not easy.”

From masks and social distancing to repertoire changes and new safety protocols, the symphony has had to adapt in many ways to proceed with a fall season.

Even Warren-Green’s presence in Charlotte was not guaranteed.

After arriving from London, where he lives and leads the London Chamber Orchestra, he spent two weeks in quarantine and passed a COVID-19 test before rehearsals could start.

“If you’re captain of a ship, you need to be there for them,” said Warren-Green, who will be apart from his wife for seven weeks, since her travel was deemed non-essential.

He said he worried about the risk of traveling and potentially spreading the virus. “But at the end of the day if the precautions are taken, it’s necessary to be here for your orchestra because if we don’t play, we’ll disappear.”

Inside The Rehearsal

Before anyone enters the building, it’s already different. Each person is assigned an arrival time, staggered over an hour, to accommodate a new mandatory screening process including a temperature check and brief COVID-19 questionnaire.

Once inside, musicians must enter the stage one way and exit another. Two sets of doors are propped open to eliminate the need to touch them. Masks are required at all times, as is social distancing.

“We’ve been 100% following the governor’s recommendations,” symphony general manager John Clapp said. Atrium Health has also provided guidance, reviewing the symphony’s return to work plan and providing ongoing recommendations.

As musicians trickle in and begin warming up, two on-site representatives from Atrium observe symphony stage crews disinfecting music stands with UV light. All chairs, and even the sheet music, are sanitized in the same way.

“Management has been really amazing about putting all the protocols into place and making sure that we feel comfortable returning to work and that we’re as safe as we can be. So (I’m) really, really grateful for that,” violinist Kari Giles said. “I feel like they’ve really taken care of us.”

Rehearsal Challenges

The new protocols aren’t easy. Giles’ mask sometimes gets stuck on her chin rest. It also affects her field of vision and breathing.

But one of the biggest challenges is the socially-distanced spacing on stage. Usually separated by two feet, with two musicians per music stand, they are now six feet apart, and it greatly affects the way they hear music and one another.

“It’s very difficult,” said Giles, who also serves as the symphony’s assistant concertmaster. “It’s like losing part of a sense, really.” Musicians must be proactive anticipating changes in the music since it takes longer for sound to travel.

“In pandemic terms, it’s like being able to see someone that you love, but you can’t hug them,” she said.

Spacing requirements also dictate the orchestra’s repertoire, limiting the number and types of musicians that can play together.

For now, only strings are allowed indoors due to ongoing uncertainty about the spread of aerosols by wind and brass instruments.

The fall season was reconceived within these parameters. (Wind and brass will be part of the sold out, socially-distanced Oct. 24 performance at Truist Field and are featured in the symphony’s outdoor On Tap series, with limited seating and streaming options.)

Since March, the symphony’s schedule has been in flux.

When spring concerts were initially canceled, concertmaster Calin Lupanu took advantage of the downtime to get ahead preparing and marking all the music parts for the orchestra’s 20-21 season. But more changes followed in May. Then in August, the symphony replaced its lineup through early December.

“As things get canceled, rearranged, I’m trying to keep ahead of the curve and practice everything,” said violinist Lupanu, who also juggled virtual performances this summer with the Colorado Music Festival.

With many of the nation’s musicians furloughed or out of work, Giles said she and her colleagues are grateful for the board and community’s support. “They’ve always said, ‘Nope, we’ve got your back. The musicians are the orchestra, and we’re going to support you and we’re going to get through this together.’ ”

Preserving Live Performing Arts

Despite the happiness in resuming work, Lupano said the pandemic has shown him that nothing can replace the energy that builds in a concert hall between the musicians and the audience.

“It can be approval, it can be disapproval. Whether they throw tomatoes and rotten eggs at you or they applaud, there is a vibe between the artist, the performer and the audience without which it’s totally useless.”

In dark times like these, music can help re-infuse our lives with joy, Warren-Green said.

“The band played while the Titanic sank — I don’t happen to believe that the Titanic is sinking at the moment. We’ll get through this,” he added, “but we must not get through this having entirely annihilated the arts world. There is no future of humanity if that happens.”

Giles urges the community to continue supporting local artists in this difficult time.

“It’s not just the symphony. It’s the opera, it’s the ballet, it’s the theaters, it’s the visual artists. We’re here because we love our art and we want to share it with people, but we’ve got to pay the bills, too. So we’ve got to come together and support each other.”

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