Kansas City Symphony Music Director Michael Stern offers take on ‘the new normal’
Hearing the Kansas City Symphony conducted by Michael Stern in the acoustically superb Helzberg Hall is something no Kansas City lover will ever take for granted again. We all long to hear our beloved orchestra thrill our spirits and touch our hearts once again.
But is going back to a pre-pandemic “normal” even possible? Stern has had plenty of time to ruminate on these questions, as he’s been sequestered with his family in Connecticut, just north of New York City.
“I’ve been practicing social distancing the way everybody else is,” Stern said. “I do go to the grocery store, infrequently, but I go because one must eat. It’s been an opportunity to do a lot of cooking and spend time with kids in the kitchen. I’ve also been trying to get a handle on what’s going to happen and when it’s going to happen.”
Stern says that anyone who says they know what’s going to happen or have some sort of timeline are in delusion. One thing Stern does believe is that a heightened sense of concern about COVID-19 is going to be with us for a long time.
“There have been viruses in our lifetimes, which a lot of smart people have worked on, but Ebola, SARS, HIV: every lab in the world has been working on vaccines, and they haven’t happened. It’s very sobering. I personally think that opening up the country too soon is a disaster. Not that we don’t want the country to open up, but if we have another lockdown, it’s going to be worse than this one.”
Stern notes that most experts believe a COVID-19 vaccine will be available in a year to 18 months at the earliest. But he believes that even without a vaccine, there might be a way to ease people’s fears about catching the virus.
“What I think would assure people more than a vaccine is a really reliable therapy,” Stern said. “Think about it. If you knew that you might get ill and it might be very uncomfortable, but it wasn’t going to be fatal and you absolutely would recover if there was a course of treatment, people would not be so nervous.”
Unfortunately, even a therapy to treat those suffering from the virus isn’t here yet. Michael Stern is a realist and believes the Kansas City Symphony must play the hand it’s been dealt.
“If you want to wring your hands and say there’s nothing we can do, that’s a valid way to be,” Stern said. “But to say everything will be fine and this will pass and things will back to normal is also misguided. I think we have to prepare ourselves for something else because it’s not going to go back to normal. At least not for a while.”
One thing that concerns Stern is what he calls “the psychology of coming together.” For the symphony to resume performing in Helzberg Hall, there are many more considerations than just making sure it’s safe for the orchestra to play and making sure there are four seats between each audience member.
“We can have social distance in the audience, but they still have to get in and out of the building,” Stern said. “And people have to make a decision to get out of their house and into a car. What if you need to use the restroom, what about just walking into the lobby? We’re not going to be OK until we know the numbers, until we have testing. Everything else is just a falsehood.”
Until live performances become a possibility, the Kansas City Symphony is pulling out all the stops to provide lots of online content to its patrons.
The symphony is offering a plethora of resource guides and podcasts and symphony musicians have been busy creating videos of performances in their homes, which they’re sharing online. They’re also making themselves available to answer any questions about music a patron might have.
“We are trying to figure things out, but we’re also going methodically step by step,” Stern said. “We’re not taking direction from trends and pressure. We want to do the responsible thing for everyone’s safety and the health of the organization. I was very proud that the Kansas City Symphony, unlike a lot of other orchestras around the country, didn’t furlough anybody and we didn’t cut anyone’s pay and we didn’t drop health benefits. We’re ready. We just have to figure it out.”
For more information about the Kansas City Symphony, 816-471-0400 or www.kcsymphony.org.
Opus 76
Opus 76 String Quartet is perhaps the group in Kansas City to test the waters of the new normal. The ensemble will present a recital of two of Beethoven’s late string quartets June 5 at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.
Opus 76 says the concert will be in full compliance with current public health restrictions of the city, as well as the diocese of Kansas City, St. Joseph. For example, seats will be assigned, audience members will be required to wear masks and social distancing will be assured.
Opus 76 is a world-class ensemble composed of violinists Keith Stanfield and Zsolt Eder, violist Ashley Stanfield and cellist Sascha Groschang. These musicians have been doing incredible work for the community during the pandemic, by offering online concerts to raise money for organizations like Harvesters, as well as helping their fellow musicians who are out of work. It’s the selflessness of people like Opus 76 who help us get through this trying time.
8 p.m. June 5. Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, 416 W. 12th St. $30-$60. www.opus76.org.
You can reach Patrick Neas at patrickneas@kcartsbeat.com and follow his Facebook page, KC Arts Beat, at www.facebook.com/kcartsbeat.